Ethicist discusses challenges of being a leader
Ciulla, chair in leadership and ethics at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, will address some of the ethical challenges unique to people in leadership positions. These include the difficulties of responsibly managing power and exercising self-control.
"Leaders are also charged with moral obligations to people they do not know, and sometimes do not like," says Ciulla, author of six books on various aspects of ethics. "They must possess vivid moral imaginations that allow them to think systematically about their actions both in terms of precedent setting and in terms of the potential for unintended consequences."
Ciulla is the Jackson Visiting Ethicist at Coastal for 2007. Each year the center brings a recognized ethicist to the university. She was a visiting scholar at the Center for Public Leadership at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University from 2002 to 2003. She was the UNESCO chair in leadership Studies at the United Nations University International Leadership Academy in Amman, Jordan, from 1999 to 2000. Her books include "Honest Work: A Business Ethics Reader," published in 2006 by Oxford University Press, New York.
Ciulla earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, a master's degree from the University of Delaware and a Ph.D. from Temple University in 1985. She won the 2003 Outstanding Educator Award from the Virginia State Council of Higher Education and a prize for Best Business Books in 2000 from the editors of Amazon.com for "The Working Life."
The event is sponsored by Coastal's Jackson Family Center for Ethics and Values. The purpose of the center is to cultivate and promote awareness in the community of the importance of personal and professional integrity. For more information, contact the director of the center, Claudia McCollough at 349-2440.