Effective Leadership, Decision-Making and Ethical Management - Coursework Example

Effective leadership, decision making and ethical management are linked both in theory and in practice. Name Course Date Introduction Ethical principles give the basis for different modern theories for business, companies and workers. This broadens the corporate and individual precedence far beyond the customary business goals and objectives of shareholder enrichment and profits. Ethical aspects are a significant influence in organizations and public sector companies who the customary precedence of cost management and service quality have more and more to consider the same ethical aspects that affect the corporate and commercial world. The process of decision making is always a hard task for everyone, it includes a number of factors like the decision itself and also conscience. Whether the choice is right or wrong or whether it is ethical or not ethical also affect the process of decision-making. For an effective leader to make good decisions and ethical ones, he must pay attention to conscience. The basis of every action by a person is the ethical principles. Applying ethical decisions in business management lays the foundation and sets the framework in which the decisions pertaining the business are made (Răducan & Răducan, 2014). This paper will discuss how effective leadership, decision-making and ethical management are connected both in theory and in practice. Ethical leadership Ethical leadership is composed of two fundamentals. One, ethical leaders have to make decisions and act in an ethical manner as it is also expected of ethical individuals. The second one is that the ethical leaders have to lead in an ethical way. This comprises of the manner in which they treat individuals on a day to day interaction, the way they encourage, their attitudes in addition to the direction that they lead the institution or organization or their proposals. Ethical leadership is mutually invisible and visible (Johnson, 2001). The visible aspect is the manner in which the leader gets and treats other individuals, his public behaviour, action and statements. The invisible part is within the character of the leader, his process of decision making, mindset, set of principles and values in addition to the courage he has to come up with ethical decision out of tough circumstances (Răducan & Răducan, 2014). Ethical leaders, maintain their ethical behaviour at all times, but not only when they are under scrutiny. They are ethical always which proves that ethics is an important part of the philosophical and intellectual framework they apply to relate and understand the world (Ciulla, 2004). Great choice making by the leaders is vital in the everyday running of the business. A decent choice is characterized as one that encourages the organization in moving closer to fulfilling its objectives (Maak & Pless, 2006). The question that one asks himself is the means by which the supervisors verify that they are settling on choices that will help the association fulfil its objectives? In a move to meet these goals, associations ought to examine the path in which the choices are made (Ciulla, 2004). The management must also put into thought the data that the administrators require giving in a move to settle on sure and snappy choices. For the association to perform its objectives, there is a need to settle on moral choices inside the association by the administration (Johnson, 2001). Unethical conduct in decision making happens in fragments and lastly ends up being enormous paying little heed to the workplace. The manager who is making the decision may not start displaying certain behaviours at once. The individual ends up being more tolerant with time as the conduct is portioned into a succession of unethical behaviour (Harris, Wijesinghe & McKenzie, 2013). The procedure of decision making is impacted by various components like cognitive predispositions, age in addition to individual contrasts, increment in duty, past encounters and confidence in individual importance (Johnson, 2001). All the above elements impact the decisions that people make and it is essential to comprehend them. In both the public and the private sectors, there have been cases of unethical practices day in day out. Hence, it is a colossal issue to deal with the untrustworthy practices. This calls for more noteworthy understanding of the elements that help the growth of this conduct in the associations with the goal that it can be overseen in an appropriate way (Ciulla, 2004). Decision making is also influenced by various cognitive biases. Cognitive biases are founded on generalization and observation which lead to inaccurate judgments, faulty logic and memory errors. These biases incorporate, however, are not constrained to: belief predisposition, the over-reliance on earlier learning in the decision-making process (Wu, 2013). Hindsight inclination, individuals have a tendency to promptly clarify an occasion as inescapable after it has occurred. Omission predisposition, for the most part, individuals have a penchant to discard data thought to be dangerous (Johnson, 2001). Affirmation predisposition, in which individuals look at what they imagine in perceptions (Bass & Bass, 2008). In the process of decision making, individuals are influenced by cognitive biases. This causes them to rely heavily or put more emphasize on the observation that are expected and their earlier understanding while disregarding observations and information regarded as tentative. This influence has led to poor and unethical decision making (Bass & Bass, 2008). Effective leadership and decision making Leadership is characterized as a methodology via which an individual can impact other individuals with the vision of accomplishing individual and authoritative goals. Leadership is a methodology of social impact; administration is a vacuum without a pioneer in addition to supporters. Leadership motivates deliberate movement from followers. The stiff-necked nature of agreeability partitions authority from the diverse variety of impacts concentrated around formal force (Maak & Pless, 2006). Finally, leadership realizes disciples' behaviour that is deliberate and destination guided in a sorted out setting. Various investigations of leadership focus on the method for power in the workplace. As indicated by Bass & Bass (2008), there is a distinction in the middle of management and leadership (Wu, 2013). Leadership is involved with impacting individuals to do what the pioneer thinks is right, so as to fulfil the authoritative goals. Management takes care of staffing, organizing, controlling, planning and directing. A director/manager performs these capacities and has official power and authority through the workplace or position held. Numerous a times, the supervisors are not effective leaders. The capacity of the leader to impact different people is established on different components selective of authority position or power (Bass & Bass, 2008). According to Harris, Wijesinghe & McKenzie (2013), a few pioneers are not successful while others are fruitful. The explanation for this is that the distinctive attributes of being a pioneer are a subject in different circumstances. This never implies, regardless that they can't evaluate how to turn into a successful pioneer (Wu, 2013). The pioneers need to learn diverse methods to administration keeping in mind the end goal to utilize the right procedure for every specific circumstance. One strategy for doing this is to comprehend the establishment of leadership hypotheses. This supports the current understanding of powerful authority. Since beginning of the twentieth century, there have been four main leadership hypotheses that have come up (Harris, Wijesinghe & McKenzie, 2013). To be an effective leader, a complex set of skill, qualities and knowledge are required. Many people tend to have the perception that an effective leader must know everything, do everything and be a solution to each person’s problems (Bass & Bass, 2008). Despite the fact that this is not achievable, the leader must always make ethical decisions. The leader should apply this knowledge together with different skills to create a favourable environment. He should also represent a set of ethical qualities which is diverse to make sure that the vision he has for the institution is attainable and inclusive. Effective leadership begins with extensive knowledge, behaving ethically and making ethical decisions (Harris, Wijesinghe & McKenzie, 2013). Building an ethical organization It is a challenge for the leadership in an organization to put together an ethical climate within the organization. The main question is how the leaders can put up an ethical organization? A number of steps that promote organizational ethics can be taken. First, it is the leadership actions and the way the leaders confront ethical issues. The organization top leadership actions determine the values of the organization. As a leader, to lead the organization team with integrity and character, you have to lead by example. The team that he leads looks up unto him. The leader must know his values together with the organizations value (Ciulla, 2004). The second step in ensuring ethics within an organization is making the ethics policies clear. A common example is the ethics code. The subsequent action is increasing the understanding among the employees on how to apply the codes of ethics. This means training them on how handle circumstances in an ethical dimension as well as anticipating circumstances that may involve ethical decisions. All this will help in a massive way to helping an organization have the required ethical practices (Maak & Pless, 2006). An additional action to enhance perceptibility of ethics within an organization is expanding the information system to emphasize on the field where ethics may be applied mostly. Understanding what happens within the company is imperative in perfecting the ethical ideologies that preside over behaviour. The ethical behaviour should also be supported by the information system and let the effective leader be aware of where or when there may be ethical breaches in order to constitute corrective action. When unethical behaviour goes unpunished or not noticed, it is a real danger since the employee may presume that organizational leadership condones the behaviour (Harris, Wijesinghe & McKenzie, 2013). Maak & Pless (2006) suggested that leaders must understand that the end result of organization achievement consistently incorporates ethics. The leaders must be eager to carry out even the little things consistently that assist to development its achievement. Leaders must repeat an acceptable and predictable positive morals message from the top (Wu, 2013). Responsibility to morals mindfulness must be expressed frequently and obviously; morals messages must be backed by positive cases of senior administrators settling on extreme decisions that are determined by organization values. Leaders have to craft and grasp chances for everybody in the association to impart positive ethics practices and values (Ciulla, 2004; Maak & Pless, 2006). A good example of an ethical organization is 3M. The worldwide technology company 3Mis famous for the organization values, reason being the whole organization team from the highest management to the lowest employee live by the ideologies of honesty and integrity on a daily basis. Within the 3M Company, there is clear communication on what is expected of the employees like personal accountability, respect one another at the work place and keeping promises. Each and every leader within the organization is aware of this code of practice. Hence, they perform their duties in accordance with these codes of practice, and therefore everyone else has to follow (Răducan & Răducan, 2014). Conclusion Leadership is a benefit and an obligation that requests a decent arrangement from the individuals who hone it, regardless of doing it formally or casually. The first on the list of responsibilities is the requirement to be ethical, equally in leadership and individual life. Since leaders are good examples whether they decide to be or not, they set the tone for the moral stance of their followers, association or the gathering they lead and to some degree the community as a whole (Răducan & Răducan, 2014). Amongst the most paramount of the qualities that characterize a moral leader are trustworthiness and openness; the suitable utilization of force, which is never mishandled or turned at the leader’s benefits. The willingness to tutor other people to lead and the drive to keep up and build competence. The readiness to make the debate of moral issues and choices a consistent piece of the company or culture and group discussion. The ability to acknowledge and genuinely considers response, both constructive and adverse. The capacity to set aside individual investment and self-image in light of a legitimate concern for the organization. Awareness of the people behind the names of "rival," "associate," "staff part," "member," and so on. References Bass, B., & Bass, R. (2008). The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications (4th ed., Free Press hardcover ed.). New York: Free Press. Ciulla, J. (2004). Ethics and leadership effectiveness. The Nature Of Leadership, 302-327. Harris, H., Wijesinghe, G. & McKenzie, S. (2013). The heart of the good institution. Dordrecht: Springer. Johnson, C. E. (2001). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers. Maak, T. & Pless, N. (2006). Responsible leadership. London: Routledge. Răducan, R. & Răducan, R. (2014). Leadership and Management. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 149, 808-812. Wu, B. (2013). New theory on leadership management science. Oxford: Chartridge Books Oxford. Read More