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Leadership educators are faced with the challenge of preparing students to serve organizations and people in dynamic and ever changing contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate leadership students' self-perceived level of moral imagination to make recommendations for moral imagination curricula. Moral imagination is the foundation of moral decision-making, which is critical to develop for aspiring leaders. It also has the potential to develop resilience and hardiness in organizations and people, which is paramount for community sustainability. Students in leadership courses at two universities were surveyed to measure their level of moral imagination in terms of three constructs: reproductive, productive, and creative imagination. One hundred fifty-one leadership students completed the instrument. It was found that participants had moderate moral imagination abilities with their highest scoring abilities in productive imagination. Recommendations lie in educational opportunities, curricula structure, and teaching techniques.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the parallels between the ethical concept of moral imagination and the psychoanalytical concept of active imagination. A model combining both concepts is then proposed and discussed. The paper argues that such synthesis is necessary to understand the process of moral deliberation, as well as to foster more consistent moral choices in organisations.

The paper is conceptual, and builds upon relevant literature from the field of business ethics and analytical psychology.

Imagination is a thoroughly ambivalent concept, which can be used to pursue moral as well as immoral goals. Moral imagination is an important element influencing decision making, but its quality depends on the state of balance of the psyche. A sound and effective moral imagination must be grounded in a healthy psyche, and needs the assistance of active imagination (or other similar activities) to achieve this. Such inner work is especially necessary for leaders to clarify their moral values and capabilities.

The Active and Moral Imagination (AMI) model proposed has not been empirically tested; therefore its implications are tentative at this stage. The paper does not discuss in detail other psychological activities which may be complementary to active imagination.

Managers and leaders should reflect on their own unconscious, so as to understand the deeper mechanisms influencing their decisions and behaviours.

The paper presents an interdisciplinary approach to the role of imagination in ethics.

An increasingly popular argument proposes that the problems in public schooling may be solved through stronger, more morally imaginative leadership. School administrators ought to set forth a vision growing out of this moral responsibility, and may be trained to utilise moral imagination in directing teachers and students towards certain moral visions. A critique of the argument is presented and alternative (and conflicting) meanings of “moral imagination” surveyed. Four models of moral imagination are located: as discovery; as moral authority; as faculty of mind, and as super science. It is argued that each of these conceptions has inherent difficulties. The logical relationship of these views is explored. The notion of “school leadership” is traced in the literature as it has been attached to “moral imagination”. The work of W. Greenfield is examined and a philosophy of school administration, with certain assumptions, regarding values and authority, that reveal key difficulties for the unfettered use of “moral imagination” in school administration, is found. It is concluded that “moral imagination” ought to be replaced with “critical imagination”, coupled with “democratic value deliberation” and by so doing a richer leadership will result, leading to the empowerment of teachers and a fuller serving of the public good.

The purpose of this research is to provide an overview of the fundamental elements of moral literacy. Moral literacy involves three basic components: ethics sensitivity; ethical reasoning skills; and moral imagination. It is the contention of the author that though math and reading literacy is highly valued by the American educational system, moral literacy is extremely undervalued and under‐developed.

In this study the author uses her vast knowledge of moral literacy to break the subject matter into specific and defined sub‐categories. She then explains each sub‐category explicitly using real‐life examples to assist the reader in understanding the gravity and meaning behind each separate facet of moral literacy.

Moral literacy is a skill that must be crafted and honed by students, and with the aid of teachers who are well‐versed in moral subject matter. It is a complex and multifaceted skill set that is interconnected and must therefore be learned completely in order to be used properly. Teaching students about moral literacy is truly necessary if schools wish to produce productive and responsible citizens.

The study furthers our understanding of moral literacy and how it can play an absolutely vital role in our educational system. The paper not only explains what moral literacy is on a theoretical level, but it puts that theory into specific examples so that the reader can more clearly understand the benefits of acting in a morally literate fashion.

This paper analyses what is seen as a crisis of authority in financial reporting. It considers the view that an element of authority may be restored to accounting through communicative reason. The paper argues that the justice‐oriented rationality of traditional, Habermasian, communicative ethics is incapable of providing a solid foundation for the re‐authorisation of financial reporting. The paper argues that a more adequate foundation might be found in an enlarged communicative ethics that allows space to the other of justice‐oriented reason. The inspiration for the enlargement is found in Ricoeur's analysis of narrative, his exploration of its role in the figuration of identity, and in his biblical hermeneutics which reveals the necessity of an active dialectic of love and justice.

Public interests and concerns often create dilemmas for school principals. As such moral dilemmas are the case for schools as places marked by social, economic, cultural and political diversity. The purpose of this paper is to look at how Appalachian school leaders use moral literacy to make decisions when facing ethical issues?

The data for this study emerged from interviews conducted with ten principals. The principals interviewed represent a purposeful sample of practitioners within the Appalachian region of Southern Ohio, using group characteristic sampling.

Principals’ responses varied in their depth of familiarity and comfort with moral literacy. The abductive analysis yielded several thematic units, classified using both emergent patterns and a priori codes. The overarching themes that emerged from this analysis concerned what an ethical dilemma is, what it means to be a morally literate leader, moral dimensions of leadership, and the value integration of doing ethics and being ethical.

This study relies strictly on the participants’ personal conceptualization of moral literacy and the ethical paradigms it presupposes. As a qualitative study, the findings are based primarily on the participants’ perception of and the researcher’s interpretation of the complexities and ambiguities in reading ethical dilemmas.

To effectively accomplish the moral work of the principalship requires that school leaders be morally literate, understanding the integrated nature of ethical paradigms.

The findings of this study continue to disclose the manner in which practicing principals define what an ethical dilemma is and moves us closer to understanding how practitioners frame moral literacy within their practice yet outside of exposure to clearly defined theoretical frameworks.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some key aspects through a theoretical interdisciplinary approach that may contribute to shape an organizational discrimination frame.

The paper depicts a theoretical interdisciplinary approach. Within this perspective, it undertook a literature review to identify some theoretical aspects – neglected or not appropriately addressed – that may somewhat nourish an organizational discrimination frame.

Overall, this paper examined more carefully five aspects (constructs), namely, moral imperative, organizational injustice, corporate social responsibility, non-spiritual business orientation and unethical leadership, that may contribute to shape a discrimination frame if not approached properly and suggested a set of research propositions. In addition, it offers some insights into a problem that deserves more theoretical development and pertinent managerial interventions.

The implications for business are enormous given that being labeled as an organization that encourages discriminatory company policies will certainly attract negative corporate image. Moreover, it stands to reason that firms which are portrayed as such a “devil” will have serious difficulties to survive in this new millennium. Thus, it can be predicted that organizations that are not committed to at least reducing discrimination inside their structures and human resources policies will attract growing negative feelings, perceptions and opinions.

This paper provides further theoretical underpinning for better understanding of the institutional discrimination that affects both society and organizations.

Taken together, the moral imperative, organizational injustice, corporate social responsibility, non-spiritual business orientation and unethical leadership variables delineate a theoretical framework as to how discrimination in the workplaces takes shape.

The purpose of this paper is to present a four component model of ethical behavior that integrates literature in moral psychology, computing ethics, and virtue ethics as informed by research on moral exemplars in computing. This is part 2 of a two part contribution, part 1 having appeared in Vol. 6 No. 3.

This psychologically based and philosophically informed model argues that moral action is grounded in relatively stable personality characteristics, guided by integration of morality into the self‐system, shaped by the context of the surrounding moral ecology, and facilitated by morally relevant skills and knowledge.

The model seeks to explain the daily successful (and unsuccessful) performance of moral action by computing professionals and to provide groundwork for a pedagogy that emphasizes ethically effective performance.

The model has significant implications for how ethical action to computer professionals and other design professionals might be taught. It also makes recommendations about what need to be measured to construct a complete picture of sustained ethical action in a profession.

Most accepted models of ethical behavior are unidimensional, emphasizing either principled reasoning or a simplistic model of integrity/character. This model brings together a variety of disparate literatures in the light of its emphasis on sustained moral action in the profession. It thereby provides researchers and educators with a picture of what is needed to construct a complete understanding of moral action in the profession.

The article aims at examining the ethical limits and risks of servant leadership. During the Second World War, the German army officer Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is a loyal servant to his nation and homeland. But when he learns about the Nazis’ mass murders and crimes, he begins to have doubts about whom he should serve. Being confronted with numerous moral dilemmas, he finally decides to join a resistance group. Of course, Stauffenberg's situation as colonel and leader was an extreme case. Time and again, however, managers and leaders are faced with similar dilemmas. Indeed, the current COVID-19-crisis shows that even today’s leaders are repeatedly faced with almost insoluble dilemmas. The recent literature about ethics and leadership suggests a philosophy which is almost portrayed as a panacea to any ethical issues: servant leadership (SL). This study, however, questions the commonly held view that SL is always ethical. The purpose of our historical case study is twofold. First, this study explores the ethical challenges Stauffenberg (and other officers) faced and how they dealt with them. Second, this study elaborates on what responses (if any) SL would provide to these challenges.

The applied method is a historical case study, in which the authors draw on a plethora of secondary literature, including books, reports, and articles.

By analyzing the historical case of “Operation Valkyrie,” this study elaborated and identified risks and limitations of SL and pointed out ways to address these risks. In particular, SL poses risks in the case of a too narrow understanding of the term “service.”

While other leadership styles, e.g. transformational leadership or charismatic leadership, have been extensively studied with regard to ethical risks, in the case of SL possible risks and limitations are still largely unexplored.

Home country support from hardship nation émigrés is an under-researched topic area, particularly pertaining to Palestine which is a comparatively extreme case of oppression and apartheid. The purpose of this study is to examine the nature of this motivation, in context to well-known dynamics of diaspora behavior, to understand individual and situational variables that drive ethical decision-making.

This is an exploratory mixed methods field study using self-reported variables. Structural equation modeling was conducted through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Qualitative data is presented through thematic analysis and bracketing.

A desire to live in Palestine in the future was not in itself significantly related to a favorable outlook for the country or to a desire to support the nation. Findings indicate that family support and a sense of altruism and hopefulness for the future of Palestine influenced home country nationalism in charitable investments in hospitals, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and educational institutions. Subjects’ direct portfolio investments tended to be primarily real estate and to a lesser degree in business operations.

The sample size needs to be larger and draw from greater diversity in overseas locations, as well as respondents representing Gaza and Israel locations. Objective outcome variables would be desirous.

Social constructivism theory is applied in understanding the ethical nature of the loyalty of these diasporans.

The Palestine diaspora is under-researched, particularly individual differences in motives for overseas Palestinians’ support of their ancestral homeland. Some might consider it irrational to desire to return and invest in the nation. Policymakers can benefit from empirical evidence of the type of investment and their rationales. A profile emerges in the respondents’ commitment of financial resources for personal and family real estate. Their direct investments include business ownership, as well as education and health care organizations, impacting the sustainability of this nation.