ABSTRACT
Contents Chapter Goals ..........................................................................................................................109 Importance of Ethical Leadership .............................................................................................110 Portrait of Unethicality in Crisis Management .........................................................................112 Ethical Culture .........................................................................................................................113 Manifestations of Louisiana’s Ethical Culture ...........................................................................114 Consequences of Unethical Leadership .....................................................................................116 Post-Crisis Performance Review ................................................................................................117 Questions for Discussion ......................................................................................................... 120 Additional Reading ................................................................................................................. 120 References ............................................................................................................................... 120
Crises, whether imposed from external events such as natural disasters, economic shocks, or political upheavals, evoke a set of behaviors that can determine whether or not a community will successfully weather the events. In the absence of planning and clearly articulated policies to address such circumstances, individuals are likely to respond in idiosyncratic ways specific to their personal concerns and priorities. Such unfocused responses can be chaotic and detract from the organization’s function and its responsiveness to the needs of the environment in which it operates. They also create opportunities for unethical behavior that is harmful to organizations and the community. Hurricane Katrina provided an unfortunate example of an externally imposed crisis in a community lacking clearly developed models for dealing with such emergencies, and within a culture widely considered one of the most corrupt in the United States, led by an elected official whose unethical behavior would eventually lead to a federal conviction and incarceration (Johnson and Robertson, 2014). Although New Orleans has not yet fully recovered from the crisis, it does provide an excellent learning model of the importance of ethics in crisis management.
