Ethics, Leadership, and Decision Making - Essay Example

Ethics, Leadership, and Decision Making Ethics, Leadership and decision-making are some of the most popular terms in the corporate world. Decision making is often done through leaders. However, there are lot of differences and similarities in the decision-making abilities of leaders. Some leaders take quick and wise decisions whereas some others struggle to take wise decisions even after lengthy periods. It is not necessary that all the decisions taken by the leaders may bring the desired results always, even if the decision looks sound at the surface level. This is because of the fact that some of the sound decisions may not have the backing of ethics or morality. Ethics or morality is one of the most important term in the cooperate world now. Sustainable business is getting more focus than other businesses nowadays. Companies which give more attention towards sustainment business practices are getting more focus among the consumers. Even a big company may lose customers if it practices unethical business strategies. Strategic leadership is necessary for companies to remain ethical and socially committed. Strategic leaders give more attention to corporate social responsibilities and boost the image of the company. This paper analyses the article “Strategic Leadership and Decision Making” through the dimensions of Ethics, Leadership, and Decision Making. Values can be defined as those things that are important to or valued by someone. That someone can be an individual or, collectively, an organization. One place where values are important is in relation to vision. One of the imperatives for organizational vision is that it must be based on and consistent with the organizations core values. Integrity, professionalism, caring, teamwork, and stewardship were important enough to be included with the statement of the organizations vision (Leadership, Decisions Making: “Strategic Leadership and Decision Making”, p1). It is difficult to define values or ethics in the corporate word in few words. In fact these are more complex terms because of the variety of dimensions attached to them. Values followed in one company may not be the same in other companies. For example, teamwork is encouraged in majority of the companies to reduce the stress levels of employees and to increase the efficiency and productivity of the employees. However, Apple Inc. is one company which still persists with individual work. They encourage teamwork only on unavoidable circumstances. This is because of the different employment culture following in Apple company compared to other companies. It should be noted that Apple is one company which always talk about employability rather than employment security. This strategy is creating more pressure upon the employees to perform well. At the same time, there are plenty of other companies, which encourage teamwork and stress the importance of employment security. In short, Apple is a company, which believe in different value sets and vision compared to the normal value sets and visions prevailing in the corporate world. “When values are shared by all members of an organization, they are extraordinarily important tools for making judgments, assessing probable outcomes of contemplated actions, and choosing among alternatives” (Leadership, Decisions Making: “Strategic Leadership and Decision Making”, p.1). There are plenty of companies in which management follows one strategy for the top executives and another strategy for the workers. For example, there are plenty of organizations in which two canteens exist; one for the managers and the other for the workers. Such strategies always create a partition between the workers and the managers. Workers may feel that the management is treating them as second hand employees. On the other hand, if the organization provides only one canteen for all its employees, including the managers, employees may not feel a gap with the managers. In other words, some of the business strategies taken by the companies can widen the gap between the employees and the managers. Such strategies cannot be considered as ethical or logical. Obviously, a disconnect between individual and organizational values will be dysfunctional. Additionally, an organization may publish one set of values, perhaps in an effort to push forward a positive image, while the values that really guide organizational behaviour are very different. When there is a disconnect between stated and operating values, it may be difficult to determine what is "acceptable (Leadership, Decisions Making: “Strategic Leadership and Decision Making”, p.2). An organization does business for profit making. So, it will follow strategies to increase the profits as much as possible. In other words, an organization may give first priority to profit and then to ethics and morality. On the other hand, there are plenty of people who like to keep some values in all their activities. Such people may try to give more emphasize to personal values while working as part of an organization. The interests of such an employee and his organization may not travel in parallel directions. Thus, a disconnect may occur between the organization and the employee or the individual. Many of the modern organizations have the habit of declaring something and practicing other things. In other words, what they said about values may often lie on papers and in practice they may do everything opposite to the said values. For example, Enron is a company, which declared volumes about its corporate social responsibilities and functioned against it totally. Employees and the customers may struggle while an organization say something and act differently. Ethical leaders always give more importance to what is said or declared in the mission and vision statement of the company, while taking practical decisions. “To behave ethically is to behave in a manner that is consistent with what is generally considered to be right or moral. Ethical behaviour is the bedrock of mutual trust” (Leadership, Decisions Making: “Strategic Leadership and Decision Making”, p.2). It is not necessary that the values practiced by some people are acceptable to other people. For example, having more than one wife is not an ethical practice in some societies whereas in some other societies, nothing wrong with it. Same way, organizations also may have specific values and customs. For example, nobody can blame an organization in the Middle East for keeping a work schedule, which extends up to 7 P.M. It should be noted that extreme hot weather conditions forced Middle East organizations to allow a 1-4 break and then continue the work till 7 P.M. On the other hand, if an American organization follows same strategy, nobody can label it as an acceptable activity. In short, there are some parameters which makes one organization different from other organizations. Under such circumstances, organizations can decide what is morally good and wrong for them. At the same time, general organizational values remain the same everywhere in the world and these values should be observed strictly. For example, 8 hours/day work is accepted everywhere in the world. All organizations in this world should act in accordance with this principle. If an organization, forces the employees to work more than 8 hours without overtime allowances, that activity cannot be labelled as ethical under any circumstances. Virtually every society makes some determination of morally correct behaviour. In Islamic countries, a determination of what is right or moral is tied to religious strictures. In societies more secular, the influence of religious beliefs may be less obvious, but still a key factor. In the United States much of what is believed to be right or wrong is based in Judeo-Christian heritage. The Ten Commandments, for many people, define what is morally right or wrong. Societies not only regulate the behavior of their members, but also define their societal core values. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" represent core American values (Leadership, Decisions Making: “Strategic Leadership and Decision Making”, p.3). Fridays are sacred for Muslims and Sundays are sacred for Christians. Nobody can blame an organization in Saudi Arabia for asking the employees to work on Sundays and take break on Fridays. Same way, nobody can blame an organization in America for working on Fridays and not working on Sundays. In this increasingly globalized business world, diversity in work force is a common thing. In other words, there are plenty of organizations in America in which Muslims are working and there lots of organizations in the Muslim world in which Christians are working. Strategic leaders often try to give offdays on Sundays to the Christian employees and Fridays will be allocated for the Muslim employees. Thus, the religious values and beliefs of the employees can be honoured. “Organizations, to some extent, define what is right or wrong for the members of the organization” (Leadership, Decisions Making: “Strategic Leadership and Decision Making”, p.3). There are lot of political differences also between organizations operating in different countries. For example, an organization in China cannot operate as freely as an organization in America. This is because of the differences in political regimes in these two countries. It should be noted that the communist administration in China neglect human rights whereas American administration gives more importance to human rights and personal liberties. Google is one company which forced to opt out from China because of some of the unethical policies of the Chinese government. In short, organizational ethics have direct relationship with politics prevailing in the host country and therefore the rights of one organization may not be the right of another organization. Causes of unethical behaviour are different at individual and group levels. At the individual level the causes of unethical behaviour are; complexity of strategic issues obscures ethics; competition for scarce resources/ power/position and conflicting loyalties. At the group level Causes of unethical behaviour are; groupthink; presence of idealogues and negative organizational response to dissent (“Strategic Leadership and Decision Making”, p.7). The interests of the groups and that of the individuals may not travel in parallel direction always. This is because of the fact that no two individuals are alike mentally, intellectually or emotionally. These differences forces individuals to think differently. That is why leaders often take different decisions while facing similar problems. For example, in order to provide freedom to Cubans, Castro selected violent means whereas for the same purpose, Mahatma Gandhi adopted nonviolent means in India. Same way groups also have contrasting interests since they operate from different canvases. For example, Hitler tried to conquer the world through WW 2 to regain the lost pride of Germans in the WW1. It should be noted that majority of the Germans supported Hitler even though Hitler implemented many unethical practices in the war. These principles are true in the organizational world also. An organization in operating from China cannot implement the same business strategies following by an organization in India or America. In short, the interests of groups and individuals need not be the same always and individual and group interests may affect decision making. Most of an individuals ethical development occurs before entering an organization. The influence of family, church, community, and school will determine individual values. The organization, to a large extent, is dealing with individuals whose value base has been established. This might imply that ethical organizations are those fortunate enough to bring in ethical individuals, while unethical organizations brought in unethical people.. While the internalized values of individuals are important, the organization has a major impact on the behavior of its members, and can have a positive or negative influence on their values “Strategic Leadership and Decision Making”, p.7). Personal code of conducts, play an important role while a person takes decisions. It is not necessary that a believer and an atheist may take similar decisions while facing same problem. This is because of the differences in the belief structure of these two. A believers always consider the life in this world as a temporary process and he is always particular about the life after death. On the other hand, an atheist may not believe in life after death and hence he may take decision for immediate gains. In other words, the moral and ethics followed by a believer and an atheist may be different. While working in an organizations and taking decisions, personal belief structure can affect the decision making process. To conclude, strategic decision making by leaders is an important topic in the corporate world. Modern leaders are keen in taking ethical decisions since such decisions can boost the image of the organization. Current people are giving more importance to companies practicing sustainable development policies. In short, ethical decision making is not a principle or theory, but a practice in the corporate world nowadays. Works Cited “Leadership, Decisions Making: “Strategic Leadership and Decision Making””. Read More