Emergent Ethical Leadership In ‘Schindler’S List’
Emergent Ethical Leadership in ‘Schindler’s List’
Legal Environment for Managers
The film “Schindler’s List” presents variations of ethical leaders ranging from Amon Goeth, who embodied pure evil, to the righteous humanitarian Itzak Stern. Imbedded between these two ethical extremes is Oskar Schindler. Schindler is an evolutionary example moving from an unethical war profiteer to that of a self-sacrificing leader, ultimately awarded the honor of a tree on Righteous Avenue. From the ashes of the Holocaust horror, Schindler emerged as an ultimately ethical leader that saved 1,200 Jews.
Schindler came to Poland as a member of the Nazi party, seeking exploitive ways to profit from the war. He was a womanizing philanderer that left his wife in Czechoslovakia while he went to Poland in the wake of the German invasion to find a way to profit from the war at the callous expense of others. Schindler used his flair for the dramatic, grand gestures, love of “the finer things” to create powerful contacts with the Gestapo and SS officials. At the opening of the film, Schindler positions himself for pictures with SS officials, in his attempt to develop rapport with Nazi leaders. He is not concerned with the suffrage of others, and focuses only on his personal profit and advancement.
His initial approach to the unethical treatment of others extends beyond befriending the Nazi’s for personal gain when Schindler assumes residence in a forfeited Jewish home. Laying claim to an apartment, Schindler comments “It could not be better”; while the former Jewish owners are in the Krakow Ghetto commenting, “It could be worse…”
Schindler’s unethical treatment of others seen in the first portion of the film includes his acquisition of the DEF enamelware factory. When the company’s former accountant Itzak Stern points out Jewish investment is impossible due to Nazi law, Schindler reveals his plan to take advantage of the...
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