¶ … perceived to be an ethical leader, am I an ethical leader? Why or why not? What happens when perception and reality are not congruent? Can I be a toxic leader and still be an ethical leader? Why or why not? Just because I am perceived to be an ethical leader does not mean that I actually am one. The leaders of Enron were viewed as being ethically and morally upstanding as they promoted themselves and their workplace organizational culture as being transparent and accountable -- but the reality was that they were simply lying both to themselves and to stakeholders in the company. Their accounting practices were deceitful and they basically orchestrated a Ponzi-scheme with their finances in order to dupe investors (Eichenwald, 2005; Elkind, McLean, 2013). This is an example of why perception is not always reality when it comes to ethical leadership.

What happens when perception and reality are incongruent is that an environment and culture of suspicion can be fostered. People will begin to suspect that things are not on the up-and-up with their leaders and they will search for the truth; meanwhile, morale will suffer as the bad example of being dubious or untrustworthy can be spread throughout a firm as a result. People who want honesty...

This is exactly what happened at Enron as two factions emerged and clashed and their conflict eventually brought the company down.
One can also be a toxic leader even if one is ethical. Being ethical is just one aspect of being a leader. Leaders must also be likeable (Sanders, 2006) and have a good deal of emotional intelligence and social intelligence. If leaders are ethical but rude to followers, they may foster a negative culture, which can impact the performance of the firm overall and cause the organization to not meet its objectives (Schyns, Schilling, 2013). Ethical leadership is important but so are other characteristics of leadership, such as empathy, likeability and so on.

Question B (250 words)

Chekwa, C., Ouhirra, L., Thomas, E., & Chukwuanu, M. (2014). An examination of the effects of leadership on business ethics: empirical study. International Journal of Business & Public Administration, 11(1), 48-65. After reading the study, provide the following information -- Problem statement, Research questions, Methodology, and Purpose statement. Are these pieces of information important in scholarly research? Why or why not?

The problem…