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Developing leadership practice in voluntary organisations
Developing leadership practice in voluntary organisations

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Week 4: Leadership as ethics

Introduction

To introduce the subject of this week, watch the following video, an interview with Nik Winchester, an expert on ethics.

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Nik discusses in this clip how the ethics of an organisation can do real leadership work – that ethics can guide people’s behaviour and decisions. He also emphasises how applying ethics to the workplace is not about coming up with a single correct answer – instead, it is a way of feeling a way through the opportunities and pitfalls of organisational life. These are all dimensions you will consider throughout this week.

This week you will learn about two practices that can help voluntary organisations be led by their ethics. These are leadership through purpose and leadership through dilemmas.

After completing this week you will be able to:

  • distinguish between ethics and morality
  • define and describe an organisational ethical purpose
  • critically analyse your and others’ organisational purpose
  • interpret an ethical dilemma drawing on ethics theory
  • critically reflect on the aftermath of decisions with ethical implications.