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Ethical Leadership in the Master of Science Leadership Program

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Leaders make critical decisions between right, wrong, and the lesser of two evils every day. These decisions can affect the person making the decision, their employees, and goals of the organization. There are many readings that describe ethics and leadership, but ethical leadership is basically knowing your inner values and having the courage to steadfastly live by them for the purpose of the common good. Southwestern College's Master of Science in Leadership program has given me a firm understanding of how important ethical reasoning is and how it impacts, good and bad, an organization. My first artifact, LEAD505 Leadership and Ethics Assignment explains that there's a strong relationship between good leadership and ethics. Since …show more content…

My second artifact, LEAD505 Ethical Decision Making Assignment is significant because it contributes towards understanding that I may never truly feel comfortable with a specific outcome of a tough ethical decision. Is it ever really ethical to move-forward with the mindset of the ends justifying the means? For example, during my leadership studies I was able to understand that President Truman was forced to make one of the most difficult decisions in human history; end World War II with a significant number of civilian casualties or to continue the war for an indeterminate amount of time. The result of the atomic bomb dropping was to facilitate a quicker end to the U.S.’s involvement with the war. It is clear that the number of U.S. casualties were decreased by this one decision, but not without cost in other areas. As our country's leader, President Truman determined that the ends did justify the means in regards to dropping the atomic bomb. Although President Truman did not use deceit or lying in the dropping of the atomic bomb, it raises the question as to whether or not it is ethical to move-forward with the mindset of the ends justifying the means. Ultimately there is no clear-cut or right answer to this question; it is dependent on the person making the decision. While I doubt I will ever have to make such a critical decision as

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