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Ethical Leadership Debate

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Reflective Statement Seminar Four: Ethical Leadership Debate Guiding Reflective Question | Student Reflection | What was the definition of ‘ethical leadership’ adopted by the participants in the debate?What is the role of the directors as envisaged by Codes of Corporate Governance and wider society?Are these expectations consistent with the ideas of ethical leadership? | The four characters, Mike, Jan, Mei-Hua and Deshi were portrayed as individuals with starkly differing views on ethical leadership. Mike believes that strong influence of ethical leaders in organizations will shape people within. Meanwhile, Jan’s idea of ethical leadership involves her employees taking up of social responsibility which she believes will be able to …show more content…

| In a shareholder company, the main conflict lies in the needs of the stakeholders, both internal and external, and the survival of the business itself (Jones et al. 2007). This could be commonly seen in 1) monetary terms, where employees expectations of wages are in conflict with profit maximization 2) environmental terms, when the needs of increased producing might directly increase pollution or indirectly stress the environment by depleting resources unsustainably and 3) supplier-consumer terms, where consumer demands for lower prices while suppliers strive to obtain better prices for services and goods they provide (Goodpaster 1991). Ethical leadership ensures that decisions are made only after considering the interests of all involved parties. It will discourage the influence of external pressures and self-interest from manifesting top managers and, in turn, satisfy the stakeholders by addressing their concerns (Goodpaster 1991). Hence, it could be argued that ethical leadership encourages empathy, which aids shareholder companies to reach a common understanding. Although this will not effectively remove the tensions permanently, it will however reduce it to manageable levels, ultimately ensuring the survival of the business. | What are the challenges in really delivering ethical leadership and how much of this is caused by the profit maximisation that underlies shareholder focus? | In my opinion, the identification and

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