Characteristics of Leadership Models

Leadership models and traits
An analysis of how cultural style dictates the perception of what is ethical in a leader's use of power, influence, and authority.
Ethical leadership models function as implements for curating organizational culture. Moreover, these models are able to effect these advantages while maintaining the diversity of the social groups—and their cultures—among a bevy of employees. To this end, cultural style is able to effectively determine what is perceived as ethical according to a leader’s usage of power, influence and authority in a couple of distinct ways. Primarily, cultural style forms the basis of values which an organization has. The relationship between values and ethics is an important one. Essentially, that which is valued by a company and prioritized influences the ethics which an organizations upholds. Thus, if a leader is acting in accordance with his company’s culture, the vast majority of things he does with his power and authority will be perceived as ethical within the constraints of that organization.
An excellent example of this fact is found in the analysis of Enron’s company culture and the behavior of its leaders. Under the leadership of Jeff Skilling, Enron admittedly had an aggressive company culture (McLean and Elkind, 2013, p. 70) that was used as the basis to justify a number of different actions which other organizations with different company cultures would not have sanctioned. For example, Enron had performance reviews in which it routinely fired those who finished in the bottom percentages of those performance reviews. The mandatory firing of employees based on performance—not on instances of remissness or incompetence—is certainly an extreme use of power, influence and authority for upper level management. Yet because Enron had an aggressive company culture, this practice was not only deemed ethical but also necessary to increase productivity and competitiveness. Because Enron’s values were rooted in competitiveness and hyper-productivity, such a practice was deemed ethical in accord with its overall cultural style.
An overview of which leadership models, styles, and traits are most commonly accepted as ethical across the greatest array of social cultures.
One of the most commonly accepted leadership models deemed ethical by an array of social cultures is transformational leadership. This model is typically regarded as ethical across cultural boundaries because it is focused on motivation from a genuine, people perspective. Transformational leaders are able to compel followers to adhere to their notions for positive organizational change via a lot of qualities which are intangible. This leadership model is based on getting followers to actually believe in that which the leader is attempting to accomplish, and to utilize those accomplishments as a way to optimally transform facets of how that organization operates, performs, etc. The reliance on getting employees to actually believe in the leader, as well as that which he or she is trying to accomplish, is generally ethically acceptable because doing so involves motivating employees in accordance to their social cultures to resonate with them.
Another leadership style which produces a similar effect is charismatic leadership. This style is based on the gregarious, positive attributes of the leader himself or herself. With this leadership style, leaders must effectively model the characteristics they are seeking to inspire in their followers. Their personalities must be magnetic, attractive, and visionary, in large respect. They are only regarded as such if they appeal to the core tenets of the social cultures of their followers. Servant leadership is another model which is widely accepted, because it is predicated on leaders actually attending to the needs of their employees to motivate them to achieve organizational objectives.
A selection of a particular leadership model as a tool for shaping organizational culture and a rationale for selecting that model.
The leadership model that is the most apt tool for shaping organizational culture is the servant leadership model. The rational for selecting this model is that it foments the sort of values that are most inclusive and recognized as beneficial to the widest amount of social cultures. Those values are based on service, and on leaders actually modeling the sort of behavior and company culture which they are attempting to implement. The servant leadership model is one in which company leaders are acutely attuned to the needs of their employees and labor to sate those needs. Servant leaders do for their followers, so that in turn, their followers will want to do for them. The mores implicit in this model are understanding, altruism, assistance, and aspects of empathy (Spears, 2010, p. 25). These values are somewhat ideal for a company culture because they buttress the notion that employees are actually there to help others. They are there to help one another do their jobs, to help their leaders, supervisors, and executives fulfill their organizational objectives, and to help customers have a gratifying experience with every point of interaction with the company. Fostering those values into a coherent company culture begins with leaders demonstrating them. Leaders demonstrate these facets of service in the servant leadership model.
References
McLean, B., Elkind, P. (2013). The smartest guys in the room. NewYork: Penguin.
Spears, L.C. (2010). Character and servant leadership: Ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. The Journal of Virtues and Leadership. 1(1), 25-30.