Basics of Ethical Leadership - Essay Example

Ethical Leadership Name Institution Instructor Course Date of Submission Ethical Leadership Ethical leadership involves initiating leadership mechanisms that respect the dignity and rights of both employees and other individuals affiliated to organizations. Naturally, leadership positions attract social power. Ethical leadership thereby focuses on how a leader utilizes this power in decision making, influencing others, and initiating actions. The level of integrity with which ethical leaders handle themselves promotes trustworthiness from the other employees, which is necessary for them to accept the leader’s strategies towards achieving the company’s broader objectives. Winning the employees trust is one of the main components of ethical leadership. The integrity and character of the leader provides a strong foundation for personal beliefs that direct ethical decisions and values (Robbins et al, 2008). Individual beliefs and values strongly affect ethical decisions made by any leader. Ethical leaders understand there influence on others and thereby are people oriented. In this case, they use their social power for the sake of serving the greater good rather than self-interests. This puts the employees in a more comfortable position to give their best at work. In addition, employees slowly feel like they are part of the company and in that case dedicate themselves to achieving the company’s objectives. A leader’s decisions impact not only on the organizations but also on others. Ethical leaders then have to take the initiative of motivating the employees to place the interests of the company above there own. This involves engaging them in an emotional and intellectual commitment between the followers and their leader, which makes these two sides equally responsible in the pursuit of common goals. The features of ethical leaders concur with inspirational motivation, which is a fundamental component in transformational leadership. Inspirational motivation or leadership persuades the workers to work towards the leaders’ dreams and vision for the team and to stay committed to the teams objectives (Allen & Hecht, 2004). In this case, ethical leadership plays the role of stimulating and inspiring, visionary behaviors, which make up charismatic and visionary leadership. Ethical leadership assists other followers to gain a sense of individual confidence and competence, which allows them to become self-sufficient through empowering and encouraging. These make ethical leadership quite important and necessary in any organization. In the view that the leaders decisions impact a wide range of people, the best ethical leaders make known their ethics, values and they preach them in their character, leadership style and their actions. Effective communications is part of the components that determine the success of any firm or organization. Ethical leadership allows for communicating accurate and complete information where there is professional, personal, ethical and legal obligation to do the same. The satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing attracts admiration and respect from the followers, which also acts as a motivation to the leader himself (Wilson, 2000). It is always necessary in ethical leadership to state clearly, what is needed or risk losing the trust of your followers. The line between ethical leadership and unethical leadership is quite thin and less conscious leaders may not realize when they step beyond the ethical line. Unethical behavior in a working place may range from picking or making personal phone calls in office to knowingly telling a client misleading information and taking the supplies of the office home. In many organizations, an ethical code is created which is mostly a list of guiding rules on the workers behavior and conduct. To ensure that workers respect and follow the rules, the leaders have a responsibility of taking a front role in respecting the rules themselves (Warr, 2002). Small as such rules and conventions may be, they formulate a basis on which the greater success of the organization is founded. It ties together elements such ambition, teamwork, honesty, efficiency, dedication to quality outputs, accomplishment, and cohesion in organizations, which create a necessary environment for successful planning and implementation of organizational strategies. Ethical leadership however, does not exist without opposing perspectives. The roles and views on ethical leadership above provide a social learning view, which include role modeling that promote ethically appropriate and normative conduct, which is demonstrated in the decisions made by leaders. Contrasting perspectives concentrate on the actions and cognitions of leaders and argue that ethical leadership is practiced through various levels of psychological processes, which influence behavior rather than social learning (McShane, & Travaglione, 2007). This alternative view confirms that people perceive ethical leadership differently. The idea of ethics is never universal across the world even though different element with which it is designed may be similar. Whatever the perception one has on ethical leadership, all the stands are associated with various desired outcomes, which are related to individual and subordinates and group levels. The outcomes include the readiness to put in extra effort to assist others, job satisfaction, task performance, commitment to objectives of the organizations and its broader success, optimism of workers regarding the future of the organization and their place in it, voice, autonomy, perceptions of significance of the task and their willingness to report various arising problems to the management. Leaders perceived as ethical are viewed as having the potential to take the organizations to higher standards but also to rise to greater positions themselves (Athota, 2009). Different stands on ethical leadership all do not welcome defiance and counterproductive behaviors in work places. This entire discussion focuses on outcomes, a fact that may easily dismiss any behavior considered ethical but with undesired outcomes. The outcomes, which are quite fundamental, are achieved trough assessing the behavior of others and their consequences on the organizations achievements. Outcomes of a steady ethical leadership are as well influenced by some other variables (Allen & Hecht, 2004). Workers always need to feel valued and respected. An ethical leader thereby is tasked with the responsibility to emphasize the importance of each worker in the organization. The idea is to place each employee in control of their tasks, which promotes commitment, loyalty and elicits extra efforts, as each worker will be outcome oriented. Ethical leadership in an organization just like any other element of success can be promoted or hindered by a number of factors. An organizations culture for instance can hinder or promote ethical leadership. Each business organization has a culture designed and shaped by the business itself and the people that ran the business. What may be seen as the strength of one organizations culture may still be a greatest impediment to success in another organization (Robbins, 2008). Emulating rules and cultural rules from different organizations thereby can work positively or negatively to organizations ethical standards. It is clear that apart from few common elements of ethics, they are never uniform in all companies across the world. To visualize how cultures may strongly come into play, let us imagine an American executive trained at a British school and working in an Argentine facility owned by a Japanese firm. The executive has to understand the culture he works in and how the employees perceive ethical leadership. In this case, the executive has a task to identify the beliefs of the employees and plan how to turn them into productive elements of the organization. This is quite crucial and confusing as he has to battle with his American believes, British training, Argentine location and the Japanese ownership. There is a greater likelihood that these four groups have different ideas of ethical leadership. Unless the leader understands this, initiates mechanisms that appeal to the society, the employees and the owner, he risks not only being termed unethical but also failing to achieve the objectives of the organization. Leaders are required to have vision, yet how this vision is displayed differs in different countries (Arnold et al, 2005). The Chinese for instance, despise leaders that talk minus engaging in specific action while the Indians on the other hand prefer bold and assertive leaders to visionaries. Their perceptions of ethical leadership are founded on such standards, which may present a great challenge to a leader that does not understand them. An ethical leader is also required to be charismatic. Many attributes attached to it are perceived to contribute to great leadership. Yet this term invoke ambivalent perceptions in different countries. There are countries that raise the concern that people tend lose balance due to excessive focus on charismatic leadership and its achievements. As much as this different stands may present a challenge to a leader who is greatly interested in achieving ethical standards, they may work positively if the leader is willing to adjust and to fit in the society’s perception or rather idea of ethics (Robbins, 2008). Communication is also important in ethical leadership. Communication can either promote or hinder ethical leadership depending on the leader’s mastery of the communication skills. However just like any other element, communication skills are perceived differently in different cultures or backgrounds. An ethical leader must be a good communicator, yet what constitutes a good communicator may sharply vary across cultures. For instance, the face-to-face approach communication strongly valued by American managers may easily be rendered unethical by the Japanese managers who prefer the use of memos. Negative feedback in America is given directly to workers and they are used to it, while in Japan, it is considered more ethical to channel it through a peer of the subordinate (Furnham, 2005). This differences that project the individualistic form of honesty and the face saving collectivistic norm in Japan may provide a great challenge to ethical leadership. The idea of leadership through ages has been to increase a company’s production and the profits. However, different theories have developed in the 21st century the call on leaders to not only ensure the productivity of the company but also instill moral and ethical standards. This recent developments are slowly emphasizing the importance of ethical leadership in companies. This implies that good leadership encompasses competence, transforming people and ethics. Leadership entails influencing followers to behave in a particular manner perform and action and complete a given task. They propagate processes; stimulate change of values and attitudes in other workers, augment the workers self-efficacy and initiate the internalization of the company’s objectives and the leader’s vision through empowerment strategies (McShane, & Travaglione, 2007). The nurturing ability of leaders is said to be quite fundamental to any firm. It is a foundation of which employees values and an organizations culture are formed. It is however important to note that ethical standards need an ethical leader. When a leader is ethical, the likelihood of him/her ensuring ethical standards throughout the organization is quite high. A rigid individual who finds it difficult to adjust to such variations may find it difficult to provide ethical leadership. On the other hand, followers will feel honored if the leader whether local or foreign is flexible enough to adopt the organizational culture and appeal to their perception of ethics (McShane, & Travaglione, 2007). This should not rule out the possibility of new rules working effectively in a different organization or environment. However, this will rely majorly on the leader’s persuasive power. As many people are cautious to adopt new ideas, the ethical leader must find mechanisms to win their trust for him to make any progress. Personal and organizational factors are then interconnected, as it is the people’s individual traits and functions that in the end shape an organizations culture (McShane, & Travaglione, 2007). However, an organization must work with guiding rules that determine the brackets within which individual traits should operate. This is what constitutes ethics. From the descriptions provided above, lack of emotional maturity and tolerance may greatly hinder ethical leadership. Emotional maturity is a basis of sound decision making particularly in tense moments. Lack of composure and patience may prompt haste decision making which in most cases impacts negatively on the organization. These make both the followers and the stakeholders in the organization to loose their trust in the leader (Robbins et al, 2008). To be an ethical leader, one must thereby have the ability to withstand extreme pressure and demonstrate high standards of understanding in different situations that the organization may face. The organizations set policies may also either hinder or promote ethical leadership. Some organizations are quite adaptable to change and are quick to adopt ideas that promise success. However, other organizations are formulated on dogmatic ideologies, which expect the appointed leaders to operate within these set brackets. This denies the leader flexibility and autonomy, which in turn hinder ethical leadership (Wilson, 2000). The leader’s frustrations are slowly passed over to the followers, and affect the organizations broader objective at the end. On the other hand, if the organizations culture allows the leader freedom to adjust to different situations as it deems necessary, the leader finds it easy to exploit his personal skills to the success of the business. In addition, the leader is more likely to pass on the sense of autonomy to the workers. When each worker understands their significance in an organization, it elicits commitment, which has a positive impact on the company’s objectives. Policies that are strict on ethics may also promote ethical leadership in an organization. Human beings err and too much freedom may allow too much error. Some organizations undertake detailed research to establish their standards operations and thereby expect the leaders to operate on these standards. Such policies may allow the leader autonomy but within the companies culture (Warr, 2002). Such policies hold the whole organization together, shape behavior, and promote ethical leadership. In this case, as much as the company is not supposed to be entirely rigid and deny the leader autonomy, it should have clearly cut policies that determine operational standards, shape organizational behavior, and ensure ethical operations. To sum all up, ethical leadership is important and necessary to any organization. It is founded on different elements that must be understood clearly by any leader. The role of any leader is to ensure that the company achieves its set objectives and strive for success particularly in the current turbulent world. Each organization wants to set itself as unique and thereby designs rules with which to operate from. The rules are designed to appeal to the surrounding society, the workers and the owners of the company. This is what constitutes a code of ethics. The employees with time learn to accept these rules and blend them with their different personal traits and backgrounds to design the organizations unique culture. At all times, the role of ethics is to promote harmony, unity of purpose, respect and cohesion among workers. This is to ensure the organizations success by providing an ample time and a conducive environment for each worker to perform their duties (Athota, 2009). An ethical leader thereby has to have a broader reasoning and an outstanding character to win the trust of the followers and the owners of the organization. With diverse opinions as they may in busy populated places such as an organization, the leader is supposed to meet varied expectations. This diversity may either hinder or promote ethical leadership depending of the leader’s ability to adjust, personal traits and the organizations readiness to adopt supportive policies. Autonomy is very vital even within the ethical brackets, however, regardless of all the hindrances, ethical leadership can be ;promoted if the leader understands and respects the rules and knows what his followers expect of him plus the support provided by the organization. References Athota, V. S., (2009). Personality influencing moral foundations. Journal of Organizational Moral Psychology, Volume 3(1) Allen, N. A., & Hecht, T. D. (2004). The “romance of teams”: Toward an understanding of its psychological underpinnings and implications. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77, 439‐461. Arnold, J. et al. (2005) Work Psychology: Understanding Human Behaviour in the Workplace (4th edn). Harlow: Pearson Education. Furnham, A. (2005) The Psychology of Behaviour at Work: The Individual in the Organization (2nd edn). Hove: The Psychology Press. McShane, S., & Travaglione, T. (2007). Organisational Behaviour on the Pacific Rim. North Ryde: McGraw-Hill. Robbins, S. P. (2008). Essentials of Organisational Behavior. Upper Saddle, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Robbins, S. R., Judge, T. A., Millett, B., & Waters-Marsh, T. (2008). Organisational Behaviour (5th ed.) Frenchs Forest, Australia : Pearson Education. Rosenfeld, R. & Wilson, D. (1999) Managing Organizations: Text, Readings and Cases (2nd edn). Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill. Warr, P. (2002) Psychology at Work (5th edn). London: Penguin. Wilson, E. M., (2000). Organisational behaviour reassessed: the impact of gender, SAGE publications. E-text. Read More

The satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing attracts admiration and respect from the followers, which also acts as a motivation to the leader himself (Wilson, 2000). It is always necessary in ethical leadership to state clearly, what is needed or risk losing the trust of your followers. The line between ethical leadership and unethical leadership is quite thin and less conscious leaders may not realize when they step beyond the ethical line. Unethical behavior in a working place may range from picking or making personal phone calls in office to knowingly telling a client misleading information and taking the supplies of the office home.

In many organizations, an ethical code is created which is mostly a list of guiding rules on the workers behavior and conduct. To ensure that workers respect and follow the rules, the leaders have a responsibility of taking a front role in respecting the rules themselves (Warr, 2002). Small as such rules and conventions may be, they formulate a basis on which the greater success of the organization is founded. It ties together elements such ambition, teamwork, honesty, efficiency, dedication to quality outputs, accomplishment, and cohesion in organizations, which create a necessary environment for successful planning and implementation of organizational strategies.

Ethical leadership however, does not exist without opposing perspectives. The roles and views on ethical leadership above provide a social learning view, which include role modeling that promote ethically appropriate and normative conduct, which is demonstrated in the decisions made by leaders. Contrasting perspectives concentrate on the actions and cognitions of leaders and argue that ethical leadership is practiced through various levels of psychological processes, which influence behavior rather than social learning (McShane, & Travaglione, 2007).

This alternative view confirms that people perceive ethical leadership differently. The idea of ethics is never universal across the world even though different element with which it is designed may be similar. Whatever the perception one has on ethical leadership, all the stands are associated with various desired outcomes, which are related to individual and subordinates and group levels. The outcomes include the readiness to put in extra effort to assist others, job satisfaction, task performance, commitment to objectives of the organizations and its broader success, optimism of workers regarding the future of the organization and their place in it, voice, autonomy, perceptions of significance of the task and their willingness to report various arising problems to the management.

Leaders perceived as ethical are viewed as having the potential to take the organizations to higher standards but also to rise to greater positions themselves (Athota, 2009). Different stands on ethical leadership all do not welcome defiance and counterproductive behaviors in work places. This entire discussion focuses on outcomes, a fact that may easily dismiss any behavior considered ethical but with undesired outcomes. The outcomes, which are quite fundamental, are achieved trough assessing the behavior of others and their consequences on the organizations achievements.

Outcomes of a steady ethical leadership are as well influenced by some other variables (Allen & Hecht, 2004). Workers always need to feel valued and respected. An ethical leader thereby is tasked with the responsibility to emphasize the importance of each worker in the organization. The idea is to place each employee in control of their tasks, which promotes commitment, loyalty and elicits extra efforts, as each worker will be outcome oriented. Ethical leadership in an organization just like any other element of success can be promoted or hindered by a number of factors.

An organizations culture for instance can hinder or promote ethical leadership. Each business organization has a culture designed and shaped by the business itself and the people that ran the business.

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