Leadership and Corporate Behavior - Essay Example

1) To take the first part of the question about how the teams might be predisposed towards unethical behavior, this usually happens when the team members and the manager have had a history of deviant behavior and are known to break rules. Hence, the best way to get the teams towards good behavior is to ensure that they are audited for their performance and consistency in meeting the standards laid down by the company. The predisposition towards unethical behavior is usually by teams that have a lack of clear-sighted leadership from the manager or the CEO as the case may be (Augustine, 1995).

Hence, the point needs to be made about team selection taking priority at the initial stages itself and then selecting and choosing team members in such a way as to ensure that people who have a history of ethical behavior are selected. This can be done at the time of hiring and recruitment itself. The team members must be hired after thorough background checks and vetting so that any previous disposition towards unethical behavior is found out (Salmon, 1993). Leadership is all about leading from the front and by example.

Hence, there is a need to develop leaders who are capable and also exhibit ethical behavior. This is the primary requirement for leadership. So, the teams that are to be formed should have the leaders in such a way as to ensure that illegal activity and recourse to unethical behavior is curbed. In conclusion, it is incumbent upon the team leadership to guide the team in such a way that ethical norms are followed and that the team follows normative rules of behavior consistent with those drawn up by the ethics committee (McCall, 2002).2) A crisis management plan has to anticipate crises, plan for contingencies and have a mitigation strategy when the crises arise.

This is the essence of a good crisis management plan. To take each of the components in turn, a good crisis management plan must be able to anticipate future crises from happening. Though all crises cannot be anticipated, there are many of them that can be identified at the beginning of the planning process. These include the system outages, threat of building collapse and accidents involving personnel (Daboub, 1995). The next step would be to have a back up plan for contingencies that revolves around the ways and means to deal with the crises.

For instance, there can be back up servers when the main server crashes leading to an outage. Similarly, there can be an alternative site that can house some personnel in case of damage to the main building. All these crises can erupt at any time and it is better to be prepared in advance. The mitigation plan is the component that that outlines the steps needed to be taken to prepare for contingencies. Hence, purchase of additional servers to meet any system outage is the mitigation strategy for a case where system outage is anticipated (Davis, 2002).

Apart from the scenarios listed above, there can be crises arising out of the unethical business practices that result in loss of reputation and financial loss as well. These can be anticipated and prevented by having risk and compliance officers who monitor the teams to find any instances of unethical behavior among the team members. In conclusion, it is the duty of the chief risk officer or the compliance officer to deal with crises and the final bottom line responsibility being the CEO. Hence, the VP of Risk management has the responsibility to develop a crisis mitigation plan.

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