262 Global Ethics for Leadership
of being relied on or to be dependable. Reliability comes down to mean
worthy of reliance or trust (a reliable source of information; a dependa-
ble worker; a responsible babysitter; a trustworthy report; a trusted assis-
tant).^209
There is an intense international (mainly Western dominated) debate
since some twenty years on values for leadership and new standards of
ethical leadership. CEOs and senior business leaders are invited to check
on what are core values which they follow in the daily patterns of com-
municating and decision making. Although reliability in many of the
standard core value assessment procedures and questionnaires is not yet
an explicit part of the agreed core ethical value lists^210 there is a growing
conviction that ethical values around reliability belong to the essentials
of future leadership models.^211 Journals for ‘Value-based Leadership’
offer their advice and insights for leadership staff in business, interna-
tional corporations and senior management to have clear earmarks for
ethical leadership.^212 ‘Because values play such an important role in our
lives, being able to recognize, understand and articulate one’s own val-
ues set becomes critical in sound decision-making. Additionally, the
ability to identify an employer’s corporate values will assist in determin-
ing an employee’s job performance and allegiance. Consequently, when
an individual discovers genuine and meaningful alignment between his
or her own personal values with those of his or her employer, a powerful
connection is created. This connection creates numerous possibilities for
both individual growth and company productivity.’
While the insight is convincing and clear that value-driven leader-
ship is necessary and a demand of our time it is less clear why attempts
209
210 See: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/reliability^
http://www.ethicalleadership.org/uploads/2/6/2/6/26265761/1.4_corevalues
exercise.pdf 211
http://diversitymbamagazine.com/ethics-and-values-in-leadership-an-
organizational 212 -profile
See: Katherine W. Dean: Earmarks for ethical leadership , in:
http://www.valuesbasedleadershipjournal.com/issues/vol1issue1/dean.php