...Leadership and Ethical Decision-Making Sharon and Marcia share some parallels with their work history. Both women have been in the human resource field for almost 20 years. Both women seem to have been successful in their positions. Sharon seems to have an alpha personality. She will “jump” to get things done in the fastest way possible. I am concerned however, by her stating that she does not want to waste time by planning out anything with a lengthy implementation. UWEAR is going through a merger and although people tend to resist change, it cannot be avoided at this point. Also, considering Sharon is the HR manager for UWEAR, it should be noted that she was hired directly out of college with no prior experience. She also has not been kept abreast as to the legislation that is currently required for publicly traded companies, which can be seen by not having a whistleblower protection policy that should have been implemented after the SOX Act. Sharon’s style relies heavily on her intuition. She believes she can assess the environment around her and know what needs to be done. This is a great strength if she indeed can accurately assess her situation and see the path that needs to be followed to get the job done. Her weakness is her lack of enthusiasm for having a predetermined plan with an implementation timeline. Another strength that Sharon has, is her experience in being a part of a company that has grown into a larger, publicly traded company. She would be able to assist...
Words: 759 - Pages: 4
...AN EXAMINATION OF LEADERSHIP TO DETERMINE A DIRECT CORRELATION BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE AND ETHICAL DECISION MAKING Michael S. Huckaby BBA 4751 Business Ethics Professor Fernando Chavez Leadership is a complex and ever evolving skill-set. Good leaders not only guide behaviors of followers, but lead them and their organization to achieve common objectives. Good leaders have an ability to adapt to any setting so everyone feels empowered to contribute creatively to solving problems. Leaders of various levels of success have been studied throughout history, some good, some bad, but everlasting questions are always at the forefront of studying leadership: What is a good leader? What is the right approach to leadership or style of leadership? Do certain types of leaders produce better results? Are ethical leaders always the best leaders? If a single answer to these questions existed, perhaps society could build the mold of the perfect leader and distribute it throughout the world to solve the greater problems of society. However, this approach is unrealistic, so society is left to explore leadership in an effort to understand what makes a good leader. The primary purpose of this research paper is to critically examine whether a direct correlation exists between leadership style and ethical decision making. To answer this question, the author will examine each leadership style in terms of its definition, its multi-faceted dimensions or characteristics, and the associated...
Words: 3994 - Pages: 16
...Ethical Leadership •What are the components of a comprehensive framework for ethical decision making in business? Ethical Issue Intensity Business Ethics Ethical or Individual Factors Evaluations and Unethical Organizational factors Intentions Behavior Opportunity Ethical-Issue Intensity The first step in ethical decision making is to recognize that an ethical issue requires an individual or work group to choose among several actions that various stakeholders inside or outside the firm will ultimately evaluate as right or wrong. The intensity of an ethical issue relates to its perceived importance to the decision maker. Ethical issue intensity, then, can be defined as the relevance or importance of an ethical issue in the eyes of the individual, work group, and/or organization. It is personal and temporal in character to accommodate values, beliefs, needs, perceptions, the special characteristics of the situation, and the personal pressures prevailing at a particular place and time. Senior employees and those with administrative authority contribute significantly to intensity because they typically dictate an organization’s stance on ethical issues. In fact, under current law, managers can be held liable for the unethical and illegal Moral intensity relates to a person’s perception...
Words: 1618 - Pages: 7
...business ethics and their relation to leadership, managerial decision making, corporate social responsibility and overall corporate structure. Increased corporate scandals and the discovery of a rise in unethical business practices have thrown the topic of business ethics into the spotlight. Organizations are expected by their stakeholders to implement strong ethics within their corporate structure and culture. This expectation could be accomplished through strong ethical leadership, formal structures and regulations that place emphasis on ethics, and by making a commitment to corporate social responsibility. Using these guidelines will help organizations overcome the various challenges allowing the business to build a strong ethical foundation that will ultimately benefit the company through increased customer and employee satisfaction, which could result in increased profits, organizational sustainability and social status. The review of the literature reveals that there is still plenty of room for exploration on the topic of business ethics and particularly with the topic of ethical leadership. It is recommended that more focus be placed on understanding the influence of strong ethical leadership within an organization and how this influence flows down the organizational structure. Once this flow of influence is understood, exploration is necessary to identify the best procedures for developing and sustaining strong influential leadership ethics within the organizational...
Words: 6417 - Pages: 26
...TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 2 ETHICAL LEADERSHIP 2 CORPORATE CULTURE 3 CULTURE LEARNING 4 CULTURE CHANGE 5 CONCLUSION 6 RECOMMENDATIONS 7 REFERENCES 9 APPENDIX 13 INTRODUCTION Ethical leaders should act ethically all the time, not just in situations where it is expected. Ciulla and Forsyth (as cited in Olivier, 2012, p. 70) suggests that “[t]he good leader, . . . is challenged to be both technically good, i.e. effective at getting the job-at-hand-done and morally good, i.e. responsible for what he or she has done.” Leadership and corporate culture dictate the acceptable ethical standards of an organisation to their followers. Where leaders are identified as “ethical role models”, followers are more likely to imitate this behaviour and conform to similar values and beliefs explicitly delineated by their leaders and organisations (Shin, 2012). However the major challenge encountered by organisational leaders is about gaining the trust and commitment of followers to conform to the ethical standards required to achieve strategic objectives of their organisation (Caldwell, Hayes & Long, 2010). In this report, we define ethical leadership by looking at business ethics and leadership simultaneously. We analyse ethical leadership in the context of culture learning and culture change in ensuring ethical behaviour and Corporate Social Responsibility in organisations. We conclude this report by summarising the findings identified...
Words: 3006 - Pages: 13
...Introduction of the relationship between leadership and ethics. First, leadership is a process that is not specifically a function of the person in charge. Leadership is a function of individual wills and individual needs, and the result of the dynamics of collective will organized to meet those various needs. Second, leadership is a process of adaption and of evolution; it is a process of dynamic exchange and the interchanges of value. Leadership is deviation from convention. Third, leadership is a process of energy, not structure. In this way, leadership is different from management-managers pursue stability, while leadership is all about change (Barker 2001, p.491). In organizational terms, as in life in general, ethics are beliefs about what is right or wrong, they provide a basis for judging the appropriateness of behavior and they guide people in their dealings with other individuals, groups and organizations, managers are witnessing to those right and wrongs. (Khar, Praveen & Aggarwal,2011; Hansen, 2011). As Wines (2008, p.484) commented: ‘At bedrock, those who profess ethics believe that human beings are autonomous moral actors capable of making meaningful choices’. 6Approaches to ethics tend to fall into one of two philosophical camps: the consequentialist (teleological) and the non-consequentialist (deontological) (Pettit2003; Harper et al, 1996). Consequentialists argue that ethical values are meaningless unless they are actively promoted. For consequentialists...
Words: 10596 - Pages: 43
...examine leadership behaviours especially Ethical Leadership as it impacts the third sector organizations’ performance. This chapter is comprised of reviewed literature regarding leadership, ethical leadership and the third sector organisations. Specifically, this chapter will be broken down into (a) Leadership (b) leadership behaviours (c) ethical leadership in the Third Sector (d) Organisation Performance (e) the impact of ethical Leadership in the third sector’s performance. 2.1 LEADERSHIP Leadership is one of the world’s oldest preoccupation. The understanding of leadership has figured strongly in the quest for knowledge (Bass 1990). Purposeful stories have been told through the generations about leaders’ competencies, ambitions, and shortcomings; leaders’ rights and privileges; and the leaders’ duties and obligations. A review of relevant literature has uncovered many different definitions of leadership. Leadership remains one of the most relevant aspects of organizational context (Nwokocha 2011). For more than five decades ago, the term leadership has been a researchable topic. Mostly, the research work focuses on issues of quality of leadership, ability of a leader, or leadership effectiveness, or leadership styles (Daft 2008, Bass 1990, Erez et al 2001 & Yukl 2006) Stogdill (1974, p. 259) stated that “ there are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept” and Yukl (2006) highlighted that leadership is a...
Words: 10651 - Pages: 43
...instructed Stein, after several attempts to clear the clogging, to remove the filters altogether to ensure the batch completed before the end of the shift. Removal of the filters meant that the maggots that were contaminating the mix would be allowed to flow into the customer’s end product. There are several key management deficiencies that led to the dilemma faced by Stein and the night crew. First, Burnham’s decision making process and the lack of quality standards are indications that the company’s cultural climate is not focused on producing a quality dairy product. Second, the absence of a formal leadership structure allowed a young crew of unsupervised workers to waste company time and resources which resulted in a poor decision to meet the expectation of completing the production run before the end of the shift. Lastly, the organization’s minimal controls on production to limit waste of resources allowed the night shift to misallocate their production time in lieu of horseplay which resulted in a rush to finish the batch before the end of the shift. Ethical Behavior Kuntz et al. (2012) argue in their study that not only age, but other occupational...
Words: 2003 - Pages: 9
...essay will examine and analyze whether hiring ethical people is the key factor in encouraging and producing an ethical organization. Ethics refer to the moral standards set that enables an individual to tell what is right from wrong and what is good and bad. In today’s organizations, the importance of the code of ethics is more prevalent than ever. Code of ethics consists of various factors such as being honest, building trust, and upholding the ethical standards. Organizations that exercise ethical codes not only feel that it is a way to portray a positive image to the stakeholders, but also because it highlights its own organizational virtues and values. It is believed that such culture could cultivate and encourage more ethical behavior for the employees in the organization (Stevens, 2008).Code of ethics are also used to articulate the restrictions for the organization, and to set a benchmark of what is acceptable and unacceptable, boosting responsibility, and conveying the standard expectations demanded from the employees as well as the leaders in the organization (Stevens, 2008).The ethical codes can be described as an effective tool to promote ethical behavior in the organization(Stevens, 2008).However, researchers have came up with reports that hints that the practice of ethical codes are unproductive and they have failed to create an impact in an employee’s behavior(Stevens, 2008). One of the studies suggested that ethical codes are not suitable and were ineffective especially...
Words: 2459 - Pages: 10
...Business Ethics in Leadership Corey C Calhoun Sr. Liberty University 05/03/2016 Business Ethics in Leadership Recent corporate scandals, such as Enron, Parlamat, and WorldCom, have generated significant attention in the field of business ethics. Whereas the interest in this subject pre-dates these scandals, they have undoubtedly raised the profile of ethical concerns in business among scholars, practitioners, and governments (Knights & O’Leary, 2006). Additionally, there is a growing concern on what role leadership plays in perpetuating ethical values in an organization. Consequently, scholars are concerned with discerning leadership qualities that would ensure moral and effective practices in a company. What is the relationship between leadership and ethics? One of the key questions (or in some cases assumptions) in the literature on leadership is regarding the nature of the relationship between leadership and ethics. The definition question in leadership studies is not really about the question ‘‘What is leadership?’’ It is about the question ‘‘What is good leadership?’’ By good, I mean morally good and effective. This is why I think it is fair to say that ethics lies at the heart of leadership studies. Leaders worthy of the name, whether they are university presidents or senators, corporation executives or newspaper editors, school superintendents or governors, contribute to the continuing definition and articulation of the most cherished...
Words: 2478 - Pages: 10
...Leadership, Ethics, and Scandal Leadership and ethics are two topics that are a part of the training for all military leaders, both officers and enlisted and across all branches of service. Leadership can be defined in any number of ways. Kouzes and Posner quote Genentech executive Alan Keith as saying “Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen” (Kouzes & Posner, 2007, p. 16). Keith’s idea of what defines leadership is one of the better definitions in print today. Ethics are defined as the moral principles that dictate a person’s or a group’s behavior. By using the ideas and writings of Terry Price (2008) and Craig Johnson (2012) a concept of what ethical leadership can be obtained. Ethical leadership is knowing what your core values are and having the courage to live them in all parts of your life in service of the common good; whether it is in private or in public (Price, 2008/ Johnson, 2012). Over the past few years the Army has seen its share of scandals involving a number of top leaders. A few of the more notable reports involved former four-star General William “Kip” Ward, one-star Brigadier General Jeffrey A. Sinclair, former Colonel James H. Johnson III, and former CIA Director and retired Army four-star General David H. Petraeus (Briggs, 2012, Nov. 15). Army four-star general William “Kip” Ward, the first officer to open the new Africa Command in 2008, came under scrutiny for allegations...
Words: 3485 - Pages: 14
...Leadership, Ethics and Corporate Governance In order to identify the definition of a leader, one must first define an accurate representation of the meaning of leadership. There are many ways to define leadership. For example, Webster’s dictionary defines leadership as, “1. The office, position or function of a leader, and 2. The quality of character and personality giving a person’s ability to gain confidence of, and lead others,” While this definition presents an accurate meaning of the word leadership, it greatly lacks the detail in truly defining the meaning of leadership. “There are many ways to define leadership. In fact, there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as they are people have tried to define it" (Stogdill, 1974, p. 7). The definition of leadership has evolved over the years, for example in the early 1900s, leadership was defined as, “the ability to impress the will of the leader of those who lead and induce obedience, respect, loyalty, and cooperation” (Moore, 1927). Today, leadership scholars agree that there is not a single common definition for leadership (Rost, 1991). The process of leadership is the interaction conducted between the leader and the followers whereby the leader influences a group of followers to achieve a common goal. Leadership and management are not synonymous. In numerous ways, leadership is a process similar to management. Both leadership and management involve influence, working with people, and effective goal accomplishments...
Words: 2304 - Pages: 10
...means that they can make the right choice. Only by making a distinction between what is wrong and what is right (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2003). Business ethics is, therefore, meant to guide controversial issues in a company environment. These issues include corporate social responsibility, discrimination, unlawful practices, corporate governance, bribery or corruption, insider trading and other irresponsible business behaviors. Ethics is at times guided by local frameworks chosen by different companies. These structures act as a way of enhancing their image and public trust, but it is a requirement that values is guided by a duly constituted legal framework (Paliwal, 2006). This paper, therefore, discusses business ethics in an organizational context and also delves into ethical dilemmas, moral leadership, interpersonal skills and teamwork in an enterprise environment. Appendix A- The Ethical Leadership Debate Ethical leadership incorporates two key aspects. The first point refers to the way the leader treats and works with the subordinates in his behavior in public, and also in his actions and statements. The second point lies in the decision-making process.In the leader’s mindset, in character, in values and the leader’s ability to make right decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas (Toole, 2010). The case study is very interesting as it presents a case for proponents of business ethics and ethical leadership as well as the...
Words: 1559 - Pages: 7
...years, there are many corporate ethics scandals, which raised significant enquires about the roles of leadership in shaping ethical conduct (Brown, Trevino & Harrison 2005). Leaders by nature are responsible for motivating their subordinates to carry out a task or to behave in a certain manner. According to Starratt (2005), ethical leadership requires ethical leaders, as it is believed that how the leaders conduct themselves have direct impact to the organization in terms of organizational culture and employee values. Also mentioned by Resick et al. (2006), ethical leadership focuses on how leaders use their social power in decision-making, influencing others as well as the actions they engage in. Therefore, if leaders are ethical, they can maintain high level of ethical awareness and ensure that ethical practices are carried out throughout the organization. Often, ethical leaders display a high level of integrity that is important to stimulate a sense of leadership trustworthiness. These factors provide the foundation for personal characteristics, which directly impact a leader’s ethical beliefs, values, and decisions. However, studies also show that leadership integrity only accounts for one minor portion of a person’s trait. In this essay, we attempt to provide insights and discuss ethical leadership and also attempt to prove that ethical leader is mostly about leadership integrity. Moral Person and Moral Manager While production and profitability goals are often...
Words: 913 - Pages: 4
...Running Header: ETHICAL LEADERSHIP 1 Ethical Leadership Kendra D. Nord PHL 3354- Management Ethics The College of St. Scholastica May 6th, 2016 ETHICAL LEADERSHIP 2 Introduction Our society depends on the abilities of our leaders and how well they can do their jobs. To me, a leader is someone that many people look to for direction, guidance, and inspiration. It is important for our leaders to have the aptitude to make difficult decisions, to know and do what is right for the people. A higher authority is crucial for supervising and regulating others as well as being an example of a hard and dedicated worker. Ciulla (2004) believes ethics is the heart of leadership and a good leader is ethical and effective. In this paper I analyze the importance of personal ethics in leadership and how ethics produce effective leaders. The traits’ I believe an effective leader has is; character, competence, compassion, courage, and to be open to change. Throughout this paper the reader will develop an understanding of what is personally required to become an ethical and effective leader. Ethical Leader Traits Leadership is a relationship between people. Therefore, the ability to ethically influence others is a major determination of effective leadership (Waggoner, 2010). Strong Personal Character is possibly the most important characteristic of a leader. A person’s true character is who they...
Words: 1703 - Pages: 7
