Reconciling the Faith and Reason of Ethical Leadership

We expect positive change from leadership of various organizational contexts. Yet, division, whether intentionally influenced or unconsciously participated, persists among leaders of the church house, state house, school house, and even family house. Further complicating this is the individual struggle for leaders to be self-aware of controllable versus uncontrollable factors of their leadership. Reconciling the Faith and Reason of Ethical Leadership is a synergy of spiritual testimony and academic research utilizing a qualitative self-study by Dr. Charles Thomas III. This framework is used to propose a praxis for developing leaders who have genuinely ethical impact through proficiently influencing positive change. Through the reflective analysis of his practical experiences as a secondary school teacher and coach who is preparing for educational leadership roles, Dr. Thomas introduced his theoretical framework for aggregate ethical impact and self-reflective learning for his doctoral degree in 2012. Over the next eight years of his continuous leadership development as implicated according to his theory, Dr. Thomas has holistically refined his contribution of a framework to reconcile the faith and reason of ethical leadership dynamics in a Christian worldview that is applicable to various organizational contexts. His original doctoral project also proposed an implication for the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy to integrate holistic and self-reflective learning concepts in the educational effort to develop self-awareness in ethical leadership impact. Although the specific context for desired positive change in this book are the experiences of an educator in turnaround and reform situations for K-12 schools in urban settings, Dr. Thomas asserts that the general application of this framework to the organizational leadership contexts of ministry, business, government, and even family leaders can indeed enhance society to achieve a vision of optimal positive change and