Running head: Ethical Leadership 1
Ethical Leadership
Leadership, Trustworthiness and Ethical Stewardship
Leadership, Trustworthiness and Ethical Stewardship
The problem to be investigated is; how the leaders manage to stay ethical in their role while maintaining trust with the followers and focus on organisational goals. Most of the times, the biggest responsibility of leaders is to lead the team of the people to achieve organisational goals willingly. Leaders are supposed to create harmony between the workforce and management so that win-win situation can be created. It is a challenge for the leaders to play this role successfully and they can be accused of any partiality or favouritism by either management or the employees.
In order to effectively win the trust of organisational management and the team members, the leaders adopt the role of steward and focus on the ethical conduct. Since it is impossible for them to gratify every body all the time, by putting organizational interest ahead of their personal interest and following the ethical conduct, they succeed in increasing the acceptance of their decisions. Even though management or team members may disagree with their opinions and initiatives, they still keep on believing that the decisions taken by the leaders are ethical and will be in favour of the organisations and team members. They may not see the immediate impact but the long term consequences may become favourable. This repute and notion gives the
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.
The leader’s good attitude and their role will be their ethics which is very important for organization development, and performance. i understand that characteristics , roles, and motivation are very important to develop an organization performance. Also, leadership is a process that consist of communication, motivation, help, ethical principle, and cooperate between leaders and follower to develop organization and gain common goal.
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
In a professional environment it is important as a manager to have a specific viewpoint and guideline when it comes to leading a team. Managers are leaders who must know their moral viewpoint and stance before taking on the task of being a leader. This paper will discuss my ethical viewpoint on how managers should lead a team along with the five characteristics I believe a manager should possess and why.
This paper will respond to three questions, “Are all managers leaders?” (Phillips & Gully, 2014, p. 425) “What are some common barriers preventing leaders from behaving ethically and how can these barriers be overcome?” (Phillips & Gully, 2014, p. 450) And “Is it possible for leadership substitutes to be effective?” (Phillips & Gully, 2014, p. 450)
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.
My understanding of the seven tasks of the ethical leader in creating value for an organization’s stakeholders is that these seven tasks should lead as a guide to leaders. It is essential for leaders to be role models for their employees. A leader needs to not just think about themselves, but to consider how their actions will affect others, including the image of the company. Having a process for employees to address their concerns and feel they are being heard is very important for leading a team. This creates value and a feeling of belonging within a company. Developing key employees and utilizing their talents also gives them value as well as value for others. This raises the bar for them to step up and become role models as well. Always acting in the best interest of the company, even if it is letting someone go.
Ethical leadership practices shape and support trust, and trust is decided to a great extent by the conduct of the
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).
In the ultimate analysis, organizational and leadership ethics is everybody’s responsibility, not just that of an elite few. This is because leadership is not a person or a position but rather a complex moral relationship between people, based on trust, obligation, commitment, emotion, and a shared vision of the good as cited in Johnstone, 2013).
Leaders are responsible for influencing followers to perform actions, complete tasks, and behave in certain manners. Effective leaders also influence processes, stimulate change in attitudes and values, and amplify empowerment and self-efficacy of their followers, as they foster the internalization of corporate vision. The nurturing aspect of leadership can also raise an organization’s culture and employee’s values to higher levels of ethical behavior. By demonstrating ethical leadership we promote a high level of integrity that stimulates a sense of trustworthiness, and encourages subordinates to accept and follow our vision (Mickey, 2013).
Leadership is an organizational role that has an effect on every organizational matter. From the employees’ morale, customers’ satisfaction, and the organizational effectiveness, organizational leaders and their behaviors directly or indirectly affect everything. In addition to the leadership’s impact on the organization and its elements, leaders are often perceived as role models for the organizational members. Consequently, it is important that leaders are not only competent but also ethical in their everyday conduct, (Toor & Ofori, 2009). But, how can leader’s ethical behavior be distinguished? \ What are these ethical behaviors that affect the followers? And, how do we know when a leader is an ethical leader?
In order to be a successful ethical leader there are many activities that can be promoted to encourage ethical behavior in one’s organization. An ethical leader will create programs that endorse integrity in business. Programs can include setting guidelines for dealing with ethical issues, open discussion on ethical issues, and establish a protocol for people to get advice (Yukl, 2010). By establishing programs an ethical leader is really changing and encouraging moral behavior which can affect an organizations work environment and improve moral. By empowering your employees to know how to handle ethical dilemmas you create a new found trust.
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