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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...
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…
He sets the vision and tone for many billionaires, and it is this vision and tone that helps Bill Gates to make a far greater contribution to the world than his corporate endeavors would ever allow. Bill Gates has donated billions to charity, and in this he is showing ethical leadership. His approach to leadership emphasizes the ability of a fortunate few to deliver the greatest good for the greatest
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