The objective is simple: ‘Better decision making’. The only issue is that there are so many different views over what we mean by ‘better’. At the core of all decision making is the need to balance power with responsibility, as the vehicle for resolving the ‘better’ question. This article explores why that is so difficult. It also argues that exploring the concept of ‘wisdom’ can provide invaluable insights into how to achieve the most effective balance between power and responsibility, which (...) is central to what our values mean in practice, as well as how we incorporate ethics into our decision making. The article argues that wisdom is a very practical body of knowledge that has an incredibly useful contribution to help us understand the world we live in. (shrink)

This paper raises some fundamental questions about two of the most important issues in the world today: first, questions about the nature and relationship between power, responsibility and leader ship. Second, how this is related to the whole subject of learning. The core of the debate about leadership should be more about how and what we learn about responsibility, rather than the traditional preoccupation with power. If we want to improve the quality of life in the twenty-first century, the one (...) thing that we have to do today is to try to improve the quality of our learning. Why we learn? How we learn? What we learn? What we do with that learning? (shrink)

Just what is corruption, and what should, or can, be done about it? The author is Head of the Management Centre at South Bank University, London.