ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we lay out the fundamental motivation (and justification) of our book on ethical leadership. We introduce the notion (and first examples) of ethical dilemmas and provide questions for reflection. We make the case that ethical leaders have to be capable of managing ambiguous and complex situations. They not only have to be able to manage these, but also to find the right approaches to communicate, escalate, and derive lessons learned from paradoxical situations. We ask the questions why codes of conduct, compliance rules, and values are compromised. Clearly, these questions cannot be answered easily. However, asking questions and discussing them openly oftentimes raises awareness. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of Return on Ethics (ROE), which will be discussed in the course of this book. Finally, we draw attention to some great thinkers and their ideas on doing the right thing and acting ethically. Most of these thinkers (politicians, leadership experts, authors, artists, philosophers, and so forth) and their contributions to the subject of ethical leadership will be revisited and analyzed throughout this book. At the end of this chapter, we provide some ethically charged questions for the purpose of self-reflection.
