The problem to be investigated is the relationship between leadership, trustworthiness, and ethical stewardship; how these virtuous qualities can impact leaders, individuals, and companies. This paper will attempt to provide an academic opinion related to the problem investigated. The evidence of correlation between these qualities will be generated from my own personal experience and perspective as well as the viewpoints of multiple business experts.
Leadership
To guide, direct and manage people with an inspired purpose and vision is a workable definition of business leadership. In the book, An Integrative Theory of Leadership, Chemers defines leadership as enlisting the aid and support of others to accomplish a task. He enhances this definition by providing a model of leadership that involves three critical leadership tasks: (1) relationship development, (2) resource utilization, and (3) image management. This model includes internal integration, external adaptation and task-related / relationship-related theories. (Chemers, 1997)
Recently while working on an IT project the assistant who was working with me began to speak vulgarities about the project. Quietly I pulled her aside and told her that this was not appropriate language within a workplace. This was the first time we had worked together and creating a positive relationship between us was important to me but not as important as the relationship between me and the company that hired me. Developing ethical relationships coupled with the ability to manage resources are essential aspects of leadership. Chemers was correct to include image management as a critical leadership task. Now, more than ever, image management has increased applicability due to issues with devel...
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...and Ethical Stewardship. Journal of Business Ethics, 96, 497-512. doi:10.1007.s10551-010-489-y
Caldwell, C., & Karri, R. J. (2005). Organizational governance and ethical systems: A conventional approach to building trust. Journal of Business Ethics, 58(1), 249-259. Retrieved from
Chemers, M. M. (1997). An Integrative Theory of Leadership (1st edition.).
Emerson, R. W. (n.d.). Trustworthiness Quote. Retrieved from: http://josephsoninstitute.org/quotes/quotations.php?q=Trustworthiness
Hosmer, L. T. (2007). The Ethics of Management (7 ed.).
Jennings, M. M. (2012). Business Ethics, Case Studies and Selected Readings (Seventh edition.).
Johnson, K. (2003). The Role of Leadership in Organizational Integrity and Five Modes of Ethical Leadership. Retrieved from: http://www.ethics.org/resource/role-leadership-organizational-integrity-and-five-modes-ethical-leadership
Leaders who treat their employees with fairness, honesty, and provide frequent, accurate information are seen as more effective. According to Robbins and Judge (2014), “trust is a primary attribute associated with leadership and followers who trust a leader are confident their rights and interest will not be abused” (p.193). The old General Motor Corporation had eleven different CEO’s from 1923 until 2009 each with their own unique leadership style, which directed employees toward the organization goals. Unfortunately, many of the top level managers under the CEO’s had the tendency of filtering out information that did not match up with their pre-conceived notions about a particular issue and they lacked upward communication. One consumer goal of General Motors was to build trust in the company so people would be repeat customers, but building trust between employees and establishing an ethical culture was not a top priority of the organization. Goal directed leadership alone is important, but differs from a structure of leadership based on ethics. It is important to note, that effective leadership may not be the same as leadership founded on ethical principles. Business competence must exist, along with personal leadership accountability in ethical decisions. Within the General Motors organization, ethics and leadership did not interconnect; there were misalignment between the
Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership casting light or shadow is authored by Craig E. Johnson. This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to leadership and ethics. The first part of this book looks at the topic of the shadow side of leadership. This explores the abuse of power and privilege, mismanagement, and inconsistency in her leadership. Part two, looking inward examines the role of character development and the nature of evil, forgiveness, and spirituality. Part three looks at the ethical decision-making processes and provides theories and tactics. Part four looks at ways leaders can disseminate information in a variety of situations. The book teaches new terminology, key principles, decision-making formats, and important elements of ethical contexts.
The topic of interest in the field of organizational behavior that represents a workplace challenge in the United States is improving ethical behavior. Improving ethical behavior encompasses other aspects of Organizational Behavior, including cognitive dissonance, workplace deviance and conflict resolution. Leadership is key to developing moral standards as well as implementing, monitoring and taking action against any unethical behavior. Group dynamics play an important part in ethical behavior as groups are made up of people from all walks of life that have different values and also have different motivations for working. It all comes down to being a great leader. Ethical Behavior is important because it can lead to better organizational
This purpose of this paper is to explore leadership and its impact on organizations. Leadership as defined by XXX is “the power or ability to lead other people”; however, how does someone develop the skills to lead others. The skills and traits a leader should possess have been studied and written about for ages and ultimately the key is that leader is not born with leadership skills the skills are fostered and honed. Due to positive and negative impacts a leaders can have on their staff and ultimately their organizations leaders have an influential impact on the moral and success of the organization and its staff. Leaders who have not developed the skills to be a leaders for their organization and staff can
Leadership directly impacts an organization's bottom line, employee satisfaction, and turnover; it can impact how the organization is viewed by society and in particular its marketing audience. This is particularly significant during a downturn in economic markets. Organizations must meet budgetary controls, and need to communicate...
Mullane, Susan P. "Ethics and Leadership." Ethics and Leadership (2009): n. pag. Web. 17 June 2014.
Y Scouts describes an ethical leader as someone who is not afraid to do what is right even if it is unpopular or inconvenient (Y Scouts, n.d.). They also state that some of the traits an exemplary ethical leader will display are honesty, justice and respect to others (Y Scouts, n.d.). The leader I think exhibits exemplary ethical conduct is Travis Zarlingo. He is a Foreman for a construction company in Las Vegas and always shows ethical conduct at his company. First, he is always honest. He is open and truthful with his employees and fellow co-workers. He speaks the truth whether people like it or not. If it is right and ethical he will stand by it no matter what the costs are. Secondly, he always shows respect to others. This is one area
Ethical leadership is the implementation of leadership that has an ethical manner in the process of the implementation. Leadership is actually an activity of leading an organization or a group of people or the ability to do that thing. A good leadership can be applied by a good leader that has a good ethical manner inside them. The ethical leadership will be run effectively if the leader really make ethic as the foundation of the leadership process. The correlation between ethical leadership and organization is the organization need the ethical leadership in the process of the organization. Organization is a group of people that lead by one people
Leadership is defined as the action of guiding an individual or group of people. Effective leaders shape the behavior and thought process of the individuals around them. As a result, the success of an organization is often impacted by the leadership style and approach of its leaders. Even when engaging with multiple people, impactful leaders maintain their own style of leadership but occasionally change their approach based on the motivational needs of each individual. However, regardless of the style, leadership within an organization is designed to drive the performance of their employees and it is done through proficient communication. This guidance influences the culture of an organization, which subsequently, helps to shape its leaders.
A form of guidance in necessary to illustrate the direction that an organization, community, or society desires to move toward, therefore the approach of leadership becomes very important. In order to strive, define and achieve goals leadership inspires a sense of purpose and passion to the effort that the association undertakes (Russell Consulting, Inc., 2011). If a solid foundation of leadership is not applied the objectives, goals, customer service, quality, and, productivity will be lost and result in inadequacy for the corporation. An effective organization relies on leadership to serve and to communicate goals, strategies, organize, and motivate others to arrive at a collaborative result (Understanding Society, 2008). Challenges being faced include cultivating strength in leadership, building team environments to accomplish goals, having clear mission, vision, and values, and reducing employee turnover while improving workforce morale (The Ken Blanchard Companies, 2011).
Palmer, D. 2009. Business leadership: three levels of ethical analysis, Journal of Business Ethics. 88(3): 525-536.
23) is an example of how they help to foster trust the same way a leader fosters trust. A leader or school will teach the followers ethics and hold them to that ethical behavior. A good leader cultivates their people; a good school does this as well with their students. Cultivating ethics in people has pitfalls. Many times we make the mistake of misconstruing Ethics and Compliance. As Stephen Covey points out in his book “The Speed of Trust”- “The problem in organizations, however, is that many “ethics” solutions focus on compliance. The compliance definition of “ethics” is not one of integrity or integratedness; it is a watered-down, devalued definition that essentially means “follow the rules” (Covey, 2006, p. 61). Great leaders however, make sure their people know the difference between ethics and compliance. Aldo Leopold said it best when he said “Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching- even when doing the wrong thing is legal.’ (Goodreads, 2016) This is what separates ethics from compliance, doing the right thing when only you know that it is the right thing to do. Another part of being ethical is character. Character as defined by Dr. Henry Cloud is “the ability to meet the demands of reality” (Cloud, 2006, p. 24). This is how you act in real life. Character and integrity come together to form ethical behavior. At some point everyone has had a leader
Kursh, S., Lant, T., Majeske, K., Olver, J., & Plant, R. (2012). OL690 Responsible Corporate Leadership. : Pearson Custom Library.
People tend to forget this major contribution and how significant this really is. Usually when we analyze leaders, people will directly link their work ethics to the internal culture of the company. Great leaders indirectly create loyal customers by cultivating an environment where employees can shine in producing excellent customer satisfaction levels. Good leaders are functionally productive and effective because they know the importance of hiring the right people for the job and how to help them to develop skills that are essential to interact with customers and maintain good customer relationships. In contrast, a dysfunctional leader’s poor behavior would indirectly lead to poor customer relationship held by employees and this can ultimately increase loss of company profits. A major role is held by leaders in empowering their customer facing employees to reach or exceed any customer’s needs and expectations. In addition, any good leader should always be the cheerleader, supporter, and encourager to their subordinates through any situations. A good leader must also lead by example by practicing good customer service traits for the employees to follow along. Leaders always remember to deliver access to information and provide training that gives employees the right start when first joining the company and this helps them to mature. A leader who emphasizes on quality customer service and strong employee
Ethical leadership is having an understanding of who you are, what your core values are, having the courage to live them all, in your personal life as well as your work life. Ethical leadership involves leading in a manner that respects the rights and dignity of others. Ethical decision making and leadership are the basis of ethical organizations. Leadership is a relationship between leaders and followers. The foundation of this relationship is trust. The leaders themselves must be ethical in their decisions and actions in order to influence others to behave accordingly. Ethical leadership is to know one’s core values and having the courage to live them through one’s life. Ethics and leaders go hand in hand; ethics is the heart of leadership.