What Ethical Leadership Really Demands

When an institution is facing a crisis, the values of the decisions are reflected on the leaders. Across the cases of The September 11 Memorial, Penn State Fumbles, Concussions, and Trouble in the Pews, there is a central theme of ethical leadership and how it’s protecting reputations but protecting the people. Each of these stories show what occurs when authority prioritizes image over integrity and how it take years to rebuild trust once it’s lost. 

Cost of Silence and Accountability of Ethics

At Penn State University, they failed to act against the abuse allegations of Jerry Sanduskys, and this showed how fear of a scandal and loyalty can eclipse moral duty. The Catholic Church’s denying and concealing the decades long of sex abuse is a similar pattern to institutional denial, where the protection internally outweighs any justice for victims. These are moral failures in organizational cultures. James Rest, who is a leadership ethics scholar discusses that moral courage is needed for acting despite risk and recognizing wrong doing (Rest, 1986). Both of these institutions leaders knew this, but failed to lead. 

The crisis with the NFL’s concussions is a parallel for moral blind spots. Many years, the league continued to downplay the evidence that is linked to head injuries to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) (Boston University CTE Center, 2023). With the cases of Penn State and the church, NFL leaders continued to prioritize financial interest and their overall brand image over the wellbeing of humans. According to the Institute for Public Relations (2022), “organizations in a crisis need to communicate from the start and maintain legitimacy truthfully.” However, some of these leaders did the complete opposite, and deflected and denied responsibility until the pressure from the public forced them to reform. 

Image Management to Moral Repair 

The September 11th case demonstrates how ethical leadership can be achieved when empathy and transparency are guided with decision making. Instead of hiding behind politics, project leaders need to engage survivors, families, and public to create a grounded memorial that is shared within humanity. This approach algins with Coombs’ (2019) and the theory of renewal, which is when organizations can merge stronger from crises when they are able to commit to public good, ethical action, and collaboration.

These cases are a collection of challenges for futures leaders in public relations, and moving beyond managing perceptions towards moral responsibility. With ethical leadership, it demands accountability, humility, and empathy, when there reputations are at stake. The lesson is silence protects power and the truth protects people. 

Call for Ethical Courage 

In today’s world of saturated media, scandals are spreading faster than wildfires. However, the speed of exposure isn’t the main problem, it’s the slow pace of moral response. Institutions such as Penn State, Catholic Church, and NFL continue to remind us that ethics are not outsourced by crisis managers. Leaders need to create cultures where honesty isn’t punishable and accountability is expected. PRSA’s Code of Ethics (2020) reminds practitioners that, “ethical practice is an obligation of professional communicators.” The future of trust within the public is determined by how well we are able to live up to that promise. 

Keywords: Accountability, leadership, ethics, crisis communication

References 

Boston University CTE Center. (2023). What is CTE? Boston University. https://www.bu.edu/cte/about/what-is-cte/

Coombs, W. T. (2019). Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Institute for Public Relations. (2022). The importance of transparency in crisis communication. https://instituteforpr.org

PRSA. (2020). PRSA Code of Ethics. Public Relations Society of America. https://www.prsa.org/about/ethics

Rest, J. R. (1986). Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory. Praeger.