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Combating Evil
In 2015, a senior executive of the Mitsubishi Japanese car company, Hikaru Kimura, apologized to a World War II vet. The executive was not personally involved with harming James Murphy, now 94 years old. Kimura is apologizing for the company’s use of POWs during WWII where the POWs worked as slave labor in their companies. In this case, James Murphy had worked for a year from 1944 to 1945 in the company’s copper mines. The surviving POW, Murphy, said that the Japanese treated them like slaves and it was a very demoralizing and horrible experience.
This seems like a genuine act of apology from a company that used prisoners of war for slavery. But, this was an act of evil as ordinary where the situational factors caused an otherwise ordinary soldier to become evil. And, Murphy accepted the apology to allow for some closure and relief for other POWs and their families. This apology was the first time to come from a Japanese company. The Japanese government had already apologized for the brutal acts, but none of the executives from the companies had. Murphy, by accepting the apology in person, walked through the four four-stage model by Robert Enright, professor of educational psychology and president of the International Forgiveness Institute at the University of Wisconsin, of forgiveness (Johnson, 2015). The four stages included:
Johnson (2015) believed forgiveness could break the cycle of evil. Sometimes these destructive patterns could continue for hundreds of years. The Japanese companies using prisoners of war in labor camps was a brutal and demeaning act that occurred and the apology from one of the companies has helped heal the evil for some individuals. This act of reconciliation by Kimura may suggest to other executives in Japanese companies that apologizing can be a step forward in improving humanity. |
Leaders Embracing Spirituality
Spirituality should be used by leaders to combat evil in themselves and in their organizations. Practicing mindfulness enables leaders to be aware -- not only aware of how others are acting, but aware of how they are acting themselves. Johnson (2015) posited that spirituality is increasing in the workplaces because organizations are gaining importance in employees’ lives, since work takes up a larger percentage of employees’ time.
Spears (2010) discussed how leaders are turning more toward servant leadership, a leadership style that puts service first – to employees and to the company. One of the traits of being a servant leader is to practice awareness, especially self-awareness, which enables leaders to constantly monitor their ethics, power, and values (Spears, 2010). Another trait is listening where leaders strive to hear what is said and what is not said. This trait helps leaders listen to their own inner voice, such as reflection, and listen to others (Spears, 2010). Finally, another trait, empathy, enables leaders to understand others and their special circumstances (Spears, 2010). I believe that spirituality enables leaders to ward off evil and to continually monitor their actions and others, while caring for people in a genuine way. For example, Johnson (2015) posited that when you monitor yourself, you can watch out for evil as exclusion by ensuring that you watch for symptoms of moral exclusion, such as having different standards for different groups, being derogatory toward a certain group, and being biased toward one group over another. What is interesting to note is that a lot of the traits in servant leadership are similar to traits in spiritual leadership. Laura Reave reviewed more than 150 studies and found some of these common virtues in leaders who practiced ethical traits who also practiced spiritual characteristics (Johnson, 2015). Engaging in reflective practice was similar to practicing awareness in servant leadership and enabled leaders to be less stressed and enjoy better mental and physical health. Listening responsively enabled leaders to be more effective because they responded to what they heard and acted on feedback. Reflection was similar to a spiritual action that could be practiced in quiet or during meditation. Finally, expressing concern provided supportive behavior to employees and actually produced more productive workers and more positive relationships. This trait was very similar to empathy in servant leadership traits. Some stages I might enact to allow for spirituality to strengthen me as a leader of an organization would be to incorporate Tarleton State University (Texas) professor Louis Fry’s spiritual leadership theory to be able to embrace meaning and provide for an opportunity to transform the organization and myself (Johnson, 2015). It is interesting to see that these stages are similar to the traits of a servant leader, specifically:
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Johnson, C. E. (2015). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership. Casting light or shadow. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
Neuman, S. (2015, July). NPR. Japan’s Mitsubishi apologizes for using U.S. POWs as forced labor in WWII. Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/19/424408003/japans-mitsubishi-to-apologize-for-using-u-s-pows-as-laborers-in-wwii
Spears, L. C. (2010). Character and servant leadership: Ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership,
1(1). 25-30.
Neuman, S. (2015, July). NPR. Japan’s Mitsubishi apologizes for using U.S. POWs as forced labor in WWII. Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/19/424408003/japans-mitsubishi-to-apologize-for-using-u-s-pows-as-laborers-in-wwii
Spears, L. C. (2010). Character and servant leadership: Ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership,
1(1). 25-30.