The adage about great power coming with great responsibility is applicable to ethical leadership, perhaps more than any other field. This is more so in instances where a leader is only answerable to the self thus conduct is purely limited to personal character and ethical commitment to leadership (Wooden & Jamison, 1997). It is the tradition of seafarers that when a ship leaves the port, its captain becomes the supreme leader of the vessel whose word is law. On this basis, sea captains are carefully selected to ensure an understanding of the great responsibility that comes with this immense power and authority. Captain Joseph Jeffrey Hazelwood, however, has become a textbook example of a man who had the power but neglected the responsibility. His unethical conduct caused one of the largest maritime disasters of modern times. Yet even during investigations, Hazelwood was quick to shower blame on everyone but himself, yet another example of unethical leadership under a crisis. Ethical leadership relies more on the character of the leader than capacity and competence.
Summary of the Scenario, Parties Involved and Impact
Captain Hazelwood was in charge of the Exxon Valdez, a massive sea tanker akin to a floating city. This placed a lot of power and authority on this single person, being in charge of the ship itself as well as the de facto and de jure leader of its crew. On the 24th day of March 1989, this massive ship left Alaska with a load of approximately two hundred thousand square miles of crude oil (Taylor, 2014). This is a massive load, extremely expensive and also very dangerous to the environment more so in the sea. As per the rules, at the initial and most dangerous part of the journey, the ship was guided by a professional pilot who then left the ship in the capable hands of Captain Hazelwood. It is important to note that unless and until the ship cleared the Alaskan coast and onto the open sea, the ship and the environment around it was still in peril, creating a massive obligation for Hazelwood to be super careful. Secondly, there were some fundamental gadgets, designed to detect underwater dangers thus keep the ship safe but in the Exxon Valdez, they were not serviceable (Taylor, 2014). The absence of the gadgets, therefore, only increased the need for a careful human superintendence over the ship’s navigation. Being aware of all these facts, Hazelwood elected to leave the actual navigation of the navigation bridge under Gregory Cousins his third mate and the helm itself under Robert Kagan, just an able Seaman. The said captain then retired to his stateroom, where credible information has been relayed to the effect that he got himself drunk (Taylor, 2014). Medical evidence of his drunkenness was indeed presented in court but his able team was able to have it expunged on a technicality.
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Cousins and Kagan missed a turn and the ship hit Bligh Island Reef, spilling 20% of its massive load into Prince William Sound. The ethical implications of the conduct of Hazelwood were massive and adverse. The victims of his actions included Hazelwood’s entire team, his employer Exxon Shipping Company, hapless marine life as well as US taxpayers. This is because the accident created a massive environmental disaster, killed sea life and kindred wildlife in thousands, and cost billions of dollars in damage and clean ups expenses. This is over and above the material cost of the oil and damage to the ship. For the society at large, the accident raised doubts and a crisis within the oil industry; the leading source of energy in the globe currently.
The Terminal and Instrumental Values Perspective
Terminal values are the desired outcomes for an individual while instrumental values are the means that the individual elects to use to achieve terminal values. Hazelwood was a leader with a massive obligation to protect his precious load as well as protect the environment from it. For Hazelwood to have been considered as an ethical leader, the terminal values that would have been ideal under the circumstances include security, self-respect and a sense of accomplishment (Gamble & Gamble, 2013). Security would have a key for the avoidance of legal liabilities kindred to his sensitive leadership position. Self-respect is an important end for the level of discipline that his job demanded while the sense of accomplishment would have driven him to get the job done right. To achieve this, Hazelwood would have needed a sense of responsibility, capability, and obedience as crucial instrumental values. With responsibility and obedience, he would never have abandoned his post at such a crucial moment while with capability, he would have known beforehand that his actions were a recipe for disaster (Wooden & Jamison, 1997). However, if the character exuded by Hazelwood in the run down to the accident had taken place in a different culture other than within the strict marine transport industry, it may have been lauded as exemplary (Gamble & Gamble, 2013). Contemporary leadership theory considers the top individual in charge as a team leader and the followers being an integral part of leadership. The line between delegation and neglect of duty within the corporate world is continually getting blurred, more so when the acts of delegation lead to success. Perhaps had Hazelwood be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, he would have been lauded for trusting his lieutenants to man the ship at a sensitive moment and even dubbed as a good coach.
Alternative Outcome
Had Hazelwood applied the Sissela Bok's model of ethical decision making, there is a very high likelihood that the disaster would have been averted. Bok’s model has three important steps, which when applied properly can exponentially transform the mindset of an individual who is just about to make the wrong decision. The first step is to consult the self, a reference to the conscience. This creates a moment for inner assessment on whether the action is right or wrong. The second is consulting an expert, which in the case of Hazelwood would have been to pose the question of what the best marine captain would have done, had he been in the same position (Levitt-Rosenthal, 2013). The final step would have been to have an imagined conversation with the actual victims of the accident to wit the marine life, his employer and the people of Alaska. Seeing the situation from their eyes would have made Hazelwood take the situation more seriously. Had Hazelwood done this, he would have remained in the bridge and had his third mate on the helm. With just a little more attention, the entire accident would have been totally avoided.
To ensure that ethical decisions are always made by the leadership, our company has developed two major strategies. The first is to develop a comprehensive code of conduct specifically for ethical decision making, which all leaders are expected to keep within reach. The second is the conduction of a regular post mortem of important decisions, so as to gauge them from an ethical perspective. During these post mortems, leaders are expected to defend the ethical positions informing the decisions to the self as well as to their peers. This is because from a perspective of ethical decision-making, everyone is fallible. There is no doubt that Captain Hazelwood was a competent and able navigator. Further, it is clear that had he been at his post and performed his duty, Exxon Valdez oil spill would never have happened. The failure of Hazelwood is, therefore, not that of a sea captain but that of a leader from the perspective of ethics. He made the wrong ethical decision and so many individuals, human and otherwise paid the price. Competence of leadership, therefore, is not complete without proper leadership ethics.
References
Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. (2013). Leading with communication a practical approach to leadership communication . Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.
Levitt-Rosenthal, N. (2013). Ethics, Values, and Decision Making. Frontiers of health services management , 30 (1), 27-32
Taylor, A. (2014, March 24). The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: 25 Years Ago Today . Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/03/the-exxon-valdez-oil-spill-25-years-ago-today/100703/
Wooden, J. R., & Jamison, S. (1997). Wooden a lifetime of observations and reflections on and off the court . Chicago: Contemporary Books.
