Leadership and Counseling: Relevance of Ethics in group in the Modern Scenario - Research Paper Example

Topic Leadership and Counseling: Relevance of Ethics in group in the Modern Scenario. Running Head: Leadership and Counseling: Relevance of Ethics in group in the Modern Scenario Abstract Leadership, as a process, can be observed as a twofold challenging test for an individual, who considered being a leader that whether he is capable of exercising his potential to the complete extent and his capability to inspire his followers to achieve their goals according to ethical and moral principles. There are several instances of such leadership that have not contributed anything to social or humanitarian context; rather the leader misused his power to attain his personal objectives. Thus, the modern scenario provides equal importance to leadership and consequent counseling of the group members according to the ethical and moral principles. The paper aims at casting considerable importance on the issue that to which extent counseling in leadership has become essential in the context of circulation ethical qualities in a group. The progress of humanity provides ample such instances that elaborate consequences of wrong counseling. Thus, counseling of a leader should incorporate the ethical principles so that members of a group feel motivated to reach out for group achievement, with proper respect for fundamental human rights. The paper also emphasizes on the issue of Christian theological principles regarding ethics and morality so that a leader can use those principles in his counseling method and consequently encourage group members to satisfy their ambitions, consequently benefitting the community or organizational achievement with proper evaluation of moral and ethics. Introduction: Leadership and responsibility of a Leader to encourage ethical values in a group Leadership, as a quality or as an individual human virtue, can generally be defined as a process or an approach that aims at leading certain individuals or a community towards accomplishment of certain goals. Since the early days of human civilization leadership or studying the skills to lead people have remained an importance aspect of concern. It has been admitted by scholars of different socio-religious, socio-political and academic disciplines that a leader not only leads his followers to a desired destination or to some unfulfilled goal, but he also has the capacity to impregnate in them the essential humanist and moral values. The issues related to ethics and human morality is related integrally with leadership as the history of humanity has observed several such incidents, where a leader has governed his followers to attain some of self-centered objectives, manipulated his evil desires according to the social psyche and used his capacity to command in such a way that the entire situation appeared as a fertile ground for immorality, inhumanity, abundant exploitation of fundamental rights and harmful self-centricity. Since inception of modernism, positivism in leadership is received special attention and it has also been emphasized both in theoretical and practical approaches that a leader is required to inspire or lead his followers according to the norms of ethical or moral principles. Leadership, as a form and as both theoretical and practical entity, has undergone a huge scope of change since the early times. It also encompasses within its scope various traits or manifestations. A careful study of all these traits and manifestations would show that when a leader has followed the path of humanity with proper respect of ethical-moral value, such effort has been fruitful, consequently, also has benefitted the entire humankind to be inspired by the same approach, ensuring the way to a better future; whereas, on every occasion, in the name of leading the followers a leader has misused the power conferred to him, tyrannical powers have emerged and finally devastating end to such leadership, which on a broader sphere has plagued the humanity. Thus, a leader is not only responsible for prosperity or development of his followers only with an intention to increase the support on his favor so that rule of anarchy can be encouraged but his role or his responsibility towards his followers can properly be realized only when there would be proper evaluation and celebration of humanity. While it was considered earlier that a leader is born and not made, in the recent time, thanks to the globalization and consequent developments that occurred within the domain of socio-cultural, financial and socio-political arena, considerable importance has also been provided over process or cultivated leadership. According to the traditional belief, while it was widely regarded that leadership qualities of an individual are possessed or inherited, the modern approach, in order to satisfy increasing demand of people in leading roles, has focused on cultivating the features of a leader (Northouse, 2009). However, in the modern socio-cultural existence, emphasis has been provided on both types of leaders and their leadership approach so that proper catering of ethical values in a group can be executed. Irrespective of the sphere of functioning, social, professional or personal, a leader is expected to encourage and advocate ethical values in a group so that apart from achieving the goal or respective accomplishment, humanitarian values are also protected and provided with adequate importance. Apart from governing his followers to achieve their desired goal, an essential duty of a leader is also expected to be counseling them in such a way so that they strive and attain their destination with proper respect to ethics and refrain themselves from adopting such measures that might deprive others from enjoying their rights or exercising their capacity as efficient individuals to attain the same or better objectives. The principles of ethical values, as has been conveyed by the Christian theological disciplines, prove to be quite effective in this context; consequently, the same source also provides several such instances to elaborate that how a leader, keeping in mind the principles of Christian theological approach, can circulate the essence of humanitarian and ethical values in a group. Thesis Statement Counseling of a leader to his followers in order to cater the principles of ethical values in a group has received considerable attention from social and academic perspective as well so that protection of humanitarian aspects can be guaranteed. Christian theological principles, in this context, have proved to be highly effective as these provide a systematic approach to leaders while it comes to inspire people to their desired goal, simultaneously, without violating fundamental rights of others. What is Leadership? The idea of leadership has undergone a great deal of change, compared to the earlier times, the post globalized world. Socio-cultural and socio-economic aspects have become so integrally associated with each other in the modern context that leadership and efforts to study on this discipline have become largely a industrial and socio-economic perspective based issue. Leadership, in the modern business world, is considered as one of the most important virtues, which is directly and integrally associated with growth of a company. Business thinkers, economists and business theorists in recent times have provided so much importance to the leadership factor that various theories, definitions and angles of judgment have originated. Leadership is such a virtue that encompasses within its macrocosmic scope different types of human virtues. Analysis of the modern business scenario shows that career interest in the field of business management has increased to a great extent among most of the new generation students across the world. In the United Kingdom, among students at the undergraduate level, the tendency of studying MBA has enhanced to such extent that, while in the earlier half of 1970s most of the UK college and universities were offering only four types of courses, the number has today reached to more than seventy types. “Official figures for the UK showed that in the late 2003 18 percent of all men and 10 percent of all women were managers, senior officials, professionals, or associated professionals or technical stuffs” (Delbridge, Gratton, and Johnson, 2006, p. 5). Not only in UK, but among most of the economically matured nations, as well as nations that are showing the power to emerge as economic power in future, the same tendency has become explicit. At the same time, it is also widely considered that managerial positions are actually the most fitting roles, where an individual can express his complete capacity of leadership. Young aspirants for managerial roles are keen to be selected either as project manager or executive manager in a business firm as they will have the scope and proper opportunity to exercise their leadership qualities, explore their talents and lead the firm to prosperity. This paper aims at focusing over various theories that deals with the role of a leader and definitions of leadership. It also aims at providing substantial focus over qualities of a person, who wishes to develop as a leader in the field of business management. Definition of leadership is not an easy subject. There are many things that have to be taken into consideration if someone tries to comprehend the actual structure of leadership. The pattern of leadership varies from person to person and, moreover, this pattern becomes clear when a leader passes through problematic situations. It is his/her moves, which define the pattern of leadership. The pattern also decides the direction in which the organization will be moving. And, obviously, the matter of success is entirely based on it (Northouse, 2006). Leadership is a topic, which may be found discussed in books, journals and other places where the critics talk about it but, actually, it is a matter of practical experience. Popularity of leadership as a topic has mainly been caused by the development of some major companies in the world under some valuable leadership. Literature is a field where leadership has always been praised. It is considered as a great human activity in this field. In this article my point is to judge leadership in a business oriented field. Management is quite clearly related to leadership from this point of view. But there are some differences between these two and sometimes there is also a conflict between them. Many of us have a wrong conception of what leadership is. That is why making big assertions about it goes completely in the wrong direction when a person is even not aware of what his topic is. Executive manager is a position of any company, which is wrongly taken to be the post of a leader of the organization. Leadership never means any designation. Hierarchy in designation is just a way to exercise the leadership authority. It can be seen in anyone starting from a manager to a labor. Vision is the main thing, which establishes a leader, and with this ability he/she can guide the others in the organization (MacNamara, 2008; Nurmi, Kaynak, and Darling, 1997). Very simply a leader can be defined as a person, who can influence the others, present in an organization. Everyone has his/her own opinions but the leader is the person who decides the final step. This privilege is given to him/her as the person has proved the success earlier. A leader, not only, would focus over his personal progress but also he will be equally careful about progress of other people in the organization. Empowered with his farsightedness and visionary capacity, he would take certain steps that will lead each people, associated with an organization, towards prosperity. Features of a Leader Philanthropic approach of a leader is an important factor that helps in providing high level motivation to people working under him in an organization. If a leader is only creating pressure over employees for achieving the organizational goal of the organization, without understanding their problems then such approach generates a distance between the leader and employees. Under such circumstances it becomes even more challenging for the leader to motivate the employees. An individual in a business organization is considered to be a leader only when he empathizes with the employees and at the same time, through such approaches, successfully churns out the best results out of the employees and substantially add to the overall development of the company (Hagstrom, Miller and Fisher, 2004). Gerhard Zapke-Schauer says in his book The Art of Leadership that any person should ever respect errors. It is the error from where we are able to learn. An organization, which avoids its errors, can never reach the exact state of perfection. With every innovative idea comes the risk factor and chance of committing error (Zapke-Schauer, 2000). The leader is the person for any organization to take the decision whether to go into further risks or not. Wisdom and foresight of the leader are therefore two main features without which a company’s growth stagnates. It is also the responsibility of the leader to look that no one has to suffer for his/her own mistakes. Mistakes are something from which the leader can judge whether to trade the same path again in future or not. One has to remember that corporate culture itself is very demanding and all kinds of innovations are in fact encouraged there a lot. Ambition is the main part of the corporate life. This is why a leader, be him/her in any designation of the company, has to take risks for the innovations. The leader should calculate risks. He/she should look after that the innovative decision does not call the end for the company. As far as management of a business firm is concerned, supervising and organizing are the main characteristics of the leadership in an ideal manager. He/she should also motivate others for the development of group performance (Zapke-Schauer, 2000). It is a task for the manager to reward the employees if they achieve a success. On the other hand punishing them for any failure is a matter, which has to be handled very sensitively so that none other’s sentiment gets hurt. The leader has to be aware of what is going among the members of his/her office. Understanding others’ psyche is an essential task for all the leaders (Wagner, 2008; Edersheim, 2004). The leader must participate in everything innovative and enthusiastic that is taking place in an organization. This helps the leader to form better relationships with others. He/she must motivate the silent members to come forward. This helps to energize the team to take up newer challenges in the coming future. The leader shows the way how to input in a task with complete dedication. Following this others come forward and work for the overall growth of the organization. A leader is also known for his/her high ethical standards. Therefore, care should be taken so that the leading person never falls from that standard for which he/she has been respected in the community. As for example, corruption in the company and a leader’s association with it certainly damages the person’s image. But one thing must be remembered in this context. There is no such theory which says that all the leaders will have the same ethical value. This is to say that each and every leader has a distinguishable way to act. The outcome may be the same but the paths treaded are different (McNamara and Trumbull, 2008). Leadership training has become one of the main educations required for the people who are associated with the managerial jobs. Lois Borland Hart, Charlotte S. Waisman and James M in their The Leadership Training Activity Book have suggested that leadership training is all about the education of self-development. One has to introspect in order to know what he/she is and what his /her capability is. A leader should also be well aware of the limitations, which may present in him/her. The trainings are about mental preparation to face any new challenge, work under pressure, to have strong nerves in the moments of trouble and finally, to participate in developmental activities. The leader is the backbone of an organization and he/she is the person who must be well trained in all these because it is with his/her movements the company’s fate is related (Cited in Hart, 2004). In her book, Becoming a Manager Linda Annette Hill says that managers of a firm should be well trained in leadership. It is the managers who make the right decisions at the times of turbulence. Foreseeing the prospect of future and understanding the company’s motive as well as direction are the main things, which are required in a manager. Managing, according to her, is a part of leading. She further adds that a manager who is doing his/her job for the first time in his life has to forget the attitude, which had cropped inside the person. This is because a manager’s appearance should never reflect any attitude. Passive but effective work is what is expected from the leader manager (Hart, 2004). Hence from the discussion above we understand that there are different definitions of leaderships. It is judged through different perspectives, from various theoretical dimensions and different business philosophy perspectives. Aspiring young leaders in the modern field of business are highly focused over establishing themselves primarily as project managers or executive managers. The entire process of executing such roles in dependent over four pillars, namely, Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. As managers are required to fulfill all these aspects at the same time and lead their respective teams for achieving the organizational goal, that’s why the terms manager and leader, in the context of business management, are often used interchangeably. Leaders or managers, “clearly involve groups of people and specific functions in relation to the group and activities. It would be unusual…to describe a group of people as having a manager, unless the group was in specific context (Martin, 2005, p. 337). When it comes to the context of Executive manager and project manager, there are certain differences in the roles towards the company. An executive manager is required to look after development and proper application of both business and strategic goals of an organization. On the other hand a project manager is responsible for fulfilling a project’s deadline within the scheduled period (Ireland, 2006, p. 4). To ensure these tasks, both executive manager and project manager supervise and evaluate performance of the subordinates on a regular basis. There are several business houses that develop different teams for execution of a particular project and each team is headed by a team leader. These team leaders collect total information about performance of each team members and report it directly to the executive or project managers. These managers evaluate performance of the team members as well as the team leader and appraise them according over their performance. However, during the same process of motivating team members and encouraging them to reach for the best possible result both for organizational and personal benefit should not be attained only with aggression, so that manifestation of the same receives such a form that it would result in adoption of non-ethical approaches only for the aim to satisfy respective goals. The modern corporate world provides several such instances that evidently suggest lack of morality or ethical aspects in human behavior, which not only hampers the cozy ambiance within a organization or a group, but on a larger scope also remain as a dark patch over organizational reputation. Ethics in Counseling: Responsibility of a Leader to cater Ethical values in a Group High academic qualification, intelligence, verbal articulation, aggression, problem solving and motivating capacity are not only features of a leader; rather, in addition to all these virtues his social sensitivity, self identification with the society and earnest desire to contribute benevolently to social context are some of the very vital features that a leader in the modern situation must inculcate (Forsyth, p. 263-64). In addition to all these aspects, it is also expected that he would counsel his team members in the same way to that they also feel motivated to take execute their actions according to ethical approaches. The Ten Commandments that act as major source of Christian theology in the context of reflecting humanism and ethical approach suggests that an individual should not adopt any such step that can amount to stealing or murdering or providing others wrong impression about someone or to adopt any such step, which would restrict the fellow counterparts from enjoying their basic rights (Exodus. 21: 13-17). Clearly, encouraging group members not be indulged in any such actions and consequently motivate them only to continue according to the norms of morality and ethics requires substantial empathy and consequent self evaluation on part of a leader. In this context Susan R. Furr and Bob Barret, in the article “Teaching Group Counseling Skills: Problems and Solutions”, have quite rightly argued that leaders are required to meet proper standards as prescribed by the American Counseling Associations Council so that attainment of the desired goal can be attained. It has also remained a matter of high concern for the authors as they are of opinion, after keeping a close watch over socio-economic trends that most of the leaders in the context of counseling their team members about following ethical principles during course of their functioning in an organizational context fail to meet up the standards, sometimes due to their lack of capacity and on others, due to organizational pressure to attain targets, however, it is required to adopt more strict actions against such failures, as in the broader social scope these failures can cast a greater deal of negative impact (Furr and Barret, December 2000). While engaged in a process of motivating team members of the ethical values and consequent execution of tasks according to the same measure, primarily, a leader is required to clarify the purpose and objective of counseling to the team members. E. Jacobs, Robert L. Masson, and Riley L. Harvill have clearly warned about negative impact behind such non-clarification as it might lead to an ineffective and time wasting process: “Groups are often confusing, boring, or unproductive when the objectives are not well defined or the leader does not follow the … objectives” (Jacobs, Masson, and Harvill 2008, p. 53). There is no denial of the fact that while working in an organizational context and handing a responsibility to handle a group of individuals, the pressure would be there over a leader. One of the greatest challenges that a leader in organizational scenario encounters is to find balance between handing organizational pressure to maximize profit and proper channelizing of diversity among team members. However, the only and most effective way to take control of the situation is to come up with new ideas or methods so that team members can be motivated to follow the ethical approaches and consequently putting their best effort for both individual and communal benefit. In this context also Christian theological lesson regarding maintaining balance becomes highly relevant: “Thou shalt not have in thy bag diverse weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house diverse measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthended in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Deuteronomy. 26: 13-15). It is the quest to attain the balance, whether in the personal or professional arena that troubles a human being to the greatest extent. However, it does not mean that engaged in the quest an individual would feel encouraged to provide higher importance to the aspect of material gain over ethical life. Ethics is “… the science of moral duty; more broadly the science of the ideal human character and the ideal ends of human action ... The chief problems with which ethics deals concern the nature of the summum bonum, or highest good, the origin and validity of the sense of duty, and the character and authority of moral obligation” (Paulson; Cited in Hill, Jan 2004, p. 133). Ignoring the moral obligation can surely provide huge amount of material benefit or access to quick success but adoption of flawed paths in order to ensure success would naturally lead to a downfall. Conclusion Leadership, the modern scenario of business environment is an absolute necessity as it plays a leading role in motivating members of a group and consequently leads them to achievement of both organizational and respective benefits. Keeping a close watch over the modern business sector and immense activism related to it, it cannot be denied that quite often, after coming under the organizational pressure, especially from the organizational hierarchy, leader of a group as well as team members often opt for choosing steps that violate both professional and personal ethical-moral norms. The historical development of human civilization is replete with ample of instances that show that non-ethical or immoral actions, though have provided certain momentary achievements, however, in the long run, all such attempts have proved to be unfruitful and consequently led to disappointment. Moreover, thinking beyond the negatives that can occur at the personal level due to providing importance to non ethical and immoral actions, in a broader scope these traits can create further negatives. While working in an organizational context, the unethical actions by one group member can restrain his fellow counterpart from performing to the optimum extent and consequently prohibit him to receive the position or admiration, which he deserves. Repetition such incidents can generate distrust, discrimination and non-cooperation among team members. Consequently, total potential of the team remains explored, resulting in casting deep impact over organizational performance and reputation. The situation can also amount to such an extent that members of a group continue with their unethical and immoral approaches with complete consent or support of the leader or a leader fails to convey the importance of sticking with ethical approaches to his group members. Naturally, the group would fail to perform in a manner that clients would ask from it and within a short period of time the beneficent relationship between client and the group will be broken. These factors also effect the organizational reputation and prevent an organization from reaching to the desired level. Leader of the group has to share majority of the responsibility and automatically has to be blamed for exploiting the trust or responsibility assigned to him. Pondering over recurrence of such incidents, the modern academic disciplines and official organizations are of opinion that a leader has to fulfill certain criteria in order to prove himself eligible to perform his duty, which is not only limited to achieve organizational targets but also circulate the principles of ethics among the group. In order to satisfy the requirement, he not only is required to be academically or theoretically satisfying required norms, but he also has to be empathetic towards his role as a social being. In case of conveying ethical values with a group, a leader is required to realize and respect his social responsibilities and identify his role as an individual in the society. During a counseling process, he also is expected to make this team members realize of the same and make it clear that organizational objectives must not be fulfilled at the cost of morality or ethical approach. These are basic lessons of humanity that are laid down in various religious disciplines, especially in the Christian theological approaches. Thus, during the course of counseling, and required articulation to fulfill the purpose, a leader can inspire himself as well as his team members according to ethical and moral principles of the Christian philosophy. Finding a balance between potential and achievement is one of the major challenges for leadership and in different domains of social and political life, keeping in mind diverse requirement of group members, a leader must strive and find his way towards achievement of the goal so that ethical and moral principles are maintained and people also feel motivated to reach to the level of their desired goal by proper evaluation of their respective potential. References Barret, B. and Furr, S.R. (December 2000). “Teaching Group Counseling Skills: Problems and Solutions”. Counselor Education & Supervision, 40(2), 94. Carroll, R. and Prickett, S. (1998). The Bible: Authorized King James Version. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Edersheim, E. H. (2004). McKinseys Marvin Bower: Vision, Leadership, and the Creation of Management Consulting. London: John Wiley & Sons. Forsyth, D.R. (2009). Group Dynamics. (9th Ed). Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Hart, L.B. (2004). 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