The Role Of Ethical Leadership In Nonprofit Organizations

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.

1. What foundational things seem to be necessary in order to develop the leadership models needed for a nonprofit organization?

Problem: A big issues with Nonprofit organizations is that they have to continually keep their relevance. They also face ethical issues such as unethical commissions. a. Employees: They may not be able to get paid because of the company may not be getting enough money to pay them. Recieving commision in a non profit organization is unethical which may result in the firing of those employees. Employees may also recieve certain incentives like a travel budget that can seem unethical.

Alongside philanthropy, nonprofit offers a way for people to cultivate compassion and advocate altruism in society. A nonprofit is a word used by the IRS to define tax-exempt organizations that benefits the public interest at no cost. In the nonprofit sector, there are a number of ethical dilemmas that tend to decelerate the progress of these socially innovative organizations. The way majority of modern society considers nonprofit organizations harmonize with imbruted overhead. Some entrepreneurs believe that the aversion of overhead dampens nonprofits’ success in ending things like world hunger, homelessness, breast cancer, and other things residing in the realm of world

The first premise given by the author is that leaders and managers of public and nonprofit organizations must be effective strategists gif these organizations are to fulfill their missions, meet their mandates, satisfy their constituents, and create public value in the years ahead. The second premise is that leaders and managers need to exercise as much discretion as possible in the areas under their control, they need to develop effective strategies to cope with changed and changing circumstances, and they need to develop a coherent and defensible basis for their decisions. An organization that comes to mind when thinking of an organization that fulfills most, if not all the qualifications for the above-mentioned premises would be my church

This paper was prepared for Ethical Leadership – MGT 310, taught by Professor Kristen Irey

The main problem in the case as it relates to nonprofit management is trying to make a nonprofit organization survive. Nonprofits are different than businesses and have to focus on two bottom lines, surviving and fulfilling its mission. While Falender focused on surviving and making the nonprofit one of the leading conservation nonprofits, he steered away from the original mission of the organization. Falender’s actions were based on financial motives rather than by social motives. AMC did need a transformational leader to help get out of the financial crisis, however the values that were a part of the original mission did not have to be compromised. Falender treated the organization more like a business rather than a nonprofit by

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.

Nonprofit’s leaders are fully aware that government is a very important source to obtain funds through grants and others means, to address their missions. Their oversite to digest this process is based through maintaining transparency, and accountability, of their employees, their board members, staff, and managers. The state has the will to support nonprofit organization through funding for; general operations, some specific projects, and/or contract to deliver services to the public and the ordinary citizens on behalf of the state government. (Young 2007) To stay ideal as a nonprofit business, board director must oversee that their entity is following all governmental laws and regulation to secure their status as 501(c)(3), and by filing

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.

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.”

The more psychology looks at the topic of ethical leadership and analysis it, the more difficult it has been for individuals to argue against the mythology of it. It is nearly impossible for one to believe that organizations that are run by ethical leadership do not contain some form of unethical activity ranging from an employee stealing a stapler to committing a serious fraud. Ethical leadership varies due to how ethics is based off personal beliefs which can be different from one culture to another making it a perspective that is diverse in theory. For insistence, looking at the example given earlier about an employee taking home a stapler for some this can be considered as stealing where it is seen as unethical, but for others they might say that there is no harm being done. Because researchers wanted to learn more about the different perspectives of ethics on cultures, there was a study done. The study

Leadership is by all means a special talent that not all people possess. A leader must also have ethics to be effective for the long term in the corporate world. These leaders generally implement ethical programs in order to influence an organizations climate (Yukl, 2010). I will evaluate the importance of ethical leadership and the role it plays into today’s organizations. In addition, I will discuss the repercussions a company may have when its leadership allows and even rewards unethical business practices. Lastly, I will apply my personal leadership perspective. My perspective will include the path-goal theory and ethical practices that I find important to

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