Ethical, Moral, and Legal Leadership

The conceptual frameworks of the ethical constructs of ethics, moral and legal standards can be defined as such: ethics refers to the set of codes that describe what is right and wrong. Morality refers to the degree to which one abides by the ethical standards or code. Legality refers to that which is permissible by the laws established by society. An ethical, moral or legal dilemma may have repercussions in all three of these realms—but not necessarily. For the purposes of this paper, I will examine a moral dilemma that I faced in my work environment and analyze the moral, ethical and legal implications utilized in this situation.
In my work environment I learned that a co-worker was sexually harassing another co-worker, a moral violation of an ethical standard held at the workplace and a legal violation of civil rights laws. My role as a moral agent was to approach the co-worker who was on the receiving end of this harassment, offer her my support in the sense that I would offer my testimony of what I saw happen if she wished to address the issue by going to our manager—so that it was not just a case of “he said, she said.” She thanked me for my assistance and she did rely on my help in addressing the issue when she went to the manager and told what had happened. The manager came to me to see if I could corroborate the story and I did faithfully tell what I had witnessed.
My leadership style in this situation was that of servant leadership. I put myself at the service of the co-worker who I had seen being harassed. This co-worker needed assistance in that moment and I offered mine so that together we could make the workplace environment better and less toxic. The goal of offering my services to her was to help her to address the issue of sexual harassment that had just occurred, even though I could have easily not gotten involved. For my own part, I felt that by ignoring the situation and minding my own business would be to violate an ethical principle, a moral principle and even a legal principle, since sexual harassment is a violation of civil rights and for me to knowingly let it go on would be akin to promoting it in the workplace, which is not something I want to do. As Sanders (2006) notes, good leaders are likeable in the workplace and if I had done nothing to help rectify the situation or had simply ignored the wrong that had occurred I would not only have been an unlikeable leader at that moment but really a bad leader, as defined by Schyns and Schilling (2013), who stated that bad leaders are those who do not engage with others and remain detached from their own issues and are inattentive to their needs. As a servant leader, I find that I can be highly attentive to the needs of others by offering my services to them to help them overcome whatever issues they are facing—and together, in this manner, we can positively impact the workplace environment.
My leadership styles identified by my self-assessment (servant leadership) acted as a facilitation during this dilemma because it allowed me to put the needs of my co-worker before my own. I could have just gone on to lunch and acted like I had not seen what I had seen, but that would have been selfish of me. A servant leader does not ignore the needs of others but rather recognizes them and recognizes the need to help those in need (Northouse, 2016).
Mentally surveying my work environment I can identify a timely issue that requires me to perform the leadership role of moral agent in order to improve a situation, which in this case would be a colleague being treated unfairly. I was able to step up and give my support to my colleague who was being harassed. However, there are many other instances in which servant leadership can be used in my workplace environment. For instance, I have seen vulnerable patients feeling scared and pushed into corners because of doctors losing patience with them, and I have come to the aid of the patients and showed that I would not allow the doctor to do anything that they objected to and that we could walk through all the options together to make sure no one was feeling rushed into a decision that they would later regret. In many cases, doctors and patients can be at odds, especially when the doctor sees a logical way forward for a patient but does not realize that the patient cannot see that way because of emotional stress and tension that has to be alleviated first. As a nurse and servant leader, I can advocate on behalf of the patient and step in to show that I will be supportive of the patient’s needs, even if it requires me to spend extra time with that patient or alter a nursing schedule which would have me working a different set of rooms for that shift. Speaking on behalf of a patient or standing up for a colleague are perfect opportunities to exercise my servant leadership style because both situations allow me to put the needs of others before my own and help them to overcome an issue.
The ethical and moral dispositions that would help me to resolve the dilemma of a patient feeling cornered or a co-worker being harassed are based on my perception of what is right and wrong as well as my desire to adhere to these standards. The differences between ethical, moral and legal leadership are that in ethical leadership, a leader promotes and communicates the ethical principles that should be abided by in a workplace environment. In moral leadership, a leader demonstrates those principles in his or her daily actions so that people can see how ethics are embodied and adhered to in one’s behavior. In legal leadership, a leader adheres to the laws of the community and ensures that laws are not broken but that if they are broken there are consequences that must be faced.
The values and principles that guide the nursing profession are contained in the Nightingale Pledge, which essentially asserts that a nurse will do no harm and will always practice the profession of nursing to the best of his or her ability. To that end, a nurse must be compassionate, empathetic, skilled, knowledgeable, thorough, ethical, honest, and encouraging. These values and principles help to guide the nursing profession because they support the overall organization’s mission, vision and values, which is to always provide quality care to patients through the careful administration of health services. The reason I want to be an ethical leader is because of all this—because without ethical leadership, we would not have organizations like our great health care facilities or nurses’ associations. People before us decided to abide by excellent ethical standards and for that reason we have the option to become nurses and help others.
The motivation that I see taking a stand on an important issue even when it is difficult to do so is that it is the right thing to do, and if one is going to be a moral person, then one has to do the right thing, as our ethical standards have defined it. Nurses must be moral, as should all people, but nurses especially so, since they are in the spotlight in terms of being on the front lines of the health care industry, helping patients in times of suffering, stress and worry. I am motivated to do what is right because I know what is right and in knowing what is right I make a determination to abide by what is right. What is right is not always what is easy, but being a moral person is not about being easy: it is about putting the right before the wrong, teaching others, helping others, and making sure that the right is always in the light.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks: CA:
Sage Publications.
Sanders, T. (2006). The Likeability Factor. NY: Three Rivers Press.
Schyns, B., Schilling, J. (2013). How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-
analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 24, 138-158.