Bill Gates as an Ethical leader

Bill Gates: An Ethical leader Background Ranking among the richest men in the world, Bill Gates has unsurprisingly been a widely debated-upon personality. His business and leadership practices have been considered as innovative but ruthless. The term ‘innovative’ is used to define a person who introduces novel, creative and original ideas, whereas a ‘ruthless’ person is one without empathy or pity for other people (Merriam-Webster, 2018).

Bill Gates is regarded as one among the most highly influential twentieth-century computer magnates, founding Microsoft which created the most widely-utilized PC OS (operating system) besides a broad range of popular organizational software. At present, he heads the largest charitable organization across the globe – the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Americans That Matter, n.d). Thirty years as the leader of Microsoft gave Gates the reputation of one among the globe’s most ruthless capitalist leaders.

However, ever since his focus shifted to charitable works, he has begun showing his more empathetic side (Ethical Corporation, 2008). Therefore, Gates warrants recognition as an ethical manager and leader, at the very least for inspiring another quest for organizational social opportunity, in which firms are genuinely able to do well and, thus, do good. Virtue: innovative Velasquez and colleagues (2008) believe that the sense of ‘community’ lies at the core of the virtue ethics approach.

An individual's character traits do not develop separately; rather they are cultivated by and within their respective communities, which include their families, educational institutions, religious institutions, and other public and private associations. With growth and maturity, an individual’s personality will be greatly influenced by values prized by his/her community, traits encouraged by the community, and community role models whose traits, represented in movies, folk tales, soap operas, fiction, etc., they tend to imitate.

The virtue ethics approach encourages one to focus on community contours and character traits cultivated or encouraged by the community. Thus, the ethical life is no mere matter of abiding by moral tenets and applying them to particular situations. Rather, it also encompasses attempts at understanding how one ought to be and concentrating on our own, as well as the community’s overall, character development (Velasquez et al., 2008). Ethical leadership has the following basic principles: knowledge, humility, honesty, fairness, equality, and understanding the leadership role.

The Microsoft Corporation is one archetypal example of a corporation epitomizing the ethical leadership approach. Founder Bill Gates demonstrated his personal core values of intensity, zeal and persistence, followed by pinpointing his vision that elimination of inequality could help improve our world. Gates brought his behavior in line with this vision, in addition to explicitly articulating this vision by managing and focusing his resources, energy and time towards making our world a better place – he established a family charitable foundation to better aid his philanthropic efforts (Culcchuttant, 2016).

Vice: Ruthless For long, Gates has remained one among the most polarizing personalities of the United States, with his products’ popularity typically overshadowed by the immensely ruthless competitive business strategies he adopted. An exceptional businessman, though occasionally an unkind, unsympathetic, and demanding leader, his success with Microsoft has frequently been attributed to the unforgiving tactics he utilized for intimidating employees as well as rival companies. Though outwardly a nerdy, soft-spoken personality, Gates is actually considered as quite intense by those who know him personally.

Employees describe him as a particularly aggressive, nerve-wracking, and confrontational leader who tended to relentlessly bully them till he got what he desired. His autocratic leadership strategy ensured the company had several team-building competitions for devising the most superior solution. Being a workaholic himself, Gates tended to frustrate or exhaust individuals lacking the zeal he possessed.

Many were critical of his corporate philosophy – champions of free-of-cost “open-source” software view him as a covetous tyrant who benefitted immensely from things perfected and jealously protected, though seldom invented, by him. But ever since he left Microsoft, his reputation has considerably improved; it is quite likely that his philanthropic efforts will help define his historic standing just as much as Microsoft.

At present, he is commonly seen making clever, vehement public speeches and television appearances to support some or other cause — almost a complete opposite image of his more reclusive past as corporate leader (Americans That Matter, n.d). Velasquez and coworkers (2008) claim that just as considerable practice and training is needed for cultivating the qualities of compassion, fairness and courageousness, akin to that needed for developing the capability of running a marathon. Once these traits develop, they become the individual’s characteristic.

Further, an individual who has cultivated such virtues will naturally tend to bring his/her behavior in line with ethical principles. A virtuous individual is an ethical individual (Velasquez et al., 2008). Conclusion The ethical leadership strategy is based on human, moral, community and leadership development concepts. Bill Gates has been described as an entrepreneur, business magnate, programmer, philanthropist, author and investor. His achievements in different spheres reveal just.