The problem to be investigated is the relationship between leadership, trustworthiness, and ethical stewardship; how these virtuous qualities can impact leaders, individuals, and companies. This paper will attempt to provide an academic opinion related to the problem investigated. The evidence of correlation between these qualities will be generated from my own personal experience and perspective as well as the viewpoints of multiple business experts.
Leadership
To guide, direct and manage people with an inspired purpose and vision is a workable definition of business leadership. In the book, An Integrative Theory of Leadership, Chemers defines leadership as enlisting the aid and support of others to accomplish a task. He enhances this
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Furthermore integrating task such as internal maintenance of repetitive tasks and adaptability to external events is imperative because maintaining order and stability internally increases productivity yet being able to adapt to change is a critical element in innovation. (Chemers, 1997, p. 2-3)
Trustworthiness
“Trust people and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” (Emerson, n.d.) A healthy marriage is a perfect example of a relationship built on trust. Two people come together with a mutual commitment to love, honor and cherish one another. Creating wealth as a couple is not necessarily a prerequisite for a marriage contract to thrive; yet businesses need trusting, mutually beneficial relationships, much like a marriage, to prosper financially. These five wealth creating conditions occur when follower’s perceptions of trustworthiness exist: (1) higher employee commitment, (2) more extra role behaviors, (3) closer interpersonal relationships between leaders and employees, (4) more favorable views of human resource policies and (5) a stronger social contract between employees and the organization. (Caldwell & Hansen, 2010, p. 1)
Ethical Stewardship
Conforming to business and societal accepted conduct standards defines what is ethical while stewardship concerns a person who is responsible for the protection of another
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.
Leadership is a facet of management. It is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. The main aim of a manager is to maximize the output of the organization through administrative implementation. To achieve this managers must undertake the four functions of management: planning, organization, leading and controlling. In some cases leadership is just one important component of the leading function. Predpall (1994) said, "Leaders must let vision, strategies, goals, and values be the guide-post for action and behavior rather than attempting to control others". In some circumstances, leadership is not required. For example, self-motivated groups may not require a single leader and may find leaders dominating. The fact that a leader is not always required proves that leadership is just an asset and is not essential.
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.
Abstract: There are numerous definitions of leadership, all of which contain elements related to people (the leader and the follower(s)), communicating in person or by the written word, actions (organizing, directing, coaching, and/or motivating), and for a purpose (meeting a goal(s) or accomplishing a task(s)) (ADP 6-22) (Fisher 2015) (Bolden 2013) (Hogan 2005). Additionally, everything done occurs within a given context. Effective leaders are poised, proficient, pertinent, and practical in the application of the art of leadership. This means leaders are ready to engage the group with effective methods and
Ethical leadership practices shape and support trust, and trust is decided to a great extent by the conduct of the
Leadership entails guiding others to realize particular goals using a variety of skills (Sullivan & Garland, 2011); Weihrich & Koontz, 2008). Likewise, Spector (2006) defined leadership as the art of influencing others to readily and actively endeavour towards achieving goals set by the team. Additionally, Spector (2006) emphasized that there is a shared theme that leadership comprises influencing individual belief systems, behaviours and feelings. As such, the smooth running of an organization requires effective leadership.
In today’s competitive world, leadership skills are crucial for both personal and professional development. Leadership is an important function of management which helps an individual or a business to maximize efficiency and to achieve goals. Leadership has different meanings to various authors.Most commonly, leadership is defined as influence, that is, the art of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals. (Koontz). Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of either formal or informal group in the task of goal setting and goal achievement. A leader is one whose magnetic personality innervates people for some cause. Not by words, but by their actions is
Leadership is a process of influencing activities of a particular group of people with the aim of attaining certain stipulated goals. In defining leadership there is need to consider a particular group, the common goals and the duties that are allocated to specific members of the group depending on their abilities (Fiedler 1976). Leadership therefore cannot successfully occur unless members of the group are given different considerations in terms of personality, traits and responsibilities. In considering leadership, it is important to look at the leader, the group or organization they are leading, the members as individuals and the situation; these are
According to Business Dictionary.com, leadership is defined as the individuals who are the leaders in an organization, regarded collectively. It also can be define as the activity of leading a group of people or an organization or the ability to do this. Leadership involves the establishing of a clear vision, sharing the vision with other so that they will follow willingly, providing the needed information, knowledge, and methods to realize the vision and coordinating and balancing the conflicts interests of all members and stakeholders.
Leadership is about creating a vision for that function and gaining peoples commitment by strategic direction.
The paper focuses on interviewing a business leader who is seen to apply ethical business practices in the organization they lead with an aim of finding the important elements in ethical leadership. The interview is scheduled for 30 minutes where the interviewer will ask the ethical leader various questions pertaining to ethical leadership. Some of the questions that will be asked include, What is your leadership background? What are the traits of an ethical leader? what are the values of an ethical leader? What is the importance of ethical leadership in a competitive environment? Does ethical leadership affect customer relations? Do you observe ethics while interacting
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.
There are certain essential elements that constitute the definition of leadership. It may refer to the totality of an organization’s top direction-giving functionaries, or the actions applied in providing direction that enables the organization or team to move forward towards a goal. In reality, there are very diverse definitions of leadership depending on
An essential component of leadership is to articulate and exemplify the organization's core values. These values must be clear, compelling, and repeated. The leader must both "walk the talk" and inspire his/her colleagues within the organization to also live these values. Values are at the core of individual, group or organizational identity. Values are relatively enduring conceptions or judgments about what is considered to be important to an organization. Agreement between personal and organizational values result in shared values which constitute the benchmarking of a successful business practice.
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.”