The chapter provides a detailed explanation of how ethics and various ethical rules should be applied in schools by a school leader. According to Brierton, Graham, Tomal, and White (2016), ethical leaders must possess integrity, fairness, temperance, moral courage, and responsive listening to provide ethical decision-making in schools. Various types of ethics (e.g. value-based ethics, cultural relativism, situational ethics, etc.) argue that ethical behavior is based on strong moral values or cultures or situational context respectively.
One of the most efficient types of leadership is transformational leadership that provides members of the group with a clear vision of the group’s goals through enthusiasm and commitment (Brierton et al., 2016). Other types of leadership can rely on the responsibility to moral principles, high ethical standards, or instructional practices.
Moral reasoning is a vital part of decision-making because during it the leader recognizes the possible positive and negative outcomes of a situation. Since school leaders are responsible for meeting their stakeholders’ needs, they have to consider such values as altruism, teamwork, cooperation, and empathy to be an effective, ethical leader. School climate and school culture are also significant for establishing the right social context for all involved stakeholders.
The case study demonstrates how complex ethical decision-making can be. Mr. White’s responsibility is to protect the stakeholders (students) from any harm. Therefore, he should provide obtained data to the school administration to avoid any possible harm and follow the district’s policies. Waiting for project completion would be unethical and pose Mr. White at risk of termination due to his inability to inform the administration about the employee’s past violations.
As can be seen, ethical leadership recognizes the importance of policies and their influence on decisions made in schools. As a leader, an individual is responsible for resolving a conflict no matter how sensitive it is or what negative outcomes it might have for the leader or other persons bearing responsibility for stakeholders.
Reference
Brierton, J., Graham, B., Tomal, D. R., & Wilhite, R. K. (2016). Ethics and politics in school leadership: Finding common ground. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Web.