WORKING PAPER

Increasing the Moral Imagination of Children through Literature:

The Key to Future Ethical Leadership?

David Boulger

davidboulger@hotmail.com

Manchester Metropolitan University

UFHRD 2015

CORK

3rd – 5th June 2015

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ABSTRACT

Purpose

This working paper summarises a pilot study completed within a Masters Degree in

Leadership undertaken at Manchester Metropolitan University.

The purpose was to synergise the potential implications of existing research into

moral imagination, child development and the use of fiction as a means of enhancing

leadership ethics.

Design / Methodology / Approach

The pilot study was approached from a relativist ontological perspective, and a social

constructionist epistemological paradigm.

The primary methodological approach was qualitative, complemented by a

quantitative methodology to add value to the empirical evidence base as part of a

mixed methodology.

Findings

The ‘moral imagination’ of young people can be increased through the use of

fictional literature.

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Research limitations / implications

This research was small in scale and limited in scope; The methodology was

previously untested; The research provides a platform for a more extensive

longitudinal study.

Practical implications

This limited pilot study has created a platform for a more in depth, longitudinal

research study to explore the potential of this approach to increase the impact of

leadership education in relation to ethics.

Social implications

If confirmed, the findings have implications for the role that educators within the

Primary, Secondary, Further and Higher Education sectors in the UK have in

equipping children and young adults with moral imagination as a key leadership

attribute.

Originality / Value

The research synthesizes a range of research topics in the context of leadership ethics.

The methodology utilized was unique.

The findings contribute to an under-developed evidence base that has significant

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implications in the context of educating future leaders.

Keywords

Moral Imagination; Ethics; Leadership; Fiction; Children

Word Count

4878 (Excluding bibliography)

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“…children learn a morality of flesh and bone and not one of vague principles”

(Kazamek, 1986, p.271)

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INTRODUCTION

There is increasing interest in the concept of ‘leadership ethics’ (Kennedy, 1992;

Brown and Trevino, 2006).

Recent high profile scandals have placed ethics at the forefront of leadership

education (Knights and O’Leary, 2006), requiring leaders to re-evaluate existing

approaches and paradigms in an ever changing world (Monahan, 2012).

There is increasing evidence of the sustained competitive advantage that can be

achieved by ethical organizations, and limitations of those organizations lacking a

clear sense of business ethics (Collins, 2009; Desjardins, 2009; Petrick and Quinn,

2001).

On a macro level, business leaders are expected to display greater responsibility in

ensuring that their actions contribute to stability, strength and harmony in society

(Mendonca and Kunango, 2007; Holden, 2000).

On a micro level, there is an increasing body of evidence highlighting the critical role

that ethics play in leader-follower relationships, individual and organisational

decision-making, and commitment to personal and organisational goals (Ciulla, 1995

and 2004; Kouzes and Posner, 2002).

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However, leadership ‘educators’ have reflected upon a perceived failure of traditional

business education approaches to equip leaders with a sound grasp of morality and

ethics. (Goshal, 2005; Mintzberg, 2004; Derry and Green, 1989).

There are a number of methods utilised in ‘teaching’ leadership ethics (Morris and

Wood, 2011), and one such method involves the use of fictional literature as a vehicle

for enabling leaders to explore ethics (Baldaracco, 2006). There is evidence that this

approach has merit.

However, one criticism of this approach is that it fails to maximize the potential to

internalize morality and ethics within leaders.

Young and Annisette (2009) argue that literature can enable leaders to build their

‘unfinished self’ and to enhance their ‘moral imagination’ which will ensure that

ethical leadership reflects not just what they do, but who they are.

Moral Imagination, defined as “the ability to discern the aspects embedded within a

situation and develop a range of alternative solutions to the situation from a moral

perspective” (Godwin, 2012, p.5), forms a key element underpinning ethical

leadership.

This research argued that greater emphasis should be placed upon utilizing literature

to build the ‘moral imagination’ of children and young people through building upon

their ‘unfinished self and equipping them to be future ethical leaders.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

This is a summary of an extensive literature review undertaken as part of this

research.

Using Fiction to ‘Teach’ Ethics

In his seminal 1989 text, “The Call of Stories”, Coles contended that fiction plays a

critical role in introducing, enhancing and developing morality and ethics to those in

positions of leadership.

Baldaracco (2006) argued that fictional literature offers a personal and internal view

of leadership:

“It opens the door to a world rarely seen…it let’s us watch leaders as they think,

worry, hope, hesitate, commit, exult, regret and reflect. We see their characters

tested, reshaped, strengthened, or weakened. These books draw us into leaders’

worlds, put us in their shoes, and at times let us share their experience”

(Baldaracco, 2006, p3)

Kennedy and Lawton (1992) argued that conventional approaches to teaching

leadership ethics were ill-equipped for exploring the complex moral issues that

contemporary leaders are required to navigate, whereas fictional narrative enables a

much deeper exploration of these issues and encourages a greater level of

involvement and reflection amongst leaders.

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Ciulla (1997) views critical thinking as a key feature of ethical leadership as it enables

leaders to develop imagination and vision, and argues that such skills are a

fundamental leadership competency and that stories and literature are a vital tool in

developing this skill. All of this is geared towards developing ethical leaders who are

able to both “lead by the head” and “lead by the heart” (Cuilla, 1997, p111).

Ciulla (2004) further expands upon these ideas by arguing that ‘moral imagination’ is

the vehicle by which ethical leaders visualize ethics and turn them into action, and

that fiction is a method for enabling leaders to develop this ethical skill set.

Shaw (1992) argues that fiction provides a richer medium through which to explore

ethical leadership issues and serves as an enabler for ‘imaginative sympathy’ allowing

leaders to put themselves in the shoes of those involved and explore ethical and moral

issues from a range of viewpoints that they would otherwise not be able to access.

Young and Annisette (2009) strongly advocate the use of literature in developing an

understanding of ethics and, as identified in the introduction to this paper, they argue

that literature can enable leaders to build their ‘unfinished self’ and their ‘moral

imagination’, which will ensure that ethical leadership is not just what they do, but is

who they are.

This research was developed around this observation.

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Whilst the full iterature review largely indicated that Fiction offered a significant

contribution to the understanding of leadership ethics and the enhancement of moral

imagination, it is also important to consider the criticisms of this approach.

LeBaron (2009) identified 3 key criticisms of the use of literature in enhancing

leadership ethics:

1. The choice of fiction, and the way in which it is used is highly subjective and

this can have significant consequences in terms of advocating a particular

viewpoint of the world, and in terms of promoting some voices and silencing

others.

2. The approach lacks any meaningful empirical evidence base.

3. Too much value is put upon the importance of fiction, and the assumption that

characters in books reflect real lives and life-like behaviours is flawed.

These points have links to a wider body of critical research (Mihelic et al, 2010;

Brown and Trevino, 2006; Bartlett, 2003) which provide a damning indictment of the

current evidence base which argues that the literature around leadership ethics is

fragmented, in disarray, full of controversy, based upon diverse and independent

research streams, theoretically formless and empirically weak.

It is possible to hypothesize from this position, that whilst the use of fiction appears to

be intuitively appropriate, it might be based upon a flawed theoretical platform.

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Fiction as a tool for developing Ethics in Children and Young People

There is existing research into the use of children’s literature in exploring ethical

leadership issues including Harry Potter (Rosser, 2007), Doctor Seuss (Greenwood,

2000; Comer and Holbrook, 2005) and the Hunger Games (Strom, 2012).

However, this relates to the use of children’s literature with adults.

Kazamek (1986) contends that using children’s literature as a form of moral education

with children allows them to apply theory to practice as “children learn a morality of

flesh and bone and not one of vague principles” (Kazamek, 1986, p.271).

This perspective has synergies with the observations of Young and Annisette (2009)

about it being critical that leadership ethics are internalized within those in positions

of leadership, not just conceptually understood by them.

Bennett (1993) provides examples of children’s stories that are considered appropriate

for exposing moral dilemmas through literature, as do Field and Weiss (1987), but

neither link it to leadership ethics.

Naylor (2010) argues that reading children’s literature during childhood can play a

significant role in self-construction and presentation of self as a leader in adulthood.

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At present, however, there is a paucity of research looking specifically at the use of

literature with children as a means of developing more ethical future leaders.

Moral Imagination

Moral imagination is seen as an enabler of ethical decision-making, which is

increasingly being seen as a key feature of sustained competitive advantage in

contemporary society (Johnson, 1993a and 1993b; Moberg and Seabright, 2000;

Werhane, 1998 and 1999, Godwin, 2012).

Moral Imagination is not a new concept, but there is no consensus definition.

(Werhane, 1999).

After reviewing numerous definitions, a common theme emerged of Moral

Imagination as a dual process that involves the ability to identify the range of options

that present themselves in a given situation, and to select the option that is most

morally and ethically sound.

For the purposes of this research the definition used was from Godwin (2012) who

defined Moral Imagination as “the ability to discern the aspects embedded within a

situation and develop a range of alternative solutions to the situation from a moral

perspective” (Godwin, 2012, p.5).

Godwin elaborates that Moral Imagination involves two distinct, but inter-dependent

processes:

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1. Discerning – Identifying the range of moral issues that are present in a

situation.

2. Developing – Formulating a range of alternative solutions from a moral

perspective

An individual must be able to demonstrate both processes to be consider morally

imaginative.

Identifying Synergies

Overall, there is a significant body of research exploring the value of using fictional

literature as a vehicle for enhancing understanding of leadership ethics.

There is also some limited research seeking to use children’s literature, but not with

children.

There will also undoubtedly be some research around the moral education of children

from an educational psychology perspective, but not linked to leadership education.

This literature review did not identify any research exploring the synergies between

these areas.

As such, this research could add significant value to the evidence base around the core

concepts of:

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Leadership Ethics

Moral Imagination

Child Development

The research specifically sought to identify the synergies between these concepts in a

way that is not prominent within the current evidence base and utilized fictional

literature as the synergizing medium:

Figure 1: Research Focus Diagram

Leadership Ethics

Child Development

Moral Imagination

ResearchFocus

Value of Fictional Literature

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METHODOLOGY

Ontology

There is no consensus definition of ‘leadership ethics’, but contemporary research

largely views leadership ethics, and associated concepts such as ‘moral imagination’,

as social constructs (Brown and Trevino, 2005 and 2006).

Given this starting point, the ontological perspective underpinning this research was

from the ‘relativist’ school of thought.

Epistemology

The epistemological paradigm of inquiry was one centred around Social

Constructionism and the viewpoint that reality is determined by people rather than by

objective and external factors.

As such, the primary role of the research was not to gather facts or measure patterns,

but to explore the meanings that people assigned to their experiences, and to identify

whether the use of literature could change participant attitude and perception.

Methodology

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Research within a ‘relativist’ and ‘social constructionist’ paradigm often lends itself

to qualitative research methodology. However, in order to add value to the empirical

evidence base, this research also incorporated an element of quantitative research.

Method

Delivering the above methodology, within the identified ontological and

epistemological paradigm required a number of methods:

An initial semi-structured interview with each participant;

Coding and Scoring of the Interview responses;

A series of group workshops with all participants to explore the moral issues

within a number of selected pieces of literature;

Narrative Content Analysis of the workshops;

A follow-up semi-structured interview with each participant;

Coding and Scoring of the Interview responses;

Comparison between the Initial Interview results and the Final Interview

results.

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Identifying a Unit of Measurement

There is no consensus view on what is meant by the term ‘leadership ethics’, which

creates a challenge when undertaking quantitative research.

Research in relation to measuring leadership ethics is fragmented and there is no

definitive framework (Yukl et al, 2011).

Conversely, there is also a lack of an agreed measure of unethical behaviour (Kaptein,

2008).

This posed a significant methodological challenge, which may explain the empirically

weak existing evidence base.

It is within this context that focus shifted to measuring an independent variable of

leadership ethics – Moral Imagination.

Measuring ‘Moral Imagination’

The definition of Moral Imagination that was utilized in this research was:

“The ability to discern the aspects embedded within a situation and develop a range

of alternative solutions to the situation from a moral perspective”

(Godwin, 2012, p.5)

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Moral Imagination has also proved challenging to measure (Yurtsever, 2006).

This research built upon the approach of Godwin (2012) who measured Moral

Imagination using vignettes, a coded likert scale, and a coding rubric

This approach was incorporated into a semi-structured interview, allowing it to be

complemented by more qualitative information, which was explored using ‘content

analysis’.

Unlike Godwin, whose work focussed upon adults and took a snapshot in time, this

research selected new vignettes which were more relevant to a younger cohort, and

utilised two sets of vignettes – one at the initial interview and one at a follow up

interview.

The Semi-Structured Interviews

On an individual basis, participants were asked to read two vignettes, each of which

contained a practical dilemma with a moral dimension.

They were then asked to imagine they were actually in that situation and answer 4

questions:

1. List as many ways as you can think of to take action in this situation;

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2. List the underlying issues that are important to consider when deciding on

which of the above actions to take in this situation;

3. Indicate which action you would take and why;

4. List who you think will be impacted upon by your decision and why.

This applied to both the initial interview and the final interview.

Coding the Moral Imagination Measure

Vignette-based measures result in open-ended responses, which allow for the capture

of qualitative information.

However, for this research to add to the empirical evidence base, it was necessary to

transform this evidence into quantitative data.

To achieve this, the response to each question against each vignette was rated on a 4-

point Likert Scale across the ‘discerning’ and ‘developing’ dimensions, and the scores

were then entered into a coding rubric, and analysed at an individual and cohort level.

An example of the coding rubric is as follows:

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Figure 2: Moral Imagination Coding Rubic

(Source: Godwin (2012))

“Discerning” required coding in relation to Issue Awareness and Impact Awareness.

Issue Awareness related to how much the respondent was aware of the moral issues in

a situation, and Impact Awareness related to how much they were aware of who else

would be affected by their actions.

The responses provided by Questions 2 and 4 were used to assess this.

“Developing” required coding in relation to Fluency and Flexibility. Fluency referred

to the volume of ideas generated and Flexibility related to the amount of different

categories of ideas that were generated.

The responses to Question 1 were used to assess this.

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Calculating the Moral imagination Scores

Scores were allocated in relation to ‘discerning’, ‘developing’ and ‘overall moral

imagination’ using the coding matrix described in 3.9.

To calculate the discerning score, the total scores for Issue Awareness and Impact

Awareness for vignette 1 and vignette 2 where added together and then divided by 2:

Discerning Score = (Impact Awareness Score for Vignette 1 + Impact Awareness

Score for Vignette 2 + Issue Awareness Score for Vignette 1 + Issue Awareness Score

for Vignette 2) / 2

The mean average scores for the two underlying factors, Issue Awareness and Impact

Awareness, were also calculated using the following formulas.

Mean Average Issue Awareness Score = (Issue Awareness Vignette 1 + Issue

Awareness Vignette 2) / 2

Mean Average Impact Awareness Score = (Impact Awareness Vignette 1 + Impact

Awareness Vignette 2) / 2

To calculate the developing score, a similar process was applied but utilising the

Fluency and Flexibility scores as follows:

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Developing Score = (Fluency Vignette 1 + Fluency Vignette 2 + Flexibility Vignette

1 + Flexibility Vignette 2) / 2

Mean Average Fluency Score = (Fluency Vignette 1 + Fluency Vignette 2) / 2

Mean Average Flexibility Score = (Flexibility Vignette 1 + Flexibility Vignette 2) / 2

To be deemed Morally Imaginative, a participant had to score highly for both

‘developing’ and ‘discerning’.

A high score was deemed to be an average score of 4 or over as this indicated that the

responses had coded consistently in the top half of the possible responses on the

coding matrix.

A low score was indicated by a score of less than 4 as this indicated that the responses

had been consistently coded in the bottom half of the possible responses in the coding

matrix.

Workshops

Group workshops provided the vehicle to deliver the practical intervention to

influence Moral Imagination through the use of literature.

The following literature was utilised:

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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (1937)

The Lorax by Dr Seuss (1971)

This literature was chosen doe to the moral issues presented and their attractiveness to

the cohort.

The workshops were structured to explore a series of self-reflective questions posed

by Baldaracco (2006):

1. Do I have a good dream?

2. How flexible is my moral code?

3. Are my role models unsettling?

4. Do I really care?

5. Am I ready to take responsibility?

6. Can I resist the flow of success?

7. How well do I combine principles and pragmatism?

8. What is sound reflection?

To ensure research and ethical integrity, a qualified teacher worked as a co-researcher

to undertake the interviews, workshops, and coding alongside the researcher

The Research Cohort

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The sample cohort was seven young women aged 16-18 who had self-identified as

future leaders.

ANALYSIS OF THE DATA

Initial Assessment

The initial assessment was undertaken through a semi-structured interview with

individual research participants.

The responses were coded, individual scores were then collated, and a mean average

score for the entire cohort was calculated. The mean average scores awarded in

relation to the two vignettes were as follows:

Figure 3: Cumulative Initial Assessment Results

Moral Imagination Component    

V1 Total

V1 Average

V2 Total

V2 Average

             Discerning Issue Awareness   15 2.14 12 1.71  Impact Awareness   11 1.57 6 0.86             Developing Fluency   13 1.85 18 2.57  Flexibility   12 1.71 13 1.85               Total Scores   51 7.29 49 7             

 Average Discerning Score 3.14        

 Average Developing Score 3.99        

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From the cohort of 7 individuals, only 1 scored highly for both discerning and

developing, thus making them morally imaginative.

This was comparable to Godwin’s research where 10.9% of her cohort was assessed

as being morally imaginative.

Figure 4: Initial Assessment Results by Individual Participant

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P70

1

2

3

4

5

6

Initial Assessment Results by Participant

Scor

e

Only 1 individual (P4) scored highly within the ‘discerning’ category with 6 of the

cohort unable to adequately discern the moral aspects within the vignettes.

The cohort had particularly low scores for Impact Awareness implying that they were

unable to identify who was affected by the actions and how they were affected.

Issue Awareness was also subject to a low overall score implying that the participants

were unable to identify the moral issues that were present in the scenarios.

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This compared to 5 of the 7 members of the cohort who scored highly for

‘developing’ indicating that the majority of the group could identify a range of options

and displayed high levels of fluency and flexibility.

This implies that whilst the cohort was able to identify a range of options in relation to

a given situation, they were unable to identify the moral issues or fully understand the

likely impact of the different options available.

Workshop Narrative Observations

Following the Initial Interviews, the cohort took part in four workshops and the

following are summary observation of extensive records that were taken.

Workshop One used Chapters 14 and 25 of The Hunger Games to explore:

- How flexible is my moral code?

- How well do I combine principles and pragmatism?

As was the case in the initial assessment, the group were able to generate a large

number of options to presenting dilemmas, thus showing high levels of fluency.

The group showed levels of flexibility that were in excess of the initial assessment

and identified options that were wide-ranging in nature, perhaps reflecting the added

value of approaching the problem as a group rather than as an individual.

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The discussion relating to Issue Awareness was congruent with the initial assessment

as the group struggled to identify the moral issues that were present in the situation.

In relation to Impact Awareness, the group were able to identify most of the key

affected parties, but struggled to articulate the nature and extent of any impact.

These observations reinforced the findings of the initial assessment as the group

overall displayed reasonable Developing attributes, but poor Discerning attributes.

Workshop Two used The Hunger Games to explore:

- Are my role models unsettling?

The group agreed that role models were important and enabled aspiration and

guidance. However, the group could not identify any positive role models other than

their teacher and family members, and it was the observation of the researchers that

this reinforced the value of fictional literature in providing a ‘moral compass’ for

young people.

Workshop Three used The Lorax to explore:

- Do I have a good dream?

- Can I resist the flow of success?

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Once again, the group displayed high levels of fluency and a reasonable level of

flexibility.

However, they again displayed limitations in relation to Impact and Issue Awareness.

However, unlike previous sessions, when prompted by the researcher they did begin

to display some ‘discerning’ skills in a way that had not been evidenced before, and

with support from the researchers the participants displayed improved levels of

impact awareness and issue awareness.

Workshop Four used The Hobbit to explore:

- How flexible is my moral code?

- How well do I combine principles and pragmatism?

The group again showed good levels of fluency and flexibility.

The group also began to show a greater degree of insight into the discerning attributes

with Impact Awareness and Issue Awareness, identified as a significant weakness in

the Initial Assessment, appearing to be improving within the cohort.

Workshops Content Analysis

The researchers summary analysis of whether the group showed evidence of

competence in relation to the 4 components of Moral Imagination was as follows:

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Figure 5: Overview of Workshop Observations

Workshop 1 Workshop 2 Workshop 3 Workshop 4

Issue

Awareness

No Partial

(with help)

Partial

(with help)

Partial

Impact

Awareness

Partial

(with help)

No Partial

(with help)

Partial

Fluency Yes Partial Yes Yes

Flexibility Yes Partial Yes Yes

These observations indicated clear positive changes over time.

Final Assessment

The final assessment replicated the method of the initial assessment, but utilized two

new vignettes.

The mean average scores awarded in relation to the two vignettes were as follows:

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Figure 6: Cumulative Final Assessment Results

Moral

Imagination

Component    

V1

Total

V1

Averag

e

V2

Total

V2

Average

             

Discerning Issue Awareness   14 2 13 1.86

  Impact Awareness   12 1.71 13 1.86

             

Developing Fluency   16 2.29 16 2.29

  Flexibility   14 2 12 1.71

             

  Total Scores   56 8 54 7.71

             

 

Average Discerning

Score 3.72        

 

Average Developing

Score 4.15        

These results indicate a small improvement in relation to Issue Awareness amongst

the participants, and a significant improvement in relation to Impact Awareness. This

led to an overall increase in Discerning Skills.

The results for Fluency and Flexibility remained relatively static, leading to only a

very small increase in Developing Skills, albeit moving the overall group average

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ahead of the 4 ‘threshold’ which was seen as being indicative of possessing and

applying the ‘developing’ attributes.

In terms of individual participants, the most significant area of change was that 3 (P4,

P5 and P6) of the 7 participants could now be considered to be morally imaginative.

Figure 7: Final Assessment Results by Individual Participant

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P70

1

2

3

4

5

6

Final Assessment Results by Participant

Scor

e

In relation to discerning, all 7 participants either improved or remained static.

Figure 8: Overview of Discerning Scores by Individual Participant

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P70

0.51

1.52

2.53

3.54

4.55

Individual Participant Discerning Scores

Dis

cern

ing

Scor

e

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In relation to developing scores, 6 of the 7 candidates improved or remained static,

with one candidate expiring a slight reduction, albeit from a very high initial score,

and remaining within the Morally Imaginative cohort.

Figure 9: Overview of Developing Scores by Individual Participant

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P70

1

2

3

4

5

6

Individual Participant Developing Scores

Scor

e

All of this culminated in an overall increase in both Developing and Discerning.

Figure 10: Overview of Overall Cohort Changes to Discerning and Developing

Initial Final0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Overall Changes to Discerning and Developing Scores

Discerning ScoreDeveloping Score

Scor

es

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These findings support the hypothesis that fictional literature can increase the Moral

Imagination of young people, and has a particularly significant impact on the

‘discerning’ attributes of Issue Awareness and Impact Awareness.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

Research Limitations

In many ways, it is the limitations of this study that are of greatest value as this was

intended to be a pilot study to steer the development of a more wide ranging

longitudinal research study.

The fundamental limitation of this research is that it rather unrealistically aims to link

a number of key areas of research which have been explored in silos to date, namely:

Can literature enhance leadership ethics?

Are there links between high moral imagination and sound ethical leadership?

What is the best way to develop moral imagination in children and young

people?

What is the best way to measure future ethical leaders?

How can we measure moral imagination and ethical leadership?

Can this impact upon future ethical leadership practices?

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This is with an ultimate aim of creating a synthesised piece of research in relation to

the moral development of children, the use of literature in developing leadership

ethics, and the potential to combine the two to create more ethical future leaders.

The size and make up of the cohort is another limitation. A group of 7 young women

is neither sufficient, nor representative, in terms of drawing out more robust

conclusions.

The methodology utilized within this research is a further limitation. Due to the lack

of a credible alternative, the researcher was required to develop new means of

measuring Moral Imagination. Whilst it was grounded some existing practices, and

rooted in the work of Godwin (2012), this measurement tool, and it’s application

within the context of a semi-structured interview, the vignettes and the workshops

were unique and have not been subject to replication to test reliability or bias.

Key Findings

Firstly, the research echoed the findings of Godwin who found that only a small

proportion of people possess Moral Imagination.

Secondly, the research provided evidence of an improvement in Moral Imagination,

thus indicating that it can be influenced and enhanced, and is not a ‘fixed’ attribute.

Thirdly, whilst it was the time and space afforded for moral dialogue that was vital, it

was the use of literature that served to provide structure, richness and context.

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Finally, this research provided some evidence that it is possible to build an empirical

evidence base about social constructs such as ‘ethics’ and ‘moral imagination’.

Overall, whilst being cognisant of the wider context to this research and the linkages

it has to leadership ethics, it is worth referring back to the core research question –

Can literature enhance the Moral Imagination of children and young people?

Even with the limitations that existed, this research would indicate that the answer to

this question is ‘yes’.

Opportunities for Further Research

This pilot study reinforced a hypothesis that increasing their moral imagination,

through the use of fictional literature, whilst they are children and young adults could

positively influence the ethics of future leaders.

Future expansion of this research could provide an opportunity to develop an evidence

base which shapes future policy and practice to ensure that future generations of

leaders are equipped with an innate propensity to apply moral imagination and make

decisions that are ethical and of mutual benefit key stakeholders.

CONCLUSIONS

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The development of Moral Imagination is a critical issue as it goes to the core of how

leadership education, talent management and workforce development could, and

possibly should, be shaped in future years.

Unless the dearth of Moral Imagination is addressed there is an inherent risk that

future leaders will lack the ability to make ethically sound and mutually beneficial

decisions, which will have a detrimental impact on wider society, whilst also

adversely impacting the long-term effectiveness, competitiveness and profitability of

their organisations.

As we witness evidence of the role that literature can play in enhancing moral

imagination and ethical awareness, the role of ethics education through fiction gains

increasing prominence as a means of addressing this skills shortage.

As we continue to see the children of today as the leaders of the future, the

importance of them developing moral imagination through literature and education

becomes essential.

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Bartlett, D. (2003), ‘Management and Business Ethics: A Critique and Integration of

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235

Bennett, W. (1993), The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories, Simon

and Schuster: New York

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