preview

Who Is Bogus Empowerment?

Decent Essays

Ciulla, J. B. (2014) The Bogus Empowerment of Followers. In Ethics, The Heart of Leadership, J.B. Ciulla (Editor), pg. 82-103.
In this chapter, "niceness" was identified as an encompassing value in empowerment that is based on therapeutic fiction for the means of commercialism. Having always thought of "niceness" as a very kind and desirable trait, I was disturbed by the book's cynical interpretation of this quality. Their view makes the assumption that human are selfish individuals who act only when it is in their best interests. I find it disheartening to think that people's niceness is just a shallow performance for hidden ulterior motives, but at the same time, I do recognize the reasoning behind it. It is natural for individuals to be conscious of what is at …show more content…

I thought that the experiments conducted were very crucial to examining the validity behind that statement. The idea that a leader, with a substantial amount of power, has the ability to carry through with acts of hypocrisy is unsettling. Through the 5 experiments, the researchers were able to support their hypothesis that power increases hypocrisy because people of power can simultaneously stricken their judgement of other people while reducing their own liability to the same expectations/standards. I believe this is a flawed form of leadership where leaders are too focused on their superficial positions of power, as opposed to their duties as competent and ethical leaders. At the end, the report mentioned how people can invalidate the power of authority figures by tainting their reputation. I believe this highlights the important source of leaders' power, which comes from the people they represent or direct. A tainted reputation can undermine the relationship of trust between a leader and his followers, which can ultimately strip him/her of the authority that the people has temporarily given

Get Access