Chapter Two Essay. “Ethical Behavior Is Critical To Being

Ethics is the guiding force in any respectable organization. With a moral compass, especially in the leadership of organization, a company can become compromised and fall into a quagmire of legal issues, a tarnished reputation, and devaluation of company stock if it is a publically traded company. In pursuit of examine my own ethical lens I will analyze the ethical traits of an admired leader, my own traits as exhibited in the Ethical Lens Inventory, and how I make a decision concerning a particular ethical dilemma.

This paper will first discuss briefly what ethics are and provide the definition for an ethical issue. An ethical leadership issue is identified and explained for this author’s practice area. We will then identify and discuss key strategies for leadership that are pertinent to the ethical issue. Next, empirical evidence which supports the strategies discussed will be analyzed. Then, the impact and importance of the strategies will be stated. The final step will be to provide a conclusion to the reader that summarizes the content and strategies.

Ethics are principles that are kept throughout one’s life so that he/she maintains a respectable level of honest value. Based on my moral outlook on life, my view of ethics may differ to that of many in this class. The reason for that is ethics partially depends on the individual feelings of a given situation. For example, some cultures believe that it’s unethical to have multiple partners, but in other cultures, you find that this is the norm. Morals and values are the framework to having and understanding ethics. Morals and values are the drivers

Leaders are expected to act consistently with their vision and the values they advocate to their team. If a leader’s words or actions are contrary to the values they expect in others, they will be faced with cynicism and contempt. Followers expect their leader to act in their best interests, putting their welfare before their own. An ethical leader is honest, open and truthful to their followers. When leaders lose this trust, their followers will quickly disregard them.

“If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization,” (Noyce). I believe this quote holds a strong notation towards ethical leadership. Friday September 30th, 2016 I had the privilege of attending a panel discussion holding some of the brightest leaders in the financial and banking industry. The group of panelists were Samuel Golden, managing director and Co-CEO of Alvarez and Marsal’s financial industry advisory services practice, Andrew Moy, executive vice president and eastern division manager for Wells Fargo global banking, Paul Murphy, president, CEO, and chairman of Cadence bank, Daron Peschel, senior vice president in charge of the Houston branch of the Federal Reserve bank and a member of the bank’s

The topic that we choose is “The relationship between Leadership and Ethics”. The term ethics has been defined as inquiry into the nature and grounds of morality or a branch of philosophy of human conduct and determine right and wrong (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010). In the other words, it includes study of general nature of moral, specific moral choices, moral philosophy, and rules or standards of governing the conduct of the member of a profession (Ferrell et al., 2010).

Ethical behavior is significant to the development of persuasion, and important to the behavior of humans.It also influences persuasion by developing the progression of persuasion, and increasing those who are accountable for it. A person’s ethical behavior originates with morals and changes into what way an individual is required to connect to encourage effectively and dependably and finishes with who obligation it is to take responsibility in a persuasive interchange. The significance of our ethical behavior is realized within all our origins as human beings and stands as the groundwork of our different societies. We are directed by our ethical customs in the cultures which we create and live. “ The persuader’s determined actions means more under deontological ethics than under teleological ethics”( Magee,2014). According to David B. Resnik, J.D.,( 2011), ethics is defined as standards for behavior that differentiate between tolerable and intolerable conduct. Ethical morals of behavior that specify how an individual should conduct them self centered on ethical responsibilities and qualities.

At the end of the day, the best explanation for fostering an ethical behavior is not a difficult one, but an encouraging approach by the leaders of the organization (Mullane 2009). Ethical behavior is essential and must be reflected in the leaders and shaped by those they led. Ethics-based approaches to leadership believes that the leader is not always the one with all the knowledge. Such an approach believes that the followers are just as important as the leader and that the followers should be the main focus and encouraged. Ethics-based approaches believe the leader should put aside his or her personal interests. The following pages will review some perspectives regarding ethical leadership.

It is only during moral lapses and corporate scandals that interest groups and the broader public ask themselves the fundamental ethical questions, who are the managers of the organization and were they acting with the ethical guidelines. For a long time, the issue of ethics was largely ignored, with organizations focusing on profit maximization. However, this has changed, and much attention is now focused on ethics management by researchers and leaders. The issue of ethics has arisen at a time when public trust on corporate governance is low, and the legitimacy of leadership is being questioned. Leaders are expected to be the source of moral development and ethical guidance to their employees.

Plato once asked whether you would rather be "an unethical person with a good reputation or an ethical person with a reputation for injustice." Ethical leadership has long been a debate in regards to its importance and place in the universal business world.

This broader concept of ethical leadership empowers leaders to incorporate and be explicit about their own values and ethics. The following list provides a framework for developing ethical leadership. It is based on the observations of and conversations with a host of executives and students over the past 25 years, and on readings of both popular and scholarly business literature. Written from the perspective of the leader, these ten facets of ethical leaders offer a way to understand ethical leadership that is more complex and more useful than just a matter of “good character and values.”

In the past, the term “authentic leadership” is used to define ethical leadership. Researches examine authentic leadership as an attempt to discover more about ethical leadership. Researchers argue that authentic leadership is concerned with self-awareness, relational transparency, internalized moral perspective, and balanced processing (Gardner et al., 2005; Walumbwa et al., 2008). Although Authenticity is an important aspect of ethical leadership and the above definition creates a good list of behaviors, it doesn’t solely define all aspects of ethical leadership. It has also been argued that Influence processes used by leaders are driven by the underlying ethical values (Groves et al., 2011). Therefore, another approach to inspect ethical intent would be to examine the influence process used by leaders. Since leader’s influence processes are very much linked to her leadership styles, it’s appropriate to look at some leadership styles and the compatible influence processes.

Leadership is by all means a special talent that not all people possess. A leader must also have ethics to be effective for the long term in the corporate world. These leaders generally implement ethical programs in order to influence an organizations climate (Yukl, 2010). I will evaluate the importance of ethical leadership and the role it plays into today’s organizations. In addition, I will discuss the repercussions a company may have when its leadership allows and even rewards unethical business practices. Lastly, I will apply my personal leadership perspective. My perspective will include the path-goal theory and ethical practices that I find important to

From my review of the second article I found that the business problem is whether or not the perceptions of ethical leadership is a fundamental determinant in ethical actions of those who think of themselves as ethical leaders. The specialization as I understand it was centered around only senior level executives, such as those in government and businesses. According to Marsh (2013), “the world’s attention is focused on the behavior of leaders in government, business, social, and even religious institutions.” I also discovered that the business problem and the specialization are appropriately related according to Gini (1998), ‘‘The ethics of

I will examine the importance of personal ethics in leadership and how ethics produce effective leaders in organizations today. The importance of understanding ethics, motivation to act as a role model and developing a plan of action for an organization are discussed because of their importance regarding development of good leadership. These key points suggest personal ethics positively affect leadership and when made a priority for leaders will produce ethical and effective leadership. With so many definitions of leadership, the question evolved from “what is the definition of leadership?” to “what is good leadership” (Ciulla, 2004, p. 13). To develop a system of values one must compile a list of the most important instrumental values and terminal values. These lists are unique to every individual because they are determined by personal importance. Instrumental values, such as honest, helpful, ambitious, responsible, etc. should reinforce terminal values. Once a leader’s means are consistent with desired goals, their value system is unified and they have climbed the staircase from the lobby to the first level of values. The climb from the first floor to the second floor results in a person incorporating principles into their newly developed values. Although values act as the bedrock of ethics, principles are required because alone, “values are far too vague to have much meaning in ethical analysis” (Cooper, 1998, p. 12). Morals are ideals that help us decipher between right