Leadership and Ethics

As a child growing up I was taught how to differentiate between right and wrong. Those teaching have been the basis for how I conduct myself in my personal and professional life. I believe every person should be able to look at him or herself in the mirror and see an honest, ethical person looking back at them. At the end of the day, my philosophy on ethics is simply "Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching." By Jim Stovall, American author.

A manager is a person who supervises the work of others so that the assigned goals and targets are achieved in the most effective, efficient, and well-organized fashion (Daft 2011). A manager makes decisions for his organization, organizes, motivates, and leads its human resource, and controls its business affairs so as to achieve efficiency and superior operational performance. All the functions and responsibilities of a manager overlap each other at all the managerial levels within an organization (Basefsky, Maxwell, Post, & Turner 2004). Leadership is one of the core functions of a manager. This leadership function essentially requires the leader to be specialized in all other management functions in order to lead his followers effectively and efficiently (Leatherman 2008). Therefore, it is strongly believed that a person must have to be a good manager in order to become an effective leader. This paper critically examines this statement in the light of relevant literature; including books, research papers, and journal articles.

“Nardelli came into Home Depot with a managerial style that was already obsolete and being replaced at GE by Immelt with his emphasis on eco-imagination. Autocratic top-down, command and control works great when you focus on process—cost and quality. Six Sigma measures all that stuff wonderfully. Nardelli couldn’t see beyond this” (Nussbaum, 2007, para. 2).

Leaders are often described as being visionary, equipped with strategies, a plan and desire to direct their teams and services to a future goal (Mahoney, 2001). Effective leaders are required to use problem-solving processes, maintain group effectiveness and develop group identification. They should also be dynamic, passionate, have a motivational influence on other people, be solution-focused and seek to inspire others.

contracting out that impacts health and safety on the job; and the erosion of their

According to Kruse (2013), a leader is a person that has social influence and has the capability to maximize the efforts of others to achieve a goal. An effective leader inspires confidence in other people and moves them to action. This action usually attributes to a goal. If the leader is effective and demonstrates the skill set or ability to motivate their subjects correctly, then the goal is attainable. My definition is somewhat similar to the one shared by Kruse (2013). A leader is someone who possesses a natural talent, as well as, an acquired knowledge of leadership skills, theories, and best practices. A leader is competent, fair, balanced, works cooperatively, is trustworthy, and builds working relationships

Leadership is a partnership between two or more people, so it is necessary to design a guideline that allows a leader to create an ethical organization. Even though leadership is impossible without followers, a person must first transform their own ethical theory into a process before they can teach or require ethical behavior from others. Leaders must incorporate their ethical beliefs and decision making template into everyday life. The personal ethics of a leader will cast a light on organizations that will create an ethical climate. This climate fosters ethical conduct from others and will be beneficial when designing an organization. Research, such as Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments, “demonstrates ethical conduct of individuals in organizations is influenced greatly by their leaders” (Hitt, 1990, p. 3). Personally putting theory into practice will prevent leaders from demeaning the difficulty of not only ‘walking the talk,’ but also the complexity of leading a long-term successful and ethical organization. The strategies and necessities discussed throughout this paper regarding personal ethics make it possible for a leader to organize a company that transfers theory into practice. The personal concepts and templates previously discussed can be adjusted to work for an entire organization. It is assumed that every CEO’s intention is to build an ethical organization. However, many underestimate the importance of understanding ethics, leading by example and

Leadership styles and approaches vary from situation to situation, including the personality, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the leader and the followers. Employees teach the leader how to lead them. Their competence, ability, and willingness to complete a task are indicators, which assist the direction of leadership the leader takes. Keeping all of this in mind, we will describe and analyze the Situational and Style leadership approaches.

According to Stephen, DeCenzo, and Coulter, leadership is the way an individual leads and influences a group to achieve certain goals (p. 337). Being a leader is not something anyone can do, considering the leader has to be prepared for unpredictable situations with no given solution (Hannah, Woolfolk, & Lord, p. 269). However, when looking at being a leader, whether it is in a corporation or on a sports team, certain traits are associated with leadership. In addition, transactional, transformational, and/or charismatic leaders will each see a different outcome based on the way they lead.

The purpose of this literature review to evaluate concepts relating to leading and motivating effective teams building. The authors addresses qualitative and quantitative research relating to ethical leadership and core job characteristics, organizational culture on team interaction for team effectiveness, employee’s participation in decision making with leadership encouragement of creativity, team cognition as it relates to performance in strategic decision-making teams, emotional intelligence and team effectiveness, cross-level influences of empowering leadership, and decades of research on national culture in the workplace.

Ethics and Leadership Webster's Dictionary defines ethics as "the principles of conduct governing an individual…" Some ethical issues arise in more than one context. One of the ethical themes is the treatment of vulnerable people. Social work, nursing, and even the military all interact with people on a daily basis who have some sort of an expectation or dependence on their leadership and behavior. The workers in these fields make decisions that directly affect or influence the lives of other people. This is a huge responsibility that must be taken seriously.

What is the difference between leadership and management? Not many people understand what the “leadership” or “management” term means. Many people thing that they are similar or interchangeable. I was one of those a few years ago. Honestly, it was not easy to understand and recognize the roles of a leader and of a manager because both exist within the same department or organization. In fact, the leadership and management roles need to be differentiated and clarified. The roles’ clarification not only helps the employees to address their concerns to the appropriate higher-level “boss”, but also is crucial in making the organization’s strategies successful. This paper presents the historical definition of leadership and management as well

Leadership is all about human psychology with expert tactics. Leaders have qualities such as intelligence, maturity and personality and are trusted for their assessment and respected for their proficiency, integrity etc. Effective leaders have Skills which are naturally developed and unconsciously with consistently which demonstrated in the every action. So Organizations need strong leaders for profitable growth in business.

The leader innovates where a manager directs; a manager sustains what has already been created. Leadership is not what you do-it’s what others do in response to you, retaining control over people by aiding in the development their own abilities and bringing out their talents (Jaynes, 2015). Mangers have underlings while Leaders have followers; leaders do not have underlings. To lead is to have follower, following is a chosen pursuit. There can and are superior and terrible leaders, and there can and are be superior and terrible managers. Comparing how the two different positions may be related. A definition is needed to assist leaders and manager to comprehend how to accomplish excellence in doing what they have to do. Due to the fact that many people are both a leader and a manager it is often times quite difficult to distinguish between the two. Managers are controllers of systems, resources; all the while leading teams to achieve goals. Referring to each ability’s to motivate, influence and contribute to success is the role of a leader. Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right. – Professor Warren G. Bennis (Jaynes, 2015)

Upon accepting the role as a new leader, understanding the difference between a leader and a manager is crucial. Managers are task driven; consequently, they often forget to see the people who actually make the job possible. Their eyes remain on the task at hand, whether it is reaching a production goal or earning a specific amount of profit for a set amount of time and will attempt to reach it through planned activities and designation. A leader knows how to do the same things as a manager, however, they do it with a