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Pamela Nichols '06, MSOL

Pamela Nichols is devoted to education. Not just in her role at the Community College of Allegheny County, but in her own personal and professional pursuits. She is a graduate of the Master of Science in Organizational Leadership program. She is also completing her doctorate degree at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Administration and Leadership Studies. Her roles at work are vast and varied and she has been working on an educational portfolio that will be the most beneficial.

She is the director of job placement and career services and oversees staff and manages the day to day activities and operations of the department. Her department developed and implemented the graduate tracking system and received the 2011 President’s Innovation Award based on her recommendation. In addition to this, she serves on many committees and boards, including Academic Standard and Assessment, Behavioral Intervention Team, and various student services councils and committees.

Her doctorate coursework will continue to strengthen her as an employee at CCAC and her students and coworkers as well. She is an adjunct professor of Sociology and her experience with African American male students is the motivation for her dissertation research, which will examine the effectiveness of retention and the academic success programs for this demographic. Her dedication to the success of her students has not gone unnoticed. She has twice received the Student's Choice Award for Extraordinary Faculty.

Pamela has admitted that Geneva College MSOL program has provided the necessary framework to develop in her many roles at CCAC and now as a doctorate student. “Studying at Geneva enabled me to further develop the skills I need to successfully and ethically assume a leadership role in the community college system. Earning my master’s degree provided me with the cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal skills that I will need to meet the professional challenges ahead of me.”


Ethics and the Bottom Line

A word from Dr. Dittmar

Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia... Much more recently, Goldman-Sachs, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG... Unfortunately the list goes on and on. The events associated with these corporations and others during the past two decades have exposed the fact that too often ethics and the bottom line do not mix. The media, those directly and indirectly impacted by these scandals, and people in general ask, "How could this happen?" How is it possible that individuals in positions of leadership and responsibility lead companies, themselves and others down the slippery slope of unethical behavior?

Sadly, these stories are not new. What makes these more recent accounts major headline news is the extent to which the unethical actions of a few have affected so many. The number of jobs and the amount of money that have evaporated are at levels previously unheard of. Yet, as tragic as these outcomes are, what is often lost among these big stories is the fact that unethical behavior in companies is not limited to those in positions of power and privilege.

What goes wrong? Those who study ethics and the role it plays (or does not) in the day-to-day functions of business offer a number of reasons. Saul Gellerman, whose article "Why 'Good' Managers Make Bad Ethical Choices" appeared in the Harvard Business Review, answered the question by offering what he termed the "four rationalizations" that people rely on to justify questionable conduct: (1) believing that the activity is not "really" illegal or immoral; (2) that it is in the individual's or the corporation's best interest; (3) that it will never be found out; (4) or that because it helps the company the company will condone it. In this article, his answer to curbing what he terms the "plague" of corporate misconduct is for top management to "exert a moral force within the company, and to send a clear and pragmatic message to all employees that good ethics is still the foundation of good business."

Those of us who are associated with the Geneva College Master’s in Leadership Programs believe that leadership and ethics can and should be developed. The theme of ethics runs through our curriculum and impacts the outcomes of each course. To set this tone in Geneva’s Leadership Programs, we include a foundational course in Leadership and Ethics.

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Among the ethical models that we study is one that author Alexander Hill presents in his book, Just Business. Hill lays out a basis for a business ethic around the characteristics and behaviors of Holiness (pureness, humility, accountability); Justice (fairness); and Love (empathy, mercy, benevolence). Applied in balance, these characteristics can become the basis of ethical behavior in organizations. Such concepts, though, are empty unless leaders look inward and examine their own character, understanding that character can shape behavior.

Educational writer and consultant Parker Palmer acknowledges the importance of character when it comes to leadership. He states in Leading from Within:

A leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to create the conditions under which other people must live and move and have their being, conditions that can be illuminating as heaven or as shadowy as hell. A leader must take special responsibility for what's going on inside his or her own self, inside his or her consciousness, lest the acts of leadership create more harm than good.

It’s possible for organizations of all types to conduct their business in ways that reflect not only compliance with the law but also a commitment to integrity and ethical behavior. There are many exemplars of such organizations. We just do not read much about them. But for organizations to become ethically exemplary, leaders at all levels must first recognize and acknowledge that their day-to-day situations and decisions may carry with them ethical challenges and dilemmas that include the consequences of power and privilege, manipulation and deceit, fairness and equity, or profit and accountability. So, they must ground those decisions on ethically sound principles—principles I hope include holiness, justice and love.

The leaders of Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and Goldman-Sachs, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and other organizations whose practices are ethically questionable, cast shadows on their companies and employees. Instead, leaders must learn how to cast light to keep themselves and their fellow-workers from traveling down the slippery slope that leads to more and more unethical behavior.

May 2015

Inauguration of Calvin L. Troup

Realizations at Geneva’s Presidential Inauguration

The inauguration of a new college president is a big deal. It signals a new beginning, changes in priorities, and often a recommitment to the mission of the school. Read more in the Geneva Blog.


Upcoming Cohorts

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in Leadership Studies

January 9, 2017

March 6, 2017


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Words to Lead by

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."
II Timothy 2:15


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Geneva College Master's in Leadership Degrees