The Leadership Ethics of Machiavelli’sPrince
本文重新审视马基雅维利《君主论》中的领导伦理，指出其并非倡导不道德，而是在腐败环境中主张建立法治、选择“最不坏”的行动，并重视赢得追随者支持，其思想比管理学界通常认为的更为复杂。
ABSTRACT: This article examines the place of Machiavelli’s Prince in the history of ethics and the history of leadership philosophy. Close scrutiny indicates that Machiavelli advances an ethical system for leadership that involves uprooting corruption and establishing rule of law. He draws on history and current affairs in order to obtain a realistic understanding of human behavior that forms a basis for a consequentialist ethics. While he claims a good leader might do bad things, this is in situations where necessity constrains a prince to choosing the “least bad” course of action. Furthermore, Machiavelli advocates winning the goodwill of followers through leadership as a source of power. Machiavelli’s leadership ethics has a sophistication not fully enjoyed by his reputation in management scholarship. He would not score as especially “Machiavellian” on the Mach IV. Many of his ideas contain seeds for theories that are now considered important for leadership today.