What is Ethical Leadership - Essay Example

What is Ethical Leadership? Leadership and its various forms hold great importance in the success of an organization. No organization can survive for long without good leadership. This paper is a definition essay that intends to introduce the concept of ethical leadership. Leadership is defined as the power to motivate people by words, actions and deeds using vision, belief and truthfulness. Ethical leadership is defined as the process of “ethically motivating others in ethical directions” consisting of both “procedural” and “substantive” (character-based) aspects (Chumir, 1992).

The procedural dimension of ethical leadership includes problem-solving and decision-making techniques within the circle of ethics. For example, ethical leadership demands that the leaders, before putting their decisions into action, inform and discuss them with the parties which are going to be affected by their decisions. This means that the concerned parties are being given due respect and importance. The substantive aspect of ethical leadership includes knowledge, strong standards and courage to follow ethical directions despite strong opposition.

The success of an organization depends largely on value-based actions and deeds. Ethical leadership will take care of the workforce so as to maintain a healthy environment within the organization. An ethical leader will keep track of having the salaries paid in time with no delay, will consider paying rewards and bonuses to the employers, will listen to the workers’ problems and will try to eliminate them. This will keep them working at high efficiency rates. The ethical leader will make pacts with business partners keeping in view what they want and respecting their decisions.

This trust between the partners makes the organization flourish and ensures its sustainability. Ethics promotes equality between the workers. An ethical leader will make sure that all workers are treated fairly. An ethical leader will know how to schedule his projects keeping in mind the time frame and instructs the team to manage their work schedules accordingly. An ethical leader knows that he has to abide by the rules and regulations he has agreed upon while signing a contract and will never back off.

All this adds to the progress of the organization. Virtues that are needed to make a leader an ethical leader include values, voice, vision, courage, less personal ego, understanding others’ values, framing actions according to ethics, task-scheduling, problem-solving, and decision-making. The ethical leader must be able to understand that others can make their choices and decisions based on their values, but simultaneously should know how not to give away his own ethical standards. He should have a strong grip on what he is supposed to do in a controversial situation, giving due respect to others’ opinions too.

It is the goodness of the inner self of the leader that leads him to do good decisions. The virtuous practices are needed for the progressiveness of a society and an ethical leader contributes in this by making use of virtue that is a part of his personality. In short, ethical leadership is the key to the sustainability of an organization. If an ethical leader knows how to make use of his virtues, then he can prove to be a leader whom people would love to listen and follow thus enhancing the common goodness of the society.

References Chumir, S. (1992). What is ethical leadership? Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership. Retrieved May 4, 2011, from Sheldon Chumir Foundation Website: http://www.chumirethicsfoundation.ca/main/page.php?page_id=20