INTRODUCTION
Each group of human beings has a leader or leaders. From the
smallest entity of a family until international institutions like the UN,
from companies to religious communities, from NGOs to parliaments
and governments, from schools to the media. There are many leaders :
parents, teachers, editors in chief, boards, presidents of associations,
CEOs, pastors, deacons and bishops, men, women and children.
Many leaders act in a responsible way, but many others do not.
Responsibility and responsiveness are directly related. A leader is
responsible when he or she is responsive to the needs, concerns and
interest of those whom one aspires to lead. At its best, leadership must
be demonstrated in the responsible management of public and private
resources for the common good. From this perspective, stewardship is
an expression of responsible leadership. Responsible leadership also
has to do with integrity, which in turn has to do with respectability
and respectfulness. To be respectable, a leader must be respectful of
those for whom that leader expects respect and compliance. Respect
can only be deserved. It must not be demanded. Self-imposition
evokes fear, whereas exemplary leadership wins respect.
Globalisation leads to a close interaction between different value
systems. Different concepts and traditions of leadership are con-
fronted with each other by media, trade, tourism, encounters, con-
ferences and migration. This is enriching and challenging at the same
time. How to come to a common understanding of leadership when
one has to work together with others and has to find common deci-
sion-making processes? How to respect at the same time the diversity
of values and leadership models?
These questions were the starting point for this book. Glo-
bethics.net, the global network for applied ethics, unites ethicists and
practitioners from all continents. A first volume (Christoph Stückel-
berger, Jesse N.K. Mugambi (eds), Responsible Leadership. Global Per-
spectives, Nairobi, Kenya : Acton Publishers, 2005) collected 15 articles
which are reprinted in this book. In September 2005, the International
Globethics.net Conference in Bangkok, Thailand on the theme ‘Respon-
sible Leadership’ brought together a broad variety of ethicists from five
continents. A selection of revised keynote speeches and papers are pre-
sented in the second part of this publication. Some of these 23 contri-
butions respond to and are in dialogue with articles from the first
volume. At the end, ‘Globethics.net Elements for Responsible Leader-
ship’ are published as a common result of the conference.
The contributions in this book cover four main sectors of respon-
sible leadership : family leadership (including educational leadership),