Mission: To promote and strengthen sustainable ethical leadership to enhance civil society
The Institute for Ethical Leadership (IEL) seeks to create awareness and education about the importance of ethical leadership. Part of a broad-based academic institution, the IEL understands that a sure means for improving the conduct of leaders is through cultivating, and rewarding sustainable ethical practices. The IEL, under the direction of co-founders Alex J. Plinio and James Abruzzo, aspires to establish itself as the place that leaders, across all sectors, look to for guidance, partnership, and support to develop and improve the ethical culture among their executive and board leadership and within their organizations.
Working with business and government entities, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, and within the University, the IEL provides leaders and future leaders with the education, training and critical-thinking tools needed to make ethical decisions for real-world challenges. The IEL believes that ethical behavior drives good business and that merely operating a business within the legal confines of compliance can fail to address the complexities that constitute ethical conduct and considerations. Leaders must be prepared to deal with the more complicated and subtle critical-thinking and decision-making processes required to create an organizational culture where ethical practice and behavior become habit.
Reflecting Rutgers Business School’s multidisciplinary approach, the Institute for Ethical Leadership is a resource for students, faculty, and administrators university-wide. In promoting the highest academic standards, it provides course offerings, workshops, seminars and conferences, and corporate partnerships for not only the Rutgers community, but also for leaders of companies operating in all sectors of the economy. Retired executives from leading organizations are invited to offer their practical advice through the IEL Executive Fellows Program. The Institute for Ethical Leadership is committed to developing partnerships and cooperative activities with schools, companies, organizations, and institutes, within and outside Rutgers. These partnerships act as a catalyst for successful joint programming, conferences and workshops where combining the strengths of all of the participants maximizes its impact. The IEL encompasses the focus, intellectual capital, balance, programs and participants that enable it to be a premier institute in the field of ethical leadership. Based on extensive research, the IEL has incorporated into its strategies the essential components needed for its success:
• A dynamic environment that promotes the importance of ethical leadership
• Programs based on current research, critical-thinking models, principles of Emotional Intelligence, and case studies for practical application that cross all sectors—business, nonprofit, and government
• Research both basic and applied that provides leading edge investigation and knowledge in the field of ethical leadership
• Collaborative partnerships spanning the sectors of society and helping people meet on common ground to develop cooperative activities and an exchange of ideas
• Strong governance, with university-wide impact and executive leadership support, including a high-level advisory board for strategy and development
• Course work at both the graduate and undergraduate levels within the various academic disciplines
• Consulting services that build and strengthen ethical leadership
Support for the Institute:
The Institute for Ethical Leadership was created with a generous gift from Prudential Financial.
The educational, consulting and research services offered by the Institute for Ethical Leadership are made possible through the support of our many donors. We would like to extend our thanks for their continued financial support.
Contact Information:
Institute for Ethical Leadership
1 Washington Park, 10th Floor
Newark, New Jersey 07102
Telephone: 973-353-1134
Fax: 973-353-1136
E-mail: leadership@business.rutgers.edu
Back to top
