Ethical Leadership: Applied Decision & Ethical Theories – Workshop Series for Undergraduates

Abstract

NASA and most other technical organizations have two essential problems, (1) to identify, recruit and retain new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) capable people and (2) to develop their present workforce to provide the leadership required for the future. This paper describes an effort to develop future leaders. National statistics show that the number of people who choose to work in STEM areas is not keeping pace with the number of positions open. To make matters worse, the population sectors growing at the fastest pace are the populations that have some of the lowest representation in STEM disciplines. There are a number of efforts underway to reverse these statistics and one of these efforts is the NASA Administrator Fellowship Program (NAFP). The NAFP focuses on building faculty strength at HBCU/MI to: (1) increase quality and quantity of graduates, (2) help place faculty who understand the uniqueness of HBCU/MIs in key positions of leadership and (3) create a presence of NASA at the HBCU/MI universities. This paper describes one effort to develop leadership tools that focus on the application of decision and ethical theories to the art of leadership. The paper describes an effort to teach ethical decision making and presents some highlights of the program with a limited amount of assessment analysis.