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Exercise 5-6
Exercise Title: Generational Hit Parade
Purpose: Looks at popular music as one indicator of salient values during different periods.
Summary: You can select music for this activity in two ways, or by combining both. One approach
involves selecting representative music yourself from different eras (e.g., the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s,
80’s, 90’s and 00’s). You should pick music that epitomizes some of the dominant concerns, values, or
views of life common during that period. The other approach involves letting members of the class select
This exercise takes 20–30 minutes to complete, depending on the number of recordings and the ensuing
discussions.
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Exercise 5-7
Exercise Title: Survivor
Purpose: To demonstrate how group dynamics can affect moral reasoning.
Summary: Provide each individual student with the Values Diversity handout. Each student should work
the task individually. After completing the task, break the class into groups of five to seven people. Next,
the students redo the task and select six survivors.
After giving the directions, instructors should pay close attention to the decision processes and the
Chapter 05 – Leadership Ethics and Values
VALUE DIVERSITY
I want you to imagine that you are involved in a nuclear holocaust. There is a fallout shelter, but it will
only support life for six people over the required length of time. There are 10 people in the group. They
are:
A 78-year-old Jewish rabbi who is a venerable old man and healthy despite his age
A 33-year-old white female who is a retired prostitute
An 18-year-old male Black activist college student
A 39-year-old Hispanic female medical doctor, who for medical reasons is unable to have children
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Exercise 5-8
Exercise Title: Hand Clapping
Purpose: To demonstrate how followers will often mimic what leaders do, not what they say they will
do.
Summary: Ask students to put their arms straight out in front of them with their palms down. One hand
should be about six inches above the other. Then demonstrate how you can make a clapping noise by
bringing the palm of the top hand down on the top of the bottom hand. Students should practice clapping
Chapter 05 – Leadership Ethics and Values
Exercise 5-9
Exercise Title: Breaking the Chain
Purpose: To demonstrate leadership, teamwork, and ethics.
Summary: Instructors should begin the exercise by placing three pieces of 20-foot rope on the ground
and parallel to each other. The pieces of rope should be about 15 feet from each other, so that the two
outside ropes are 30 feet apart. Break the class into two groups, and have them line up along the two
outside ropes. (Ideally, each group should have 6–12 people, although larger groups can be used.) Have
Once the groups begin the crossing, they will quickly realize that keeping their feet linked together is
much more difficult than it looks and requires considerable concentration. Moreover, as groups get farther
and farther along, there will be more and more pressure to not publicly report a broken contact—members
would rather keep the violation to themselves instead of having the group start over. This phenomenon
has some nice parallels to real life, as deadlines approach or as companies invest more money in a new
This exercise takes about 20 minutes.
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Exercise 5-10
Exercise Title: Values and the Classics
Purpose: To address ethical issues using two classical cases.
Summary: Instructors can use any of the classical pieces to address ethical decision making. Two cases
that are recommended are the novel Billy Budd (which is also available in film) and excerpts from
Antigone by Sophocles.
Billy Budd
Billy Budd is a novel published in 1924 by Herman Melville. The story is based on an actual incident
that occurred aboard a naval ship in 1842. Several sailors were tried in a court martial for allegedly
plotting a mutiny aboard the ship. At this point, instructors should show a clip of the movie or hand out
Questions to consider:
– What type of moral reasoning was used in the clip and how did values impact the decision-making
process?
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Antigone
Antigone, by the great tragic poet Sophocles, is about conflicting leadership styles. The main
character, Antigone, has violated King Creon’s law by not burying her deceased brother. Creon discovers
that Antigone has violated his law. Torn between upholding his law and Antigone’s value of placing
Questions to consider:
– What is it like for Antigone to refuse the law and instead obey some inner compulsion that leads to
her own death, the death of her lover Haimon, who is Creon’s son, and that of Eurydice, Creon’s
wife? Cite a situation where a person’s own beliefs contradicted those of governmental law.
It will take about 30 minutes to complete this exercise.
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Additional References/Resources
Avolio, B. J. & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive
forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16, 315-338.
Brown, M. E. & Treviño, L. K. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. Leadership
Quarterly, 17, 595-616.
Brown, M. E., & Treviño, L. K. (2006). Socialized charismatic leadership, values congruence, and
deviance in work groups. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 954-962.
Cha, S. E. & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). When values backfire: Leadership, attribution, and
disenchantment in a values-driven organization. Leadership Quarterly, 17, 57-78.
Ciulla, J. B. (2005). The state of leadership ethics and the work that lies before us. Business Ethics: A
European Review, 14, 323-335.
Dickson, M.W., Smith, D.B., Grojean, M.W., & Ehrhart, M. (2001). An organizational climate regarding
ethics: The outcome of leader values and the practices that reflect them. Leadership Quarterly, 12,
197-217.
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Chapter 05 – Leadership Ethics and Values
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Hood, J.N. (2003). The relationship of leadership style and CEO values to ethical practices in
organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 43, 263-273.
Jurkiewicz, C.L. & Massey, T.K. (1998). The influence of ethical reasoning on leader effectiveness: An
empirical study of nonprofit executives. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 9, 173-186.
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