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Guidelines for ethical leadership
Importance of ethical decision making in a business
Importance of ethical decision making in a business
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Recommended: Guidelines for ethical leadership
Leaders make critical decisions between right, wrong, and the lesser of two evils every day. These decisions can affect the person making the decision, their employees, and goals of the organization. There are many readings that describe ethics and leadership, but ethical leadership is basically knowing your inner values and having the courage to steadfastly live by them for the purpose of the common good. Southwestern College's Master of Science in Leadership program has given me a firm understanding of how important ethical reasoning is and how it impacts, good and bad, an organization.
My first artifact, LEAD505 Leadership and Ethics Assignment explains that there's a strong relationship between good leadership and ethics. Since many organizational leadership decisions are inherently difficult to make, it is impossible to have effective leaders without an ethical underpinning. As noted by Ciulla (2004) there's been examples in which corporate leadership has had a number of ethical short-comings in recent years, ranging from Enron to WorldCom. My opportunity to learn the lessons of these ethical failures has allowed me to witness how devastating of an affect they have on an organization. Although I will always try to lean on my core values to guide me to the best possible decision, I know that there will be times I will be forced to choose between two unfavorable choices.
In the course of my duties I'm certain I will be forced to choose between alternatives that are both unfavorable in some way, which is referred to as an ethical dilemma (Ferrerll et al., 2008). When this occurs, I know I must first identify what the ethical dilemma actually is before I can proceed to a sound decision. Once I've firmly interpreted wh...
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...results at all costs, they may be at a higher risk for questionable ethical decision making. The primary differences in ethical leadership between various leaders can be contributed to the inner values of the respective leader and them having the courage to live by them for the purpose of the common good. Also, there may be times when no clear-cut right answer is present; which is why ethical values are critical for leaders to have. Finally, when inappropriate ethical values are not upheld by leaders, it can spread to their employees and ultimately result in devastating outcomes like Enron and WorldCom failures.
Works Cited
Ciulla, Joanne B. (2004). Ethics, The Heart of Leadership. Westport , CT: Praeger Publishers
Ferrell, O, Fraedrich, J., Ferrell, L. (2004). Business Ethics: Ethical decision making and cases. Houghton Mifflin Company.
Boston, MA.
At times in a person’s life, they might come across a few situations that leave them with a major decision between two or more options that challenge what they believe or what they might think is wrong or right. These are known as ethical dilemmas. Be it seeing a friend steal something and choosing between being honest and speaking up or letting it go. It can also be getting paid more than you earned and deciding if you’re going to be greedy and keep the money or return it. We run into these situations in our lives, some bigger and more influential on our destiny’s while others are small with no real consequences.
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.
Looking at the ideas behind what ethical and leadership mean you can easily find someone who exemplifies being ethical and one who exemplifies leadership. When choosing a ...
The importance of ethical leadership is emphasised in theories of ethical leadership such as transformation theories which seek to raise the consciousness of followers by appealing to ideals and moral values rather than to materialistic desires or negative emotions such as fear and jealousy; Servant leadership theory which explains why the primary concern of the leaders should be to nurture, develop, and protect followers; Spiritual leadership theory which explains how leaders can enhance the spiritual meaning in the work experienced by followers; Authentic leadership theory which describes an ideal leader whose behavior is guided by strong positive values, (Yukl, 2010). In addition, all these theories emphasise the importance of leadership
Murphy, Patrick E.. (2009). The Relevance of Responsibility to Ethical Business Decisions. Journal of Business Ethics. DOI 10.1007/s10551-010-0378-4
Palmer, D. (2009). ‘Business Leadership. Three levels of ethical analysis’. Journal of Business ethics, pp.525-526.
Ms. Barrett’s positive attribute that makes her the exemplar ethical leader is her use of the altruistic approach to leadership (Wharton School, 2008). She credits her altruistic approach to leadership as inspired by her mother who was of the opinion that work was about making a positive difference in the lives of others. It was all about empowering others and creating a positive work environment. She follows the principle of treating everybody equally and in the way that she would want to be treated. Her opinion is that leadership is not only about the title, but is inclusive of every staff member. According to Mihelic, Lipicnik & Tekavcic (2010), being ethical is about playing fair, thinking about welfare of others and thinking about consequences
Great leaders effectively and efficiently direct, advise and motivate their followers. They confront many ethical problems and the choices they make in these circumstances reveal their moral duties and adherence to ethical standards (Module 6, Summary,
I now recognize that after I have established “one principle then the other principles will naturally fall into place” (Spencer-Brown, 2016). I think that it is important to fully understand what it means to be a leader in an effort to effectively lead others. According to Northhouse (2013) “leaders play a major role in establishing the ethical climate in their organization” (2013, p. 448). Learning about ethical theory is essential because it offers me “a set of principles that guide me in making decisions” (Northhouse, 2013, p.448).
Viinamaki (2012) agrees to this view and suggests that value-based leaders shall carry the responsibilities of establishing ethical standards and goals, rewarding achievers with ethical conduct, and punishing defaulters of ethical standards and
Ethical leaders are humble, concerned for the greater good, strive for fairness, take responsibility, show respect for each individual, and think about the long-term consequences, drawbacks, and benefits of the decisions they make in the organization (Leigh, 2013). Ethical leaders influence the values of the organization by setting high ethical standards and act in accordance with them in order to serve as role models for their followers. These types of leaders are perceived as honest, trustworthy, courageous and demonstrating integrity. The more the leader "walks the talk", by translating internalized values into action, the higher the level of trust and respect he generates from followers (Leigh, 2013). Unethical leaders follow a different path.
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.
In the era of continuously evolving business scenario where organizational structure is getting more and more complex, the task of leadership is getting tougher. Business leaders are dealing with volatile economic climate, political policies and growing international competition. Innovation in technologies, emergence of knowledge based business tools and industry dealing with them, ruthless media and publicity mechanism, an aware and demanding consumer and environmental resource concerns put forth a complex mix of challenges that managers must face to be successful. Further, in the aftermath of some recent financial events ethics are going to play a bigger role and leaders throughout the world will be tested by the choices they make.
Most organizations with their management team, as well as their employees, are usually challenged with ethical decision making in their daily activities. This arises due to conflicting circumstances involving moral values, ethical practices as well as legal perspectives. For instance, employees may be stuck in making a morally acceptable decision due to conflicting ethical consideration to their professional practice. Even though ethical dilemma situations may be rampant in business organizations, it can be mitigated by maintaining moral integrity through following some set of code of ethics.
The purpose of this report is in order to analyze that how important the effective leadership, decision making and ethical management are for leaders making the ethical decisions and ensuring the organizational decisions are made ethically.