America's Problems and Needed Reforms: Confronting the Ethic of Personal Advantage

Executive Overview This article addresses some of America's pressing problems and the important role of administration and executive leadership in remedying the problems. Three major problems are described: the degradation of the environment, the growing number of people included in the “underclass,” and the ethical abuses which have been so prevalent recently. These problems are traced to some basic values that currently are widely held in American society. These values include 1) a short-term rather than a long-term perspective: 2) a focus on the ends rather than the means: and 3) an emphasis on the individual over the community. We call this combination of values the ethic of personal advantage. Our suggestions for reform include educational debate, legal oversight and restrictions, and internal organizational changes. But most of all courageous leadership is needed. Our problems must be raised to the level of a national debate centered on reform and guided by our administrative and managerial elite.