"Smart" Change in Strategy: IBM's Response to Challenging Times
Overview provided by Elizabeth Gingerich, JVBL Editor
International Business Machines, or IBM, has been an indisputable force in the communications industry, leading the world into the modern, global technological age. Currently, IBM has revamped its business paradigm, allocating the majority of its resources to consulting work and data analyses rather than manufacturing as it had done so in the past - for the primary objectives of optimizing existing assets, resolving problems of burgeoning cities and beleaguered governments, and enhancing peoples' lives in a sustainable way.

IBM: Building a Smarter Planet
Interview with Sandy Dochan, Manager, Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and Jeff Tieszen, P.R. Manager, Western U.S., IBM Americas
A candid discussion is presented with two IBM corporate managers regarding IBM's history and current involvement in sustainable global development. This frank interview travels from the roots of the organization through the changing leadership of today, explores dilemmas experienced and lessons learned, and identifies the challenges and successes of one of the largest multi-national corporate entities in the world marketplace.

Oliver Winery and the Recipe for Values-Based Leadership: People, Product and Place
Allyson Baughman, M.B.A. , Valparaiso University; Alexandra Schroeder, M.A., Indiana University, Dean Schroeder, Ph.D., University Of Minnesota
These three authors have collaborated to provide a comprehensive examination of a small winery business and the revelation of the necessary variables for success — financially, ethically, and environmentally.  A case study of this business is presented from its inception to its current status as a small, yet growing and well regarded business.  Its secret for success? Take care of your customers and employees, make the highest quality product, and take pride and conserve the natural resources which support the business.

Holistic Leadership: A Model for Leader-Member Engagement and Development
K. Candis Best, JD, MBA, MS, PH.D., Educator/Consultant, Brooklyn, NY
Dr. Candis Best explores the theory of "holistic leadership" and further provides the model and framework for it to be empirically tested. At present, Best opines that holistic leadership produces leadership which supports the development of self-leadership capacity while preparing participating members for the exercise of increasing levels of self-determination and participatory decision-making.

A Tale of Two Cultures: Why Culture Trumps Core Values in Building Ethical Organizations
David Burkus, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA
As research demonstrates that organizational culture is a primary influence of employee behavior and that leaders shape this behavior, this author explores the influence of the effects of organizational culture on ethical behavior by considering two separate, and very different, corporate case studies: Enron and Zappos.

Leadership: The Tabletop Concept
Travis M. Hagelberg, Gonzaga University (WA), Cheyenne, WY
Applying the analogy of the four supporting pillars of support for a table - and thus, in similar fashion with a true and lasting, moral leader - Hagelberg discusses how four leadership principles in particular - integrity, competence, emotional intelligence, and vision - are the four essential traits of successful and lasting leadership.

The Leader as Moral Agent: Praise, Blame, and the Artificial Person
Joseph P. Hester, PH.D., Claremont, NC and Don R. Killian, M.A., Mount Holly, NC
The leader as the moral agent can be both a singular and a collective entity.  Regardless, that individual or group of individuals must establish and live by a moral paradigm where self-respect and respect for co-workers is paramount. In essence, the moral agent must "lead by example."  And it is not simply sufficient to choose the correct pathway but to care about choosing the correct pathway, stripping the decision-making process of disingenuous or superficial motives and injecting heart, concern, and passion for doing what is right.