How Does Ethical Leadership Influence Employees ' Whistleblowing Intention? Essay

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.

There has been increasing numbers of concerns with the ethical leadership of organizations due to historical problems with company’s downfalls due to management. The unethical conduct of leadership is typically found when the organization does not enforce the ethical climate once determined as important. The paper focuses on different approaches for strengthening the leadership for the organization and enforcing the ethical climate. In addition, the important factors for a strong ethical climate are derived based on a solid foundation for an the organization’s policies and procedures and code of conduct. Organizations can accomplish ethical leadership and behaviors by enforcing and practicing the code of conduct and having a high level or integrity in the leaders that run the organization.

According to Bok and Larmer (2012), “whistle-blower is a nearly mythical character- the brace, lonely person who exposes evil in the corporate or government bureaucracy” (p. 174). The question is whether blowing the whistle violates company loyalty or not. Bok, who asserts that loyalty is acting in a way that the company believes is in their best interests. However, Larmer argues that loyalty is acting in a way that reflects what one believes to be in the company’s best interests. This paper argues against Bok’s side by providing examples, scenarios, and research. The presupposition that whistle blowing does not violate company loyalty is true because one should do what is right for the public interest and oneself since the company is being

FEHR, R., KAI CHI (SAM), Y., & DANG, C. (2015). MORALIZED LEADERSHIP: THE CONSTRUCTION AND CONSEQUENCES OF ETHICAL LEADER PERCEPTIONS. Academy Of Management Review, 40(2), 182-209. doi:10.5465/amr.2013.0358

FEHR, R., KAI CHI (SAM), Y., & DANG, C. (2015). MORALIZED LEADERSHIP: THE CONSTRUCTION AND CONSEQUENCES OF ETHICAL LEADER PERCEPTIONS. Academy Of Management Review, 40(2), 182-209. doi:10.5465/amr.2013.0358

In an age when accelerated communications contribute to growing perceptions of organizational improprieties, the ethical and legal implications of whistleblowing have become a major topic of discussion. According to Lawrence and Weber (2014), whistleblowing is an employee disclosing apparent organizational misconduct to the government or media; however, this reporting of information should come after attempts at going through proper channels in order to persuade the organization to take appropriate actions has been ineffective.

Craig and Gustafson (1998) maintain that ethics is a matter that requires significant consideration to those in leading positions. Trevino, Hartman, and Brown (2000) affirmed that individuals with power must be strong morally and prove their strength in management to be considered as ethical leaders to those in their work environment (as cited Brown & Mitchell, 2010).

Trevino (1986) believes that the organizational norms are a level of cultural manipulation that guides individual's behavior and dictates what is and is not appropriate which allow individuals to judge others in different situations. As a result, the pressure placed for compliance with ‘ethical' norms of an organization is the manipulation of culture to encourage employees to follow rules reflecting soft-domination in the post-bureaucratic era. (Higgins, Power, & Kohlberg, 1984 cited from Kurtines and Gewirtz, 1987) This is further emphasized by Treviño, Weaver, Gibson & Toffler's (1999) research. It states that employees are willing to report other's misconducts when unethical behavior is displayed rather than their own offenses in order to prevent social segregation. (Treviño, Weaver, Gibson & Toffler, 1999) In contrast, the views and values that are not clear are known to be weaker cultures that tend to exist with introductions of many subcultures that alter the norm for ethical behavior. (Trevino, 1986) Organizational management in the bureaucratic era reveals higher levels of unethical behavior because of the heavy links to the hierarchical structure that are valued. (Chen, Sawyers & Williams, 1997 and Trevino, 1986) Inversely, the post-bureaucratic era has lower levels of unethical behavior due to the management based on trust, empowerment, personal treatment and shared responsibility. (McKenna, Garcia‐Lorenzo & Bridgman, 2010 and Trevino, 1986) Thus, individual behavior is inevitably manipulated through culture. (Chen, Sawyers & Williams,

M., Aquino, K., Greenbaum, R. L., & Kuenzi, M. (2012). Who displays ethical leadership, and why does it matter? An examination of antecedents and consequences of ethical leadership. Academy of Management Journal, 55(1), 151-171.

In this article, the journalists propose that the ethical leadership of top management contributes to organizational performance through the promotion of ethical procedures. This theory was tested using the data of 147 Korean companies. The analysis shows that top management’s ethical leadership significantly predicts ethical climate organizational outcomes, namely, firm level organizational citizenship behavior and firm financial performance. They also state that “the mediating roles of ethical and procedural justice climate are only partial rather than complete”. In addition, they also point out how the organizational structure influences the “collective perceptions of organizational member’s outcomes”. Therefore, “the ethical dimension of top management’s leadership should be considered as a critical factor that affects organizational

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.

The complexity of issues surrounding ethical and unethical leadership influences, are determining by the criteria utilized by leaders among members. Emphasized in theories of ethical leadership is behavior approaches of several identifying leaders: (1) servant leadership, (2) spiritual leadership, and (3) authentic leadership.

Most of the studies related to the constructs explored in this study were completed in Western countries, reflecting Anglo/individualized cultural values (Yousef, 2002). Due partly to this, differences in the range of variables and the mobility of literature across different cultures (Glazer and Beehr, 2005) still remains relatively unexplored. Bearing this in mind, we will examine whether ethics is related to employee attitudes and behaviour, and investigate the factor structure of the Ethical Climate Questionnaire developed by Victor and Cullen (1988) within Turkish culture.

“Perceptions of ethical leadership are positively associated with a number of desired outcomes related to their subordinates at the individual and group levels. These outcomes include willingness to exert extra effort and help others, task performance, job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, perceptions of an ethical climate (particularly when individuals feel that they are treated well), optimism in the future regarding the organization and their place within it, perceptions of task significance and autonomy, and voice, including a willingness to report problems to management. Similarly, voice behaviors (e.g., willingness of subordinates to share problems and concerns) are explained in part by the feeling of psychological safety or comfort in expressing thoughts and feelings engendered in subordinates by ethical leadership.”- Arthur Schwartz is a professor of education and executive director of the Oskin Leadership Institute at Widener University.

What kind of ethics does you posses as a person? You may have wondered this question about your self but have you ever wondered it about the company you work for? All businesses have a code of ethics. There are companies with posses good ethics and those who posses bad ethics. As the Mondy (2012) text states, “companies that “out behave” their competitors ethically will generally outperform them financially” (p.28). Ethics start with the company’s motto, their code and how upper management protects their statements. Ethics needs to be part of the company’s culture. Companies who back their code of ethics and mottos have positive work culture (Solomon, 1992). Throughout, this paper we will compare companies culture with the Ethical Flaw text from Mondy (2012).