Concepts

Plato

Am I pursuing what is truly just, even when appearances or incentives push me elsewhere?

Truth, appearances, intrinsic justice

Taoism / Lao Tzu

Am I responding wisely to circumstances or rigidly forcing my preferred outcome?

Balance, wu-wei, tethered unattachment

Kant

Am I respecting universal duties and the dignity and rights of everyone involved?

Moral equality, dignity, universal principles

Mill

Which action will produce the greatest overall well-being for everyone affected?

Consequences, impartiality, cost-benefit analysis

Tronto

Whose concrete needs are being overlooked, and who has the responsibility and power to respond?

Attentiveness, relationships, caring for, power

★ In Praise of the Incomplete Leader — Deborah Ancona, Thomas Malone, Wanda Orlikowski, and Peter Senge

The complete leader is a myth. Effective leaders recognize their limitations and rely on complementary strengths in others. The four leadership capabilities are sensemaking, relating, visioning, and inventing. Supports distributed leadership in a VUCA world.

★ What Makes a Leader? — Daniel Goleman

Emotional intelligence is essential to effective leadership, beyond IQ and technical skills. Its five components are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill.

★ Exxon's Exodus: Employees Have Finally Had Enough of Its Toxic Culture — Kevin Crowley, Bloomberg

ExxonMobil's hierarchical culture, internal competition, fear of dissent, and performance-evaluation practices illustrate weaknesses in psychological safety, adaptability, collaboration, and sustainable leadership. Use Exxon as a negative case.

Empaths at the Gate — Bloomberg

Examines how KKR and a Stanford psychologist sought to measure interpersonal skills and empathy in business leadership. Illustrates why listening, emotional intelligence, and employee relationships matter alongside financial performance.

The Troubling Decline in Conscientiousness — John Burn-Murdoch, Financial Times

Discusses evidence of declining conscientiousness, especially among younger adults. Reliability, discipline, perseverance, and follow-through matter for work and life outcomes. Suggested explanations such as digital distraction should not be mistaken for proven causes.

Is Gen Z Unemployable? — Suzy Welch, Wall Street Journal

Argues that younger workers' expressed values may differ from hiring managers' priorities. Distinguishes personal values from workplace virtues or expectations. Remember that its conclusions are an opinion-based interpretation, not proof that an entire generation is unemployable.

Living Planet Report 2020: Executive Summary — WWF

Documents major biodiversity pressures and declining monitored wildlife populations. Supports the argument that sustainable leadership must account for interconnected environmental systems, ecological risks, and long-term consequences, not just short-term profit.

★ Why Design Thinking Works — Jeanne Liedtka

Design thinking helps organizations overcome biases, assumptions, and resistance to change through immersion in user experiences, diverse perspectives, experimentation, and stakeholder participation. It reduces innovation risk and improves buy-in.

The Design of Everyday Things, Chapter 6 — Don Norman

Human-centered design requires finding the right problem, not jumping straight to a solution. Explains iterative design and the Double Diamond, in which designers expand and narrow their understanding of problems and solutions.

★ Republic, Allegory of the Cave — Plato

People can confuse appearances with reality. Moral enlightenment requires questioning assumptions and seeking genuine understanding. The enlightened person has a responsibility to help others, even when doing so is uncomfortable.

★ Republic, Book II, Ring of Gyges — Plato (Glaucon's challenge)

Challenges whether people behave justly only because they fear punishment or desire rewards. Intrinsic justice means valuing justice for its own sake; instrumental justice means valuing it for its benefits. Glaucon presents the challenge; Plato's larger argument defends justice.

★ Tao Te Ching — Lao Tzu, translated by Stephen Mitchell

Emphasizes the Tao, wu-wei (skillful non-forcing action), humility, harmony, flexibility, and the dangers of excessive control. The course connects these ideas to yin and yang and tethered unattachment: remain committed to a purpose without rigidly clinging to one outcome or strategy.

★ Kantian deontology — Immanuel Kant, presented in your ethics lecture

Moral leadership requires respecting universal duties, human dignity, moral equality, human rights, and correlative duties. Never treat people merely as instruments for another goal. A good outcome does not automatically justify violating fundamental obligations.

★ Utilitarianism — John Stuart Mill

An action's moral rightness depends on its consequences for overall happiness or well-being. Considers everyone affected impartially. Supports cost-benefit reasoning, but the benefits considered must not be limited to company profits.

★ In a Different Voice — Carol Gilligan (interview transcript)

Challenges ethical theories that overlook relationships and concrete responsibilities. Moral dilemmas involve people whose needs are interconnected. Also emphasizes self-care: caring for others does not make one's own needs morally irrelevant.

★ Women and Caring: What Can Feminists Learn About Morality from Caring? — Joan Tronto

Distinguishes caring about (general concern) from caring for (responding to particular needs). Emphasizes attentiveness, responsibility, vulnerability, power, and how caring work is socially assigned. Challenges the idea that care is naturally women's responsibility or that caring is automatically virtuous.

Introduction to Effective Altruism — Effective Altruism organization

Encourages using evidence and reasoning to do as much good as possible. Important ideas include impartiality, scope sensitivity, cause prioritization, neglectedness, tractability, and the scout mindset. Connects especially well to consequentialist reasoning

Respect — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Philosophical discussion of respect, including recognizing persons as deserving moral consideration. Useful background for Kantian dignity, equal moral standing, and respect for persons. The encyclopedia is an explanatory reference, not an original Kant text.

Interviewing as Qualitative Research, Chapters 1 and 6 — Irving Seidman

Provides a foundation for understanding experiences through interviews. For your course, the critical application is open-ended, non-leading inquiry that seeks to understand participants' perspectives, rather than confirming the interviewer's assumptions. Connects to the inspiration stage of HCD.

Plato — Republic — Cave and Ring of Gyges

Truth versus appearances; why justice should matter even when wrongdoing is advantageous.

Lao Tzu — Tao Te Ching

Harmony, non-forcing action, and being flexible about methods without abandoning one's purpose.

Immanuel Kant — Kantian deontology (lecture treatment)

Universal moral duties, dignity, moral equality, rights, and respect for people as ends in themselves.

John Stuart Mill — Utilitarianism

Choose based on the consequences for everyone's overall well-being.

Joan Tronto — Women and Caring

Attend to concrete needs; examine relationships, unequal power, and the allocation of caring responsibilities.

★ Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter — David Rock and Heidi Grant

Diverse teams can make better decisions because different perspectives encourage more careful reasoning, scrutiny of facts, and reconsideration of assumptions. Disagreement can be productive rather than evidence of failure.

★ Why Diversity Programs Fail — Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev

Conventional mandatory diversity training and control-oriented programs can provoke resistance and fail to change outcomes. More promising approaches include managerial engagement, meaningful cross-group contact, mentoring, diversity task forces, and social accountability.

★ Basic Tenets of Anti-racist Education — Robin DiAngelo

Presents racism as a systemic and historically embedded phenomenon, not merely individual prejudice. Emphasizes socialization, challenging the racial status quo, and learning to tolerate discomfort when confronting racial injustice.

Can Chloé Valdary Sell Skeptics on DEI? — Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic

Profiles Chloé Valdary's Theory of Enchantment, which emphasizes compassion, individual complexity, and resisting racial essentialism. Contrasts her approach with more confrontational forms of diversity training. Friedersdorf is the article's author; Valdary developed the approach being discussed.

★ Google's Ideological Echo Chamber — James Damore

Argues that some average psychological differences between women and men may partly contribute to gender representation gaps. Criticizes Google's diversity policies and what he sees as restrictions on disagreement. His claims are contested, not established findings of the course.

★ What the Science Actually Says About Gender Gaps in the Workplace — Stefanie K. Johnson

Challenges biological explanations for large workplace gender gaps. Draws on research showing many psychological similarities between men and women, and evidence that bias, stereotypes, and organizational practices affect hiring and advancement.

★ Research: To Reduce Gender Bias, Anonymize Job Applications — Stefanie K. Johnson and Jessica Kirk

Examines anonymous reviews of Hubble Space Telescope proposals. Supports blind evaluation as a way to reduce opportunities for gender bias by focusing reviewers on the quality of the work.

LGBTQ People's Experiences of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment 2023 — Williams Institute

Provides survey evidence of discrimination, harassment, identity concealment, and unequal workplace experiences among LGBTQ employees. Supports examining actual workplace conditions rather than assuming a nondiscrimination policy guarantees inclusion.

Men's Vulnerability Groups in Big Business — Bloomberg

Explores men's workplace groups oriented toward emotional openness, vulnerability, and mutual support. Connects to gender expectations, emotional intelligence, inclusion, and psychological safety.

Donald Trump's DEI Executive Order Vexes Companies in Europe and Asia — Bloomberg

Describes the difficulties multinational companies face when navigating differing legal and social expectations for DEI. Connects to the challenge of maintaining fair, inclusive practices while complying with changing government policies.

2025 DOJ guidance on unlawful discrimination — discussed in your gender-inclusivity lecture

Your slides identify concerns about preferential treatment, proxy discrimination, segregated opportunities, and discriminatory or hostile training. Remember that the slides discuss the DOJ's interpretation; specific legal conclusions depend on the applicable law and facts.

Rock and Grant versus Dobbin and Kalev:

Rock and Grant explain why diversity can improve team thinking. Dobbin and Kalev explain why some organizational attempts to increase diversity fail and what alternatives may work better.

DiAngelo versus Valdary:

DiAngelo emphasizes systemic racism and the need to confront discomfort. Valdary emphasizes individual complexity and compassionate engagement while criticizing racial stereotypes in some DEI approaches.

Damore versus Johnson:

Damore emphasizes potential contributions of average sex-related differences to workplace representation. Johnson emphasizes evidence of gender similarities, bias, and social factors and disputes the adequacy of biological explanations for large workplace gaps.

Johnson and Kirk versus Dobbin and Kalev:

Johnson and Kirk provide evidence supporting a specific procedural change—anonymous review. Dobbin and Kalev examine the broader organizational effectiveness of different diversity initiatives.

Amy Edmondson — Psychological Safety

Employees must feel safe to speak up, report errors, and challenge authority. Psychological safety and accountability are separate: high safety plus high accountability supports learning and performance.

Daniel Goleman — Three Kinds of Focus

Inner focus: self-awareness and self-control. Other focus: empathy and understanding others. Outer focus: systems awareness and understanding broader consequences.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave video

Education involves the difficult journey from misleading appearances toward truth, followed by the responsibility to help others.

Carol Gilligan interview

Relationships matter to moral judgment; both men's and women's moral experiences can involve relational reasoning. Responsible care includes attention to one's own needs.

Taoism and Lao Tzu videos

Reinforce balance, letting go, humility, and wu-wei as skillful non-forcing action, not passivity.

Crash Course Philosophy — Utilitarianism

Introduces utilitarianism and dilemmas involving the greatest good, individual rights, and act versus rule utilitarianism.

Effective Altruism introduction

Connects consequentialist ideas to evidence-based decisions about how limited resources can do the most good.

Kant Starbucks

argues that people possess inherent dignity and should never be treated merely as means to another's goals. Therefore, Starbucks should establish policies that respect employees and customers as moral equals and constrain arbitrary, discriminatory decisions.

Millan Starbucks

consequentialism evaluates decisions by their effects on overall well-being. Therefore, Starbucks should compare the expected harms and benefits of different enforcement policies for employees, customers, and communities.

Tronto Starbucks

emphasizes attentiveness to concrete needs and how power influences whose needs receive care. Therefore, Starbucks should investigate the experiences of frontline employees and customers, particularly those whose concerns may be overlooked, and distribute responsibility for responding appropriately.

Ethical Frameworks

Plato, Lao Tzu, Kant, Mill, Gilligan, and Tronto.

Leadership and Organizational Design

Ancona and colleagues, Goleman, Edmondson, Norman, and Liedtka.

Diversity and Inclusion authors

Rock and Grant, Dobbin and Kalev, DiAngelo, Valdary, Damore, Johnson, and Johnson and Kirk.

Ancona and colleagues

incomplete leader and four leadership capabilities.

Goleman

emotional intelligence and its five components.

Liedtka and Norman

why leaders should investigate people's actual experiences before designing solutions.

Daniel Goleman's five components of emotional intelligence?

Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill.

What is the difference between a Kantian duty and an instrumental reason to act ethically?

A Kantian duty is morally binding regardless of benefits. An instrumental reason justifies ethical behavior by the rewards it produces or punishment it avoids.

Does Plato's Ring of Gyges prove that people are naturally unjust?

No. Glaucon uses the story to challenge whether people value justice intrinsically. Plato's larger argument responds to that challenge.

What is the most important distinction between Kant and Mill in an essay?

Kant judges whether actions respect duties, rights, and dignity. Mill judges actions by their consequences for overall well-being.

What is a common mistake when applying Mill's utilitarianism to business?

Treating profits or shareholder returns as equivalent to overall welfare. Mill requires consideration of everyone affected.

How does Tronto's ethics of care differ from merely feeling empathy?

Empathy involves understanding or sharing another's feelings; care requires attending and responding to concrete needs, including examining who has responsibility and power.

How does Gilligan's ethics of care differ in emphasis from Tronto's?

Gilligan emphasizes relational moral reasoning and responsibility, including self-care. Tronto more explicitly analyzes caring practices, institutions, power, and whose needs are overlooked.

How does Taoist tethered unattachment differ from giving up?

It maintains commitment to an underlying purpose while releasing rigid attachment to a particular strategy or outcome.

Why can psychological safety coexist with high accountability?

Employees can safely disclose mistakes, concerns, and disagreements while still being expected to meet standards, improve, and fulfill responsibilities.

Why doesn't a company's claim to be meritocratic establish that its decisions are fair?

Decision-makers may overestimate their objectivity, use inconsistent criteria, or reward affinity rather than job-related qualifications. Fairness requires examining actual practices and outcomes.

How do Dobbin and Kalev's recommendations differ from mandatory diversity training alone?

They emphasize involving managers in solutions, increasing meaningful cross-group contact, and building social accountability rather than relying solely on coercive training.

Human-Centered Design (HCD)

An iterative, people-centered approach to solving problems by understanding people's experiences, defining the real problem, generating ideas, and testing solutions.

Inspiration (HCD)

The discovery phase: observe, listen, interview stakeholders, and identify unmet needs without presuming the answer.

Ideation (HCD)

Generate and explore multiple possible solutions with stakeholders before selecting promising ideas to test.

Iteration (HCD)

Prototype, test, gather feedback, and revise repeatedly; treat early ideas as hypotheses rather than final answers.

Double Diamond

Don Norman's design model: Discover (diverge to explore), Define (converge on the problem), Develop (diverge on solutions), Deliver (converge through testing and refinement).

VUCA

Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity. Conditions in which prediction and rigid top-down planning are insufficient; leaders need learning and adaptability.

Collaboration vs. cooperation

Cooperation divides work into relatively independent contributions; collaboration involves jointly shaping decisions and solutions through integrated effort.

Interdependence vs. interconnection

Interconnection means people or systems are linked; interdependence means their outcomes rely on one another, requiring coordination and shared responsibility.

Complexity vs. complication

Complicated problems may have many parts but can be analyzed with expertise and predictable rules; complex problems feature interactions, emergence, and unpredictable effects.

Resilience vs. robustness

Robustness withstands disruption while remaining largely unchanged; resilience recovers, adapts, and learns in response to disruption.

Incomplete leader

Deborah Ancona and colleagues: no leader has every necessary capability. Effective leaders acknowledge limitations and mobilize others' strengths in sensemaking, relating, visioning, and inventing.

Psychological safety

Amy Edmondson: a shared belief that people can ask questions, admit mistakes, and challenge ideas without interpersonal punishment. It complements, rather than replaces, accountability.

ExxonMobil and toxic culture

The Exxon case illustrates how rigid hierarchy, forced performance rankings, internal competition, and fear of speaking up can suppress psychological safety, learning, and adaptation.

Plato's parable of the cave

People can mistake shadows/appearances for reality. Education demands questioning assumptions and seeking truth; the enlightened have responsibility to help others.

Ring of Gyges

In Plato's Republic, Glaucon imagines a ring granting invisibility to ask whether people would still act justly without fear of detection or punishment.

Justice as intrinsic

Valuing justice as good in itself and as part of good character, even when doing right brings no reward or incurs costs.

Justice as instrumental

Valuing justice because it brings external benefits, such as reputation, rewards, avoiding punishment, or social stability.

Taoism

A tradition associated with Lao Tzu emphasizing harmony with the Tao, humility, balance, flexibility, and action appropriate to circumstances.

Wu-wei

Taoist non-forcing or effortless action: act skillfully in harmony with circumstances rather than trying to impose rigid control; not simply doing nothing.

Yin and yang

Interdependent, complementary forces or tendencies; wise leadership recognizes dynamic balance rather than treating apparent opposites as irreconcilable.

Tethered attachment / unattachment

Course application of Taoist thinking: remain tethered to a meaningful purpose while releasing rigid attachment to any particular plan, identity, or outcome.

Kantian deontology

Immanuel Kant: right action follows moral duties and universalizable principles, respecting each person as an end in themselves, never merely a means.

Moral equality

Each person has equal fundamental moral worth and dignity; status, profitability, or power do not make one person's basic worth greater than another's.

Human rights

Fundamental moral entitlements held by persons; on a Kantian approach, leaders must respect these rights rather than trade them away merely for aggregate gain.

Correlative duties

A right imposes corresponding obligations on others; for example, a right against deception corresponds to others' duty not to deceive.

Millian consequentialism

John Stuart Mill's utilitarianism: evaluate actions by their effects on the overall happiness and well-being of all affected, impartially considered.

Ends justify the means

A consequentialist slogan meaning consequences can determine whether a means is justified. It is NOT permission to disregard everyone harmed; Mill counts all relevant welfare, while Kant imposes duties that constrain means.

Cost-benefit analysis

Compare anticipated benefits and harms of alternatives across stakeholders. In ethical consequentialism, benefits must encompass overall welfare, not just profit.

Sam Bankman-Fried

FTX founder used effective-altruism language while engaging in serious fraud; a warning that appealing promised benefits cannot excuse deception, violations of duty, or unsupported outcome claims.