In order to define ethical leadership I think that one must first define the words ethical and leadership. By doing so it not only makes it possible to define what ethical leadership is, but it helps in shaping your own idea of what it means.
Ethical leadership is a term that has become very commonplace today. It is a concept that many have come to see as important as leaders do have a very big role to play when it comes to driving teams in the right direction. Choices and decisions made by leaders/managers impact the team heavily. Leaders must have high ethical standards to be able to manage and work effectively. Ethical leadership is the core of a great organization; a leader bears the greatest responsibility in the overall direction of an organization and that applies to ethics as well. An ethical leader must first and foremost be ethical; the five principles of an ethical leader should inform all levels of an organization to create an ethical culture for all parties. Maintaining ethical standards can make or break an organization and that depends greatly on the leadership that is practiced. Working at Sigmund Cohn, I have seen how ethics take priority over anything. Production will be stopped until certain questions are answered.
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
German Philosopher, Immanuel Kant once said, “In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so” (1800). The word ethics refers to “character” and “conduct” (Northouse, 2015, p. 330). It is deeply “concerned with the virtuousness of individuals and their motives” and “the kinds of values and morals an individual or a society finds desirable or appropriate” (Northouse, 2015, p. 330). Thus, “in regards to leadership, ethics is concerned with what leaders do and who leaders are” (Northouse, 2015, p. 330). Ethics in leadership allows leaders to make decisions regarding what is virtuous or not in a situation. All throughout the history of American government, difficult decisions have been made and the fight for ethics has always been “implicitly or explicitly involved” (Northouse, 2015, p. 330).
It is proven that teams who work well together perform and have a higher rate of success compared to teams who do not work well together or communicate with each other. A recent article with regards to leadership discussed the topic of group cohesion and how this is a factor for success. The article discussed several situations, one about a business company, one about a sports team and one about a military operation. The article closely analyzed the leaders of the three situations and discussed the similarities and differences between the three. The main similarity between was there focus on cohesion. The article contained facts about how the business was operating and how that in recent years, production and sales as increased drastically, and one factor for this increase was the CEO implemented a mandatory team building exercise each
The modern workforce is constantly evolving, and it is becoming increasingly multinational. Each culture represented in the workplace brings its own set of values, beliefs, and practices to the work environment. While this diversity can be used as a source of competitive advantage, it can also present a challenge when it comes to organizational leadership. In an effort to identify what leadership means around the world, Resick, Martin, Keating, Dickson, Kwan & Peng (2011) conducted a qualitative study of managers across six societies: The People’s Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong, The Republic of China (Taiwan), The United States, Ireland, and Germany. These societies were selected for the study due to the significant role that each county
He makes sure that the purpose for which an organization is made is rewarded. In other words, a leader is one who is competent of moving the organization in the direction set by him which he considered in a specified way fits. While having certain leadership competencies and skills, a leader should have the ability to adapt to different leadership style and behaviors to achieve organizational goals and objectives. At the individual level, leaders who are able to convince, motivate and direct employees will often be rewarded by devotion and performance of their employees (Mosadegh and Yarmohammadian, 2006). Leadership is an essential part of the activities of management of people and directing their efforts towards the goals and objectives of the
As we all know, leadership is ubiquitous in our daily life. From nation to business, and even in family, leadership indisputably plays the main game. In the business world, as likely or not, leadership, which is the field of subject that most researchers scrutinise, is deemed as the principal vitamin for a robust organisation. Literally, what is the true meaning of leadership? According to the Blackwood Encyclopaedia of Sociology, leadership is depicted as the process of inspiring, directing, coordinating, motivating, and mentoring individuals, and/or organisations (Pitsis, 2007). With respect to leadership, leaders in an organisation have to increase the work productivity of employees so as to bring about improved employee performance. In addition, the term of productivity, which can also be defined as organisational effectiveness, is an efficiency concept that measures how effectively inputs are transformed into outputs in view of the Blackwood Encyclopaedia of Management (2008). Besides, performance outcome is referred to a variety of measures used to assess effectiveness at the individual or organization level in which profit, customer satisfaction and market share are the examples (Cleveland, Performance Outcome, 2008).
Leadership in company is one of the most crucial part in the company as it can influence performance all the groups and individual, further affecting the effectiveness of the company. According to Clegg et al (2005), leading or exercise leadership is to be ahead of the others, to take hem forward where they
In the business world these days, we must take into consideration many factors in becoming successful individually and as a team. One major important factor I’ll be talking about is how ethics influence leadership. How I value the importance of having good ethics, my leadership experiences in life, and how I will apply these values in my future career.
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
This essay will focus on leadership within an organization and how it affects individual and organizational outcomes specifically using four theories including Fielder’s Contingency Model, Hersey and Blanchard situational leadership Model, Path Goal Theory by House and Dessler and finally the Participative Leadership Model by Vroom and Yetton. Leadership is said to be a dynamic interactive process, which involves the four other management functions, planning organizing, directing and controlling. Leadership is one of the most important roles of a manager; it is the process of influencing a organized group of individuals towards the achievement of a vision or set of goals. It must provide direction toward future aspirations and goal achievement.
So a leader is the one who leads the whole group . So is the one who has to come always with new ideas and accept the others` ideas too . A leader must ‘exhibit positive energy’ as to make the group show passion for completing a task . Leaders need always to take the first step as to show to the rest the way something needs to be done and in this way to encourage them (Caroselli,2000 p.4 ). They also need to feel proud of the achievement of a goal and show to their employees that their work was worthwhile . (p.7)
My research of academic papers and books has concluded the following. Ethical leadership includes leading in a way that reverences the entitlements and dignity of other people (Ciulla 2004). A leader’s character and integrity is the groundwork of their individual characteristics which direct and influence their morals, actions and decisions (Resick et al. 2006). Ethical awareness is another important trait of an ethical leader. Ethical awareness is being capable to observe and be thoughtful to moral concerns that are applicable and that require attention in decision making that will impact others (Resick et al. 2006).
Leadership has been studied from a wide range of perspectives and thus it means different things to different people. Some people view leadership as the focus of group processes, some others view it from a personality or skills perspective, to some others leadership is an act or behavior, some school of thought describe leadership in terms of power relationship while some view leadership as a transformational process (Northouse, 2012). Looking at the various definitions of leadership, there are various terms that are important; including the fact that leadership is a process that involves influence and the attainment of a common goal, and usually occurs in the context of a group (Northouse, 2012). The path-goal theory is one of the theories of leadership that emphasizes on the relationship between the style of the leader and the characteristics of the subordinates while taking in to consideration the setting at the work place (Northouse, 2012). The theory describes four different leadership styles; directive or instrumental, supportive, participative and achievement oriented. In the directive style of leadership, the leader guides his subordinates on what is expected of them and leads them on the right path towards achieving a goal (Silverthorne, 2001). In the supportive style the leader acts as a friend, is compassionate and pays attention to the needs of his followers and creates a caring environment for them (Silverthorne, 2001). A participative leader seeks and values the input of his followers at every level of decision making while the achievement oriented leader is task driven, sets high standards for his followers with the confidence that they will be able to achieve these standards (Northouse, 2012). In the path-goal theo...