Certificate Program in Leadership and Ethics (CPLE)
About
The Certificate Program in Leadership and Ethics (CPLE) is a unique opportunity for College of Business Administration (CBA) students who wish to explore the relationship between leadership and ethics. It contributes to a student's preparation for a career in business by helping to foster contacts with organizations committed to leadership and ethics.
The CPLE is designed as an enhancement to the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) program and builds upon the BSBA core curriculum. It assumes that the student is earning a major in accounting, finance, general management, or marketing. Accordingly, enrollment is open only to students in the CBA's BSBA program.
The Curriculum
The CPLE curriculum is based on the belief that students ought to experience a sustained and integrated exposure to ethics and leadership in organizations. It is also based on the assumption that an emphasis on leadership, without proper consideration of ethics, will not generate leaders who approach their roles with a sense of responsibility and accountability; while an emphasis on ethics, without proper consideration of leadership, will not produce leaders with the necessary tools to develop and implement their vision and understanding of ethics. Thus, leadership and ethics must be considered together.
Leadership
In regard to leadership, the CPLE curriculum approaches this broad concept by emphasizing the components of personal development, skill building, conceptual development, and feedback.
For personal development, individuals must be trained to recognize their personal value system and its impact on behavior and decision making, while developing a professional approach and demeanor toward their work.
Skill building is also a vital component of leadership in that leaders must be trained to hone a wide range of skills that will allow them to navigate the challenges of organizational life.
Motivation, team building, negotiation, delegation, and conflict resolution are just some of the skills that leaders need to master in order to perform effectively in their roles. In addition, leaders ought to be exposed to models and theories of leadership from a wide range of academic disciplines in order to develop their cognitive approach to leadership functions.
Finally, leaders need to develop and have access to feedback systems that will hold them accountable for their actions and give them opportunities to further capitalize on their strengths and address their weaknesses.
Ethics
In regard to ethics, our approach is to give students the tools necessary to identify, understand, and process the vast range of competing pressures that can be present in organizational decisions or actions. A student with this training is consequently encouraged to examine various conceptual views on ethics in order to make informed and responsible decisions for organizations in difficult situations and circumstances.
The CPLE seeks to encourage consideration of competing pressures at various levels of personal and organizational life.
At the personal level, leaders must understand how the blind pursuit of self-interest can have negative consequences, both for leaders and their organizations. At the same time, self-interest can compel individuals to do great things—both for themselves and for organizations—if self interest is seen as just one important influence, rather than as an absolute end in itself.
At the organizational level, leaders must understand how organizational roles and contexts can compel leaders to take actions that are destructive, both for themselves and for their organizations. While organizations are the mechanism that makes possible efficient and effective collective action, organizational contexts also can lead individuals to act without sufficient attention to accountability and responsibility.
Finally, at the societal level, leaders must understand how an organization's social environment can be a tremendous influence on individuals and organizations, and at the same time, how stakeholders in the social environment are affected by an organization's actions and decisions. Ultimately, the social environment is a source of opportunities and threats that must be understood and processed in order to consider the greater implications of one’s actions and decisions.
Keeping these points in mind, the CPLE courses are designed around themes and topics that will allow students and faculty to match specific ethical approaches and concerns with specific leadership models and skill areas. A battery of sustained exposure to this approach promises to produce individuals who recognize that organizations have a tremendous ability to affect society and who possess skills to carry out this worldview.