Leadership Ethics - Attracting Followers in the Area of Universal Values - Term Paper Example

[Supervisors Leadership Ethics Introduction Some people become leaders because they have or develop certain talents and dispositions, or because of their wealth, military might, or position. Others lead because they possess great minds and ideas or they tell compelling stories. And then there are people who stumble into leadership because of the times or circumstances in which they find themselves. No matter how people get to be leaders, no one is a leader without willing followers. Managers and generals can act like playground bullies and use their power and rank force to force their will on people, but this is coercion, not leadership. Leadership is not a person or a situation. It is a multifaceted moral relationship flanked by people, based on conviction, compulsion, commitment, emotion, and a shared hallucination of the good. Ethics, then, fabricates at the very center of leadership. This essay discovers the ethical ins and outs of leadership. Most scholars and practitioners who write about leadership genuflect at the altar of ethics and speak with hushed reverence about its importance to leadership. Somewhere in almost any book devoted to the subject, there are a few sentences, paragraphs, pages, or even a chapter on how integrity and strong ethical values are crucial to leadership. Yet, given the central role of ethics in the practice of leadership, it's remarkable that there has been little in the way of sustained and systematic treatment of the subject. The state of research on leadership ethics is similar to the state of business ethics twenty years ago. I argue that ethics is located in the heart of leadership studies and not in an appendage. The learning of ethics in general consists of the test of right, incorrect, good, wickedness, virtue, responsibility, compulsion, rights, fairness, evenhandedness, and so on, in human being relationships with every one and other living things too. Leadership learning's, either straightly or indirectly, tries to appreciate what leadership is and how and why the leader-follower connection works (What is a manager and what does it mean to work out leadership How do leaders show the way What do leaders accomplish And why do people follow). Because leadership necessitates very characteristic kinds of human relationships with characteristic sets of ethical problems, I consider it suitable to submit to the theme as leadership ethics. Ethics In Leadership Ethics is one of those subjects that people rightfully feel they know about from experience. Most people think of ethics as practical knowledge, not theoretical knowledge. Ethics is primarily a communal, collective enterprise, not a solitary one. It is the study of our web of relationships with others. Ethics is elementally the pursuit of justice, fair play, and equity. Ethics is how we make a decision to behave when we make a decision we belong together, " the study of ethics has to do with developing standards for judging the conduct of one party whose behavior affects another. Cleanly, "high-quality behavior" is going to do no damage and respects the rights of all exaggerated, and "terrible behavior" is deliberately or neglectfully flattens on the rights and interests of others. Ethics, then, tries to locate a means to defend one person's personal rights and needs alongside and besides the rights and wants of others. Of course, the inconsistency and innermost tension of ethics lie in the truth that even though we are by nature collective and in need of others, at the similar time we are by character more or less self-centered and self-serving. If principles and ethics are a part of life, so too are employment, labor, and trade. Work is not impressive thing disconnected from the rest of human existence, but to a certain extent "man is born to labor, as a bird to fly." What are employment and business about Making a living Yes. Producing a manufactured goods or service Sure. Creating money or profit Completely. In actual fact, most ethicists quarrel that business has an ethical compulsion to make a profit. But business is also concerning people who are anywhere leaders-- the nation you work for and work with. Leadership is a mutually dependent, tangled, symbiotic connection. Life, work, and business are all of a portion. They be supposed to not be seen as disconnect "games" amuse yourself by different "rules." The venture of leadership is not separate from the ventures of life and living because they contribute to the similar underneath line -- people. Ethical Challenges in the Leader-Follower Relationship The concept of leadership is a process rather than a person or state. This process is essentially a shared experience, a voyage through time, with benefits to be gained and hazards to be surmounted by the parties involved. A leader is not a sole voyager, but a key figure whose actions or inactions can determine others' well being and the broader good. It is not too much to say that communal social health, as well as achieving a desired destination, is largely influenced by a leader's decisions and the information and values upon which they are based. A major component of the leader-follower relationship is the leader's perception of his or her self relative to followers, and how they in turn perceive the leader. This self-other perception implicates important ethical issues concerning how followers are involved, used, or abused, especially in a relationship favoring a leader's power over them. Within this dominance motif, followers are essentially seen to be compliant and manipulability in the extreme. An instance of this a corporate CEO who said that leadership is confirmed when the ability to inflict pain is demonstrated. Clearly such abuse of power runs counter to the idea of mutual dependency in a shared enterprise and the value of maintaining personal dignity. Hurting people is usually not the way to get the best from them. Further, abuse deprives a leader of honest information and judgments from cowed subordinates. This can fuel the self-absorption and self-deception that are pitfalls of arbitrary power. Organizational climate studies from the mid-1950s onward show 60 percent to 75 percent of organizational respondents reporting their immediate supervisor as the worst or most stressful aspect of their job. This dysfunctional system of Leader-Follower Relationship contrasts with one that shows the discipline and unity of purpose represented in "teamwork" aimed at clear performance. Achieving teamwork demands a concern for maintaining responsibility, accountability, authenticity, and integrity in the leader follower relationship. Indeed, the oft-mentioned "crisis of leadership" usually reveals an absence of these elements. This normative position has distinctly functional value as a universal perspective applicable to the political and organizational spheres. Ethical Leadership, Emotions, and Trust: Beyond "Charisma" Much of the racket has to do with the well-known but slight unspoken observable fact of charisma, the thrilled demand purportedly produced and for that reason sophisticated by leaders. Charisma, in supplementary words, has much to do with sentiments, but not presently the emotion created by leaders. It is also, primary and leading, the fervor of the leader. It is bizarre, then, that the environment of emotion, the extremely heart of charisma, be supposed to have been so long, disused by leadership researchers. What has as well been forsaken, all the length of with sentiments is the esteemed connection trapped between emotion and ethics. This association speaks to pretty a few of the more controversial debates regarding leadership: the location and pleasant appearance of charisma; the atmosphere of leadership itself; the hazards of wickedness leaders (the "Hitler problem"); the environment of ethical leadership; and the surroundings of the association between leaders and the led. The substance of leadership by means of an often exhilarating but on the odd occasion examined set of connections: the relationship stuck between emotions and leadership; the correlation between emotions and ethics; and, as a result, the associations between emotions, leadership, and ethics. To sum up, I would like to put it to somebody that moral leadership is fundamentally based on an touching relationship, with the importance on charisma substituted by the much more commonplace (but no less evasive) conception of faith. Whereas charisma is distinguished as an inexplicable characteristic of a leader, faith, perceptibly, is a connection stuck between a leader and his or her followers. The sensible applications will be understandable. The focal point on management will tolerate fruit only if, nothing likes some lovelorn cowboys, we do not go looking for leaders in all the erroneous places. Ethics And Business Good ethics are good business. They not only keep the organization out of lawsuits while enhancing its reputation, they also infuse increased spirit and synergy, peace of mind and trustworthiness, within its walls. Organizations are changing so rapidly that ethical reflection is at best a permanent "gray area." Even though a company has ethical standards, many leaders have no idea how to implement them. The unintended ethical fog has opened the door for unmitigated rationalization--give us five minutes, and we can rationalize any action in any situation. If we have no standards, no "uncrossable lines," we are likely to go anywhere that is not clearly illegal. This propensity has led to the bizarre phenomenon of lawyers acting as agents of ethics. Law was never intended to be the foundation of conscience. We now face a peculiar situation: Ethics seem to be in a perpetual state of ambiguity; lawyers cannot add clarity without moving beyond their minimalistic function; and rationalization has become one of the primary goals of ethical reflection. As a result, we see: 1) a rapid increase in lawsuits and transactional costs; 2) employees attempting to get a "fair deal" from companies by stealing, missing work, and misusing property; 3) a rapid decrease in trust; 4) a rapid increase in fear, anger, suspicion, passive aggression, and compulsive ego; and 5) a loss of integrity, an internal disposition that associates our identity with moral rectitude. This internal disposition is progressively being replaced by an external constraint system. Instead of saying, "This action is a violation of principle," we now ask, "Please contact our lawyer to see if we have a legitimate exception to our possible violation of the latest interpretation of this statute." Using such "moral" logic, we dissociate our identity from our moral convictions. Our employees will see this, take a cue from it, and follow suit. The only way of reversing this disturbing trend is to return to principle-based ethics. Without principles, we are reduced to emotions, intuitions, or a harms-benefits calculus, but all of this lack "backbone." Emotions can change, intuitions can be rationalized, and a harms-benefits calculus can favor one group or another. To move beyond the subjectivity and ambiguity of these three approaches to ethics, we need to set up quasi-inviolable principles upon which the community agrees. When principles are inviolable, they should be viewed as the source of collective nobility and identity. They are what we stand for. They describe our inner being and what is likely to emerge from our actions. Principles, then, not only stem the tide of rationalization, they also ground true nobility, loyalty, and sacrifice by fostering intrinsic goodness in both individuals and groups. Without them, we lapse into cynicism, for pure pragmatism is powerless to incite a recognition of intrinsic goodness, and powerless to excite the human spirit. Qualities Of A True Ethical Leader A true Ethical leader requires: Wisdom --to have reasoned recognition of the transcendent nature of the core ethical principles to all other personally held beliefs regarding human interaction; Wisdom --to have the imagination required to fairly and consistently applies the core ethical principles to all aspects of human interaction; Wisdom --to act as a "public prism", refracting decisions, policies, programs, etc. into the spectrum of the core ethical principles for all to see and rationally discuss; Wisdom --to teach and instill in their diverse followers, appreciation of the importance of the core ethical principles and how to use them. Courage --to publicly commit to the transcendent nature of the core ethical principles to all other personally held beliefs regarding human interaction; Courage --to lead, act, judge and willingly be publicly judged in accordance with the principles. Benevolence --to appreciate the importance and diversity of personally held beliefs and respect the rights of people to have them--as long as their actions do not impinge unwillingly on the core ethical principles regarding their interaction with others. Honesty -- Being truthful, straightforward and candid are aspects of honesty. Integrity--Being faithful to one's convictions is part of integrity. Loyalty-- There are many synonyms for loyalty: fidelity, faithfulness, allegiance, devotion and fealty. Accountability-- Leaders are required to accept responsibility for their decisions and the resulting consequences. Fairness-- Open-mindedness and impartiality are important aspects of fairness. Caring-- Compassion is an essential element of good leadership ethic. Respect-- Treat people at work with dignity, honor privacy, and allow self-determination. Promise Keeping-- No leader can function for long if its commitments are not kept. Responsible Citizenship-- Respect the will of the people in Pursuit of Excellence-- Set an example of superior diligence and commitment. Conclusion Announcing that ethics is at the center of leadership, I conclude, "A culture's ethical values are what describe the concept of leadership." Leadership is primary to ethical considerations. It is affirmed, "Without the incessant pledge, enforcement and modeling of leadership, regulations of business ethics cannot and will not be accomplished in organizations . . .. Badly led businesses storm up doing unprincipled things." The trustworthiness of leadership depended on its ethical reason, faith, and the hopes it produced. Leaders are seen as compelled and accountable for the ethical atmosphere of their group, associations, or society. A most important mission for leaders is bringing mutually their followers in the region of universal values. The leaders themselves frequently are seen as the personification of such values. And just as when leaders are more experienced, those they lead are more successful, so when leaders are more decently mature, those they lead put on show superior ethical reasoning. Opposing to the critics, it is the leaders who are more probable to connect in unprincipled practices and leaders who are fewer probable to do so. Leaders focus on incurable values such as honesty and evenhandedness. Whether the actions of leaders are seen as high-quality, right, and correct or bad, mistaken, and shocking depends upon their phase of expansion. The smallest amount of mature leaders is opportunists. Such "opportunists" put into practice exploitation, dishonesty, and conditional strengthening for serviceable purposes. Their ethical consciousness is to swap over "an eye for an eye." Comparable to them in ethical development are the "diplomats" for whom community norms decide what is correct, good, and appropriate. At the other severe extreme in expansion are leaning leaders who see the accountability for their organization's progress and contact on society. Works Cited S.L McShane & Glinow M.A Von; Organizational Behavior: Emerging Realities For The Workplace Revolution, (2005), Boston; London: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Pg 368-531. J.Howell & D.Costley; Understanding Behaviors for Effective Leadership, Pearson Prentice Hall. 2nd edition. Pg 432-568. Read More