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Starratt, Robert J. (2004) Ethical leadership. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Pp. ix + 157
$20 ISBN 0-7879-6564-2
Reviewed by Daniel J. Torlone
University of Saint Francis
November 22, 2004
Characters not usually encountered in standard education
administration preparation texts—such as, an overburdened
principal in the midst of an existential crisis and a university
professor in the role of moral analyst—place Ethical
Leadership among the atypical resources in the field of
educational administration. Robert J. Starratt’s third
book provides a framework of “foundational ethics [for]
educational leaders when they attempt to lead” (p.
5) (author’s italics), supplying ample grist for the mills
of practicing administrators, those aspiring to lead, and those
who teach leadership. Starratt’s work is not a “how
to” book, but a book of “how to think about”
effecting transformation in school’s.
At its best, Ethical Leadership distills
leadership—in all of its organizational, philosophical,
psychological, spiritual complexities—down to its simplest
essence: that is, as a moral force in society, leadership must be
transformational not only for those “who attempt to
lead” (p. 5), but for those who are led, and for the
organization they are charged with leading. Early on in this
brief 157 page book, Starratt presses the reader to think.
Ethical leadership, argues the author, begins with the formation
of a sound framework, one requiring leaders to undertake an often
arduous and frank “analysis of what principles, beliefs,
values, and virtues constitute a moral life” (p. 45).
Ethical leadership—the mental construct—challenges
one to live, and work, as a moral leader. Moral
leadership—the enacted process—honors personal
integrity and responds to the needs of others in promoting
justice as well as preventing harm. In sum, ethical leadership
as conceptual structure engenders moral leadership as practical
action.
Wisely, Ethical Leadership avoids prescription. Its
readers, who typically find administration texts and journals
presenting simplistic dichotomies filled with nostrums of
“do versus don’t” and “good versus
bad” practice, will find in this powerful little book
another route for potentially resolving the challenges posed by
seemingly perpetual efforts to reform U.S. education. The author
adds to the body of professional literature that casts leadership
as evolutionary, as a process maturing from one of reactive
prescriptive actions into one anchored in responsive
transformational thinking.
Three conceptual components frame the idea of ethical
leadership—responsibility, authenticity, and
presence—in essence, the building blocks in crafting a
strategy for change, both personal and institutional. Starratt
opens with “Becoming Moral,” a chapter briefly
distinguishing ethics from morals, and then follows with the
introduction of a “composite” middle school
principal, Al Auther. Constructing the conceptual structure of
ethical leadership often begins with self-doubt and internal
dissonance. Mr. Auther, who represents the stereotypical caring
leader beset with a moral dilemma concerning the disadvantaged
populations in his school, seeks solace and counsel in the person
of his former university professor. In the subsequent three
chapters Starratt methodically constructs an ethical framework
for moral leadership in terminology to which harried leaders,
habituated to the language of quick-fix professional literature,
might be unaccustomed. Vignettes featuring Principal Mr.
Auther, however, ground Ethical Leadership in the
realities of public schooling, without miring it the vernacular
of “educationese.” Additionally, several
well-positioned graphics also help the reader visually organize
the book’s concepts.
Among the three components of ethical leadership, it is the
last, presence, which empowers leaders to be, and act, with
genuine responsibility and authenticity. Presence, “being
wide awake to what’s in front of you” (p. 86),
tightly links leaders to their subordinates, colleagues, and
superiors in the quest to produce “good” (p. 91).
Leaders committed to “capacity building,” in the
words of Adams and Kirst (1999), are present to possibilities for
incorporating the authenticity of others in the institution,
thereby enabling responses (Starratt’s notion of
responsibility) for the potential betterment of the order.
For academic heft, Starratt amply cites leaders in the fields
of educational leadership, (Sergiovanni, Argyris, and Duigan),
organizational development (Weber, Senge, and Fullan), psychology
(Taylor), and, finally, the morality of leadership (Cooper,
Jonsen). (See Excerpts from Bibliography below for the works cited.)
It is the absence of one citation, however, that perplexes
this reviewer. Starratt does not cite a giant of
twentieth-century philosophy, John Dewey, whose ideas of civic
responsibility reverberate throughout Starratt’s notion of
co-production. Can the reader surmise that Dewey, often the
philosopher of choice among instruction-curriculum reform
advocates, falls outside the purview of contemporary discourse on
leadership? Furthermore, albeit a minor issue, Ethical
Leadership, at times, suffers from the overuse of exhortative
“shoulds,” especially in the chapter on
responsibility, running the risk of desensitizing the reader to
the book’s central lessons.
While reading Ethical Leadership this reviewer often
dialogued with the author, referencing personal school leadership
experiences, and raising objections: “What if the board or
superintendent simply refuse to budge?” “What if I
am confronted with a recalcitrant faculty?” At one point,
I decided Starratt had conveniently ignored the complex political
and emotional realities of the principalship. I am was happy to
be proven wrong. To wit, two-thirds into Ethical
Leadership Starratt states outright that failure on the part
of others to participate in co-production “may lead to a
request that the teacher leave the school” (p. 98) or,
faced with an impasse, leaders themselves may need to “move
on” to another institution.
Ethical Leadership can either be a quick and neat
informative read or a slow, thoughtful one. For those who
genuinely aspire to personal-professional transformation,
Ethical Leadership requires a time-intensive investment of
individual self-questioning. Lucky are those readers who have
the opportunity to complement self-questioning with intensive
dialogue in collective venues, such as university classes
(post-graduate seminars first come to mind) or peer discussion
groups. On a macro political-policy scale, Ethical
Leadership is especially timely, providing a non-strident
voice that may help counter calls for endless standardized
testing and other well-intended, yet ill-conceived, panaceas
proposed for public education reform.
Perhaps no one more qualified than Robert J. Starratt could
tackle the world of ethics in leadership in U.S. schools. As a
former high school teacher (of both mathematics and English, no
less), consultant, college professor of educational
administration, and, above all, principal of two secondary
schools, the author has lived and labored the world he posits in
Ethical Leadership, earning the “stripes of
battle” that lend credibility to his arguments. In words
sometimes reminiscent of a Zen-master, Starratt counsels the
reader that moral leadership is neither absolute, nor permanent,
nor a state to be attained. Rather, moral leadership is to be
lived as a reality demanding existential meaning-making on the
part of leaders. Educators, whether or not they consider
themselves “official” leaders, can only hope that
Starratt’s approach to leadership will be seriously heeded
by everyone across the spectrum of public service and private
enterprise who aspires to assume the mantle of authority.
Reference
Adams, J.E. & Kirst, M.W. (1999). New demands and
concepts for educational accountability: Striving for results in
an era of excellence. In J. Murphy and K.S. Louis
(Eds.), Handbook of research on education administration
(2nd ed., pp. 463-489). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Excerpts from Starratt’s Bibliography
Argyris, C. (1977). Double-loop learning in organizations,
Harvard Business Review, 55(5), 115-125.
Cooper, T.L. (1991). An ethic of citizenship for public
administration. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Cooper, T.L. (1998). The responsible administrator: An
approach to ethics for the administrative role
(4th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Duigan, P. (2003a, August). Authenticity in leadership:
Encouraging the heart, celebrating the spirit. Paper
presented at the National Conference of Lutheran Principals,
Canberra, Australia.
Duigan, P. (2003b, September). Formation of capable,
influential, and authentic leaders for times of
uncertainty. Paper presented at the National
Conference of Australian Primary Principals’ Association,
Adelaide.
Duigan, P., Burford, C., Cresp, M. d’Arbon, T., Fagan,
M., & Frangoulis, M. (2003). Executive summary.
In Contemporary challenges and implications for leaders in
frontline human service organizations. Strathfield, NSW:
The SOLAR Project, Australian Catholic University.
Fullan, M. (2003). The moral imperative of school
leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Jonsen, A. (1968). Responsibility in modern religious
ethics. Washington, DC: Corpus Books.
Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline. New
York: Doubleday.
Sergiovanni, T.J. & Starratt, R.J. (2002).
Supervision: A redefinition (7th ed.).
New York: McGraw-Hill.
Taylor, C. (1991). Theethics of authenticity.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Weber, M. (1958). The Protestant sects and the spirit of
capitalism. In H.H. Gerth & C. W. Mills (Eds.), From
Max Weber: Essays in sociology (pp. 302-332). New York:
Oxford University Press.
About the Reviewer
Daniel J. Torlone, Ed.D.
University of Saint Francis
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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