ABSTRACT
Managers set the tone for ethical activity and integrity in organizations. Managers connect their integrity to a position by a personal promise to abide by the requirements of office or position. Supervisors and midlevel or senior managers transmit the mission of the organization. Managerial action requires leading in many ways and the separation of managing and leading is ethically implausible. Managing is inherently ethical and entails consequences to the common good and people inside and outside of organizations. Good managers lead, improvise and change the world on a daily basis. These realities mean managers possess ethical responsibility and obligations beyond a duty to apply law and rules. The manager’s promise involves a commitment to act with competence and accountability. The inherent discretion of all official positions increases individual responsibility and invites ethical imagination and judgment. Manager’s decisions model for others, set precedents and shape organizational culture. Managers guarantee competence and culture and develop leadership capacity and personnel. Individuals need to daily adapt the mission to changes in the environment. Managers use personal initiative to the challenges posed by personnel, budget and resource constraints as well as environmental, political, technical and demographic changes.
