The ethical demands made on leaders of creative efforts

Abstract

How should leaders make ethical decisions about the production and dissemination of creative products, when creative work adds to the normal leadership workload the complications of ill-defined tasks, uncertain solution paths, professionals who tend toward autonomy and exploration, and diversities of expertise that must collaborate? Ethics addresses the outcomes of decisions-typically the outcomes of decisions vis-à-vis others (Trevino, Brown, & Hartman, 2003). Creativity, the production of new ideas, and innovation, the translation of these ideas into viable new products and services (Mumford & Gustafson, 1988), are complex performances (Mumford, 2012) that can affect not only those involved in their production, but the organization and society more broadly.