The Role of Leadership in Organizational Integrity and Five Modes of Ethical Leadership - Article Example

The paper "The Role of Leadership in Organizational Integrity and Five Modes of Ethical Leadership" is a wonderful example of a management article review. Ethical leadership is about the perception of the leaders and the ability to imbibe social responsibility and organizational ethics into management (Powell, 2003). An ethical leader does not see these components as separate concepts. This reflects in their action and decisions (Kouzes, 2007). An article on Ethics and Policy Integration center, The role of Leadership in Organizational Integrity and five modes of Ethical Leadership, published on July 16, 2005, mentions four components of ethical leadership- Purpose, knowledge, authority, and trust.

Summary According to this article, these components should not be seen as individual components as they are all interrelated. The core purpose of ethical leadership is to be effective, efficient and excellent. To reach this level, these four components must be understood and followed. The purpose provides focus and generates consistency in the leader. Knowledge is the capacity of the leader to judge and act wisely but knowledge is also relevant to other areas and all this knowledge must be shared with all the others who do not have it.

Authority is the power of the leader but it also means giving others the authority to contribute to help achieve the goal. Trust is mutual and is the core of the organization. It is very important for the leader to be honest if he wants others to share their purpose with him. In the absence of purpose sharing, people may work at cross purposes and their energy might be wasted. The basis of applied ethics is shared purpose, responsibility, informed choice, learning, and growth. The most important from all of them is a shared purpose.

Honesty is vital for this. Making the right choices also depends on honesty. In the absence of honest information about others, a leader may make the wrong choice. Honesty also forms the base for owning responsibility. Although one definitely owns responsibility for their lives, if the people we deal with are not honest, they can not act prudently and that makes responsibility fixing difficult. Lack of honesty also makes these people devoid of growth. Growth needs an honest grasp of reality. If that is missing then they cannot grow and learn and be an effective leader.

This article also mentions five modes of leadership – Inspiration, facilitation, persuasion, manipulation, and coercion. While inspiration is about setting the example and expecting others to follow suit, it is the least intervening in nature. Facilitation is about supporting and guiding others. Persuasion believes in convincing others so that they can do their best towards the goal. Manipulation is used where there is no or low commitment by giving incentives. Coercion is also used where there is no commitment.

This is the highest scale of intervention. A leader can use one or more of these modes depending on the need. Inspiration is the best method but when there are committed people who do not have much belief in their own capabilities then persuasion and facilitation are helpful. In case there is no commitment then one should adapt manipulation and coercion to achieve the goal of the organization. The culture of the organization also plays an important part in deciding the mode of leadership. If there is a culture of learning and growing, then inspiration can be practiced but if there is no such culture then manipulation and coercion will have to be used.

If there is an in-between situation, then one can adapt facilitative or persuasive mode. As a leader one needs to first identify the culture of the organization and then decide the best policy (Bass,1990). At the same time, this is a very fluid area and one can not lay down very strict rules (Heifetz, 2002). One can make efforts to improve the culture of the organization so that people can improve their levels by learning and gaining ( Clawson, 2006). A leader is entrusted with the responsibility of leading the organization to its purpose.

At the same time, the entire organization must know about it and striving to achieve it. Here the leader’s role and responsibility are to make sure that everyone in the organization is aware of it. (Goleman, 2004) Implications As a leader, I would assess the situation periodically to rectify my course of action and mode of leadership (Wooden, 2005). So far, my style has been inspirational but maybe I have overlooked the commitment level of people in my organization. As in all practical situations, there can not be a uniform level of commitment in everyone.

(Northouse, 2007) Keeping that in mind, I need to use more persuasive and facilitating modes. Although I personally do not prefer coercing and manipulating the goal of the organization is above personal preferences (Kellerman, 2004) and I should be open to adapt these modes when needed. Another thing that I will adapt is sharing the vision and goal of the organization with everyone in the organization. Absence of this knowledge may be proving to be an obstacle for me in leading my organization to its goal.

(Collins, 2004)I should also assess the honesty of other people in my organization to ensure that I have the right information to base my decisions on. With all these additions in my leadership, I should be able to be more effective, more ethical and should be able to lead my organization more successfully to reach its final goal.