Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-29-2001
Abstract
The work presented here actually had its genesis in the fall of 2000 when I began regular observations of the local school board as it attempted to resolve a major conflict that involved not just the board, but a variety of its stakeholder groups. My interest in this board's dilemma was informed by previous personal service on various boards and the challenges that were faced by my colleagues and me in dealing with various stakeholders. I sought to sort out questions associated with the involvement of stakeholders and the board and to answer those that went to whether there was a way that boards could manage stakeholder relationships better in order to reduce conflict and enhance effectiveness and decisionmaking within nonprofit organizations. The practical problem that was inhibiting the more effective practice of my subject board emerged as its inability to recognize the significance of what I identify as the group's ethical capital asset to the management of important relationships with its stakeholders. These relationships were critical to achieving the board's objectives and, as the board's ethical capital eroded over time, so, too, did its ability to engage its stakeholders. This project evolved in part into a sorting out of questions that were certainly associated with the involvement of stakeholders and their role in board proceedings. However, this work, placed in the context of my own previous experience, led me down a somewhat different path. The direction that it took enabled me to consider the work of this representative board and even leadership more generally in the specific context of the qualities necessary to influence and effect change. In so doing, I began to unpack what I have identified as the complexities of the ethical capital of this and similar boards and leaders that are entrusted with decisionmaking responsibilities for diverse groups of stakeholders. My observations of this group and their interactions with those who have a vested interest in the decisions that they make enabled me to identify the concept of ethical capital and its component parts as I proceeded through several months of attendance at the board meetings. My observations, ethnographic analysis and result of this study have proven to be very informative and instructive in enabling construction of this different theory, or at least a different framework, which nonprofit and even, perhaps, for-profit organization boards and leaders may use to assess their work and, in particular, the valuation of an important asset that they generally hold in trust for their organizations: their ethical capital. I define ethical capital to be that combination of trust, legitimacy, accountability, transparency; character, truthfulness, moral reliability and stakeholder focus that enable a board, or even an individual, to most effectively lead an organization. It may be important for the purposes of this discussion to emphasize that ethical capital does not equal ethics; nor does it equal social capital, although ethical capital may be more likely to exist under circumstances that might also favor the existence of social capital. Ethical capital has, however, an important component of morality embedded within it, in addition to the previously mentioned traits. This concept will be further expounded upon within this work.
Keywords
asset-liability management
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
McTiernan, Susan, "Lessons in Ethical Capital Asset Management: The Challenges of a Local School Board" (2001). Student Scholarship. 286.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/286