Ethical Responsibility - An Arendtian Turn

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This article contends that Hannah Arendt’s writing can add value to current discussions on responsible leadership. Specifically, considering responsibility through an Arendtian lens offers insights that deepen our understanding of the interconnections among leadership, responsibility, and ethical action. Turning to Arendt can, therefore, increase our grasp of the complexities of leading responsibly. She shows how acting responsibly requires not only ethical forethought but also a willingness to judge for ourselves. Her emphasis on judgment enriches discussions on responsible leadership, encouraging us to think more deeply about what it might mean to act responsibly, and how such action connects with ethics. Examples of irresponsible action are explored as they concern individual and collective judgment in particular political and corporate contexts. Thus, it is by engaging with the messy realities of everyday life that an Arendtian turn can help us rethink leadership, ethics, and responsibility in new and productive ways.

Guest Editors’ Introduction: Philosophical Contributions to Leadership Ethics

“…In our second article, Rita Gardiner explores the connections between leadership, responsibility, and ethical action. 57 Working with the philosophy of Arendt, Gardiner challenges the idea of leadership as hierarchy and mastery and argues that everyone has a moral obligation to be actively engaged in the world. For Arendt, ethics is entwined in our relationship with the world, which unfolds in lived experience, shared obligation, and political commitment.…”

Leadership and populism: A parallel reading of Hannah Arendt and Franz Neumann

“…Relating the manifest analogies between populist and totalitarian leadership to Arendt’s refutation of charisma in totalitarian leadership also opens the door to an implicit criticism of the dominant charisma framing in the populist leadership literature. Arendt’s severe reservations with regard to charismatic leadership tally with her general aversion to ‘heroic leadership’: this marries the introduction of hierarchy into human relations with the notion of the ‘lone genius’, which she considers a fallacy (Arendt, 1958: 189–190, cited in Gardiner, 2018: 38). Arendt’s ideal of leadership corresponds to a kind of leadership that has to be at the exact antipodes of the concentration of power and nihilistic anti-leadership she described in Origins: a collective form that happens when ‘people come together’ in freedom over ‘common cause’ (Gardiner, 2018: 37).…”

“…Arendt’s severe reservations with regard to charismatic leadership tally with her general aversion to ‘heroic leadership’: this marries the introduction of hierarchy into human relations with the notion of the ‘lone genius’, which she considers a fallacy (Arendt, 1958: 189–190, cited in Gardiner, 2018: 38). Arendt’s ideal of leadership corresponds to a kind of leadership that has to be at the exact antipodes of the concentration of power and nihilistic anti-leadership she described in Origins: a collective form that happens when ‘people come together’ in freedom over ‘common cause’ (Gardiner, 2018: 37). Arendtian responsible, non-populist leadership combines ‘care for the world’ with apprehending things from multiple perspectives.…”

“…It has no place for unreflected opinions grounded in no reality. It elevates the ability to ‘judge for ourselves’ to the ‘political faculty par excellence ’ (Gardiner, 2018: 44–45). The difference between Arendt’s vision of genuine leadership and what she would have labelled ‘mastership’ is discernible in her famous critique of the Jewish Councils during the Holocaust (Arendt, 2006).…”

Escaping the Fantasy Land of Freedom in Organizations: The Contribution of Hannah Arendt

“…Somewhat surprisingly, despite being one of the most prominent commentators on the ethical dilemmas and contradictions of modernity, Arendt’s writings have been rarely used in business ethics studies (Henning 2011 ). One recent exception is Gardiner’s ( 2017 ) study—“Ethical responsibility—An Arendtian turn”—addresses how Arendt’s corpus can provide conceptual depth to current discussions on responsible leadership. We take an alternate stance, building on Arendt’s conception of freedom and her explicit objection to accept consumer society served by free market enterprise as the ultimate epitome of human liberation.…”