ABSTRACT
A large part of a leader’s job is knowing the right way to exercise influence. Although there are commonly accepted moral prohibitions on behaviors such as making false promises, ethical expectations are much less clear when it comes to the exercise of influence. The focus of moral evaluation is accordingly on the nature of the means, not on any ends that the means might be used to achieve. Critical to understanding the Formula of Humanity is the idea of what it means to use someone “simply as a means”. Carnegie’s strategies for exercising influence ultimately fail on Kantian grounds. Admittedly, Carnegie’s strategies do not have moral correction as their goal. Yet they represent a relevantly similar way of putting ostensibly moral behaviors to unethical use. Leaders’ efforts to help followers advance their ends will themselves be subject to autonomy-based constraints.
