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Ethical Leadership and Culture Change

In: Business and Management

Submitted By aasummers
Words 3006
Pages 13
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 throughout and make further recommendations on ethical leadership in practice. The research undertaken in this report finds that where leaders are identified as “being moral”, they will ensure that ethics is a pivotal part of their leadership agenda, which can be identified through their behaviours, and recognise and reward followers who emulate these desired behaviours to enhance the

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