Ethical Leadership in the Community College: Bridging Theory and Daily Practice (review)

Ethical Leadership in the Community College: Bridging Theory and Daily Practice is an anthology, and one of the impressive qualities of this book is that the authors of the various chapters include not only scholars and researchers, but also practitioners whose experience adds considerably to the volume’s credibility. In the preface, David Hellmich tells us that this volume “addresses the importance of ethical leadership and explores real world applications so community college leaders can develop the institutional savvy to be extraordinary ethical leaders” (p. x). In other words, this anthology was conceived to assist leaders in developing ethical decision-making habits. It is important to note that this work is not about developing a prescriptive ethical code; rather it is a thoughtful discussion of how community college leaders should reflectively approach their decisions from an ethical leadership framework.

The book is divided into two sections. The first is devoted to providing the theoretical basis for ethical leadership, and the second is dedicated to applying ethical leadership in daily practice. The first two chapters, written by philosophy professors, discuss virtue theory and are intended to provide the theoretical framework for the following chapters. Ironically, none of the other authors explicitly or implicitly reference virtue theory.

Hellmich, in Chapter 3, discusses how, from what appears to be a sociological perspective, institutional culture affects the roles individual members of the institution play. In Chapter 5, Sharon Anderson, Clifford Harbour, and Timothy Gray Davies use developmental theory to provide insight into how leaders develop a professional ethical identity. Like the chapters on virtue theory, there is scant reference to either cultural leadership or developmental theory in the chapters dealing with the practice of ethical leadership.

Only Chapter 4 by Desna Wallin seems to touch on possible theoretical foundations for ethical leadership underlying the discussions about practice found in the second section. Her discussion of altruism, communitarianism, justice as fairness, and utilitarianism provide much better insight into the theoretical frames that underlie the chapters contained in the second section of this volume.

In Part 2, the daily practice of ethical leadership, nearly all the chapter authors recognize that ethical dilemmas are rarely clashes between right and wrong or good and evil. It should be noted that, although several authors in this volume tend to equate ethics and morality, philosophers differentiate between them. Technically, ethics deals with behavior or means to an end, and morality deals with outcomes or ends. That is, one’s actions (or choices) are either right or wrong and what those choices produce is either good or evil.

In Chapter 8, Linda Lucas discusses how she compartmentalizes ethics into professional, personal, and situational categories and how she seeks congruence across all three categories. She also acknowledges that it takes courage for an administrator to consistently act from an ethical base in the face of daily pressures. This theme of acting ethically in the face of multiple pressures in the fast-paced and often complicated work life of a community college administrator is echoed in several chapters.

In Chapter 9, David Hardy, after acknowledging the appeal of an absolutist approach like those found in codes of ethics or rigid adherence to policy manuals, admits that, more often than not, ethical dilemmas rarely have clear-cut resolutions. Hardy, like many of the other authors, recognizes that, despite the tendency of some to equate ethical dilemmas with a choice between right and wrong and moral dilemmas with a choice between good and evil, acting ethically in the face of competing priorities and constituencies is often a messy affair. There are certainly wrongdoers among community leaders—witness the scandals that have rocked the community college system in Alabama. However, these individuals are rare.

More often our choices are between two or more competing goods. Thus, ethical leadership becomes a matter of making just and fair decisions among competing priorities. Behaving ethically and doing the right thing is a matter...