Articles and website links

General
Within SDUSD
At San Diego's universities
On creating and sustaining an ethical culture
On public service
On moral courage
On trust
On ethical leadership

General

Within SDUSD

SDUSD Leadership Initiative. Contact Director Sam Wong, swong@sandi.net.

At San Diego’s universities

Character Development Center, University of San Diego. Serves teacher educators, students in teacher education programs, K-12 teachers, administrators, counselors, parents and caregivers who desire to participate in the character development of children and youth. Director: Ed DeRoche.

Center for Ethics in Science and Technology. A collaboration of UC San Diego and the University of San Diego. Work includes convening dialogues with high school students and parents about technology, including privacy and transparency issues related to internet social networking sites such as My Space. Directors: Michael Kalichman of UCSD and Lawrence Hinman of USD.

Faculty articles. “Fooling Ourselves,” an op ed piece by USD professor of business law and social responsibility Marc Lampe, urges turning to science for valuable insights on human nature and ethics. San Diego Union Tribune, August 25, 2006.

On creating and sustaining an ethical culture

“Critical Elements of an Organizational Ethical Culture,” Ethics Resource Center, 2006.

National Business Ethics Survey: How Employees View Ethics in Their Organizations, 1994-2005, Executive Summary, Ethics Resource Center.

Ethics Resource Center readings/resources on organizational culture.

“Three Quick Tests for Ethical Congruence,” by Frank J. Navran.

“Staying Out of the Headlines: Ensuring an Ethical Organization,” by Frank J. Navran, June 2003.

“Why Is It So Hard to Create an Ethical Culture?” by David Gebler, 2005.

“Organizational Lessons from the Columbia Disaster,” by Rushworth Kidder, Institute for Global Ethics, September 2, 2003.

“There’s Only Ethics,” by Rushworth Kidder, Institute for Global Ethics, 2001. (pdf)

Purpose: the Starting Point of Great Companies, by Nikos Mourkogiannis. Palgrave MacMillan, 2006. (See “Purpose and Innovation,” an article adapted from this book.)

On public service

“Doing the Right Thing: Putting Ethics Principles into Practice in Public Service,” Institute for Local Government, 2006. (pdf)

“Of Cookie Jars and Fishbowls: A Public Official’s Guide to Use of Public Resources.” Institute for Local Government, 2004. (pdf)

On moral courage

Moral Courage, by Rushworth Kidder, president, Institute for Global Ethics. New York, NY: William Morrow, 2005. Examines recent events including the Enron scandal, the Columbia space shuttle tragedy, and the war in Iraq to apply essential litmus-test questions that can positively influence behavior. Read the first chapter

“Moral Courage in a World of Dilemmas,” by Rushworth Kidder and Patricia L. Born, The School Administrator, February 2002. A school leader hit by a dilemma—often without warning, on an otherwise normal day—needs to demonstrate moral authority and wise decision making. This sort of ethical decision making, more than simply intuitive, requires applying structure in the midst of pressure and rational discourse in the face of emotional tensions.

“A Word from the President: Moral Courage," by Patricia J. Harned, Ph.D.
President, Ethics Resource Center. “When an employee picks up the phone and dials the company's ethics helpline; when a student approaches the teacher to raise a concern; even as a leader references organizational values as the prevailing principle guiding a strategic decision, there is an important dynamic at work. Moral courage.”

"Wanted: Leaders with Courage," by the Brisbane Institute. Institute Chairman Ray Weekes calls for institutions and their leaders to "reinstate courage as a vital element of leadership" if they are to rebuild public trust in the wake of Enron, WorldCom and other corporate failures.

On trust

“Trust: A Primer On Current Thinking,” an Institute for Global Ethics Research Report
by Rushworth M. Kidder, President, Institute for Global Ethics examines: what is trust; the importance of trust in business; attributes of trust; challenges to trust building. (pdf)

On ethical leadership

“Ethical Leadership: Creating an Ethical Culture,” PowerPoint presentation by Linda K. Trevino, 2005, Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University. Ethical leadership research conducted with Laura Hartman and Michael Brown, supported by the Ethics Resource Center Fellows Program.

“An Education in Ethics: Teaching Business Students Life Lessons in Leadership,” by John S. Rosenberg, Harvard Magazine, September-October, 2006. At Harvard Business School, future business leaders learn that character is malleable, behavior is affected by an organization’s context, and that context is the responsibility of its leaders.

“Values-Based Navigation”is the theme of the May 2008 issue of The School Administrator, the magazine of the American Association of School Administrators. It features multiple articles on ethical decision making. The lead article, "Moral Rudders and Superintendent Values," by Rushworth Kidder, includes the SDUSD Ethics Program website as an additional resource.

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