Management and Acting Beyond the Call of Duty

Author: Antonio ArgandoñaPresenter: Rashi Saxena

Scope of Presentation

Authors views on:• Effect of ethics• Ethics in extreme situations: Czech

history• Can a manager be “too ethical”?– Be ethical come what may– Heroic behavior vs. Leadership

THE CASE OF CZECH

Story of Three-Time Capitulation

Dilemma 1: • Eduard Benes and Munich Pact• Choices: – National honor vs. human lives– Fight or Yield (to dictatorship)??

• Decision made: Capitulation• Reasoning: – Inevitable: now or later– Entailed human sacrifice on refusal to yield

Dilemma 2:• 1948, Eduard Benes• Choices: – to oppose leaders of Communist coup

supported by Soviet Union, OR– Withdraw without resistance

• Decision made: Withdraw• Reasoning: Bloodbath, inevitable defeat

Dilemma 3:• Soviet Union’s invasion

of Czech Republic, 1968

• Choices: Sign the Moscow Protocol OR not

• Decision: – Protocol signed; legal

occupation and “normalization” of Czech

PAST VS. PRESENTIf past had to be relived now…

Havel

• Dilemmas can’t be “judged” by anyone who hasn’t faced it– Not yielding: more ethical– Capitulation: more realistic

• The 3 dilemmas were not parallel– Different people– Different experiences– Different conditioning– Different decisions

Author

• Experience is part of prudence. The 3 dilemmas:– Had similar consequences–Were connected

Negative Learning Process

• Unintended takeaways from a learning experience that are inaccurate, misleading, or even harmful

• Each surrender diminished Czech’s future (perceived) ability to defend– Loss of faith in people–More vulnerable to enemies

ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHICAL ARGUMENTS

Beyond economic/political arguments…

• Singularity: – None of us will ever know what would have

happened if other choices were opted for– No conditional “what-if” scenario

• Ethics is a way of being, not just about ONE decision

• Decisions are “just” decisions– There are bi ethical, economic or political

decisions; these are dimensions of every decision

Politics and Morals

• Difficult to counter-pose• Not un-connected• Both are omnipresent

“Politics without morals is bad politics”

Decision and Evaluation Factors

• Depth influences foresight• Choice between two evils– “When choosing between two evils, I always

like to try the one I've never tried before” (Mae West)

• “What would I do…”“…if I was as unaware”?• Havel: – Weigh, Consult, Reflect– “I would probably not have taken the

decision that they did”

Responsibility

• Decision making is NOT a collective responsibility

• It is shared-but-equally personal responsibility of each individual of the team

DILEMMAS AND CORPORATE LEADERSHIP

• Dilemmas of an entrepreneur–What extent should/can they go

“beyond the call of duty”?– Is it unethical to be too ethical?

• Ethics of responsibility vs. Ethics of conviction

• Analogy with Czech:– Czech: loss of human lives– Entrepreneur: financial losses,

unemployment, etc.

Ethics of responsibility vs. Ethics of conviction

• Ethics of conviction: – Observing the rule because rule must be

observed–May result in less ethical behaviors

• Ethics of responsibility: – considers heroic/too-moral decisions as

immoral

• Moral learning: – Heroic behaviors can be morally justified

IS IT A DUTY TO BE HEROIC?

• Ethics of Goods, Norms and Virtues:– Ethics has a negative component: don’t

harm your customers to the limits beyond which it is harmful

– Ethical Minima characteristics of Ethics of Norms

• Ethics of Excellence– Do good– Do better– Create jobs– Improvise

• Duty of Human Welfare (Havel):– Not as obvious as not stealing– Not as supererogatory as ‘beyond call of

duty’

• Duties of management:– Guessing the nature of good• Not as a game/bet• As a moral obligation

–Managing a company’s demands• Considering all stakeholders• Justify external and internal missions

– Duty to manage well• Good manager vs. Not-bad manager

A Good Manager…

• Considers what people need– Not what they prefer

• Considers people alive today– And those not-yet-born

• Does not seek the approval of collaborators, allies, stakeholders, etc.– But wishes to enable them to act on

these principles

Continued…

• “If you only judge by actions, such a manager will fail”– Because evaluation parameters

(objectives) are different

• “Such a manager will be an excellent leader even if no one acknowledges it”– Doing the job well not only contributes

to success, it is a kind of success “whether or not the company succeeds”

Manager-Leader

• Is trusted by subordinates– He/she will always do best for the company

• Professional competence is not a priority

– Subordinates may not always understand “why?”

• Internal virtues command trust• Trust brings capability to take ‘right’

decisions– Even if difficult, even if ‘heroic’

CONCLUSIONS

• Theories deal with standards, possible approaches, not absolute ethics

• Ethics is subjective and situational, practiced by efforts to apply virtues

• Heroism can be:– Spectacular: as seen in tragic dilemmas

(Havel)– Simple: being dutiful everyday– Inter-relationship exists

• Manager-Leadership is discrete-heroism that enables you to take exceptional decisions when required

THANK YOU!