ABSTRACT
It is a commonly accepted view that the key role of leaders is to bring about change (Bass and Riggio, 2006; Yukl, 2010). This has given credence to the transformational-charismatic approach to leadership, which in many instances appears to have offered leaders an almost free hand to change their organizations as they see fit (Barker, 2001; Bones, 2011; Storey, 2004). As the previous chapters in this book have shown, this has not always been a good thing; there has been a tendency for many leaders to put their own interests above those of other stakeholders, sometimes to disastrous effect. Consequently, as Burnes and By (2011) have recently argued, a leader’s ability to achieve beneficial outcomes for all stakeholders is inextricably linked to their own ethical values. Burnes and By (2011) also argued that some approaches to change are more likely to lead to ethical outcomes than others. Certainly, over the last 20 years or so, there has been a great deal of attention paid to the use of power, politics and manipulation to gain compliance when attempting to bring about change, usually to the detriment of those who have to experience the change (Burnes, 2009b). Therefore, if the changes that leaders bring about are to benefit all stakeholders, then not only do leaders have to pursue ethical outcomes, but they also need to adopt an approach to change that is based on ethical values. After all, it is difficult to see how ethical ends can be achieved by unethical means.
