Leadership and ethics in organizational contexts

Ethics and Leadership

Recent waves of corporate scandals have eroded the trust and goodwill of employees, investors and the public. Increased connectivity now makes it possible to easily distribute or access sensitive company data, allowing for greater transparency than ever before. In order to restore the trust of key stakeholders and improve both performance and profitability, organizations must make inspirational and ethical leadership part of their daily business conduct. Ethical leadership is related to the consideration of behavior, honesty, and trust in a leader's fairness. It also predicts outcomes such as perceived effectiveness of leaders, followers' job satisfaction and dedication, and their willingness to report problems to management. Ethical leadership is the art and discipline of applying ethical principles to examine and solve complex moral dilemmas; weighing right alternatives and sometimes "no right" alternatives (choosing the lesser of evils) or the manner which personal moral norms apply to activities and goals of commercial enterprises.

According to Maxwell (2007), "You can measure a leader by the problems he tackles he always looks for ones his own size." (p 95).In the present technology age, corporate activities are under scrutiny of media, lobbying groups, sophisticated consumers who can respond legally, morally and economically to enterprises. The current BP (British Petroleum) spill in the gulf illustrates how firm executives who had a wide range of stakes (that is interests) in how the company handles this incident. The number of constituents and shareholders BP has to address reflects the complexity of the business environment in the twenty first century.

My vision of as leader is embodied in a framework that enables me to map out and manage corporate relationships (present and potential) with transparency; with groups who affect and are affected by my organization's policies and actions. The ideal would be to adapt such standards that when faced with an ethical dilemma, it allows for a win- win situation for itself and its stakeholder relationship. By win-win, I mean moral decisions that are profitable for all constituents within the constraints of justice, fairness and economic consideration. The reality of this may not always happen.Maxwell (2007) states, "A good leader encourages followers to tell him what he needs to know, not what he wants to hear." (p. 75). The definition of my own ethical values can be viewed in light of my individual moral responsibility at all level of the spectrum (organizational, association, societal, international). Two conditions that eliminate a person's moral responsibility for causing injury or harm are ignorance and inability. A person, however who intentionally prevents himself or herself for that matter from understanding or knowing that harmful action will occur is still responsible. Any person who negligently fails to inform him or herself about a potentially harmful matter may still be responsible for the resultant action (e.g. fashion Industry and the product of goods by children in sweat shops, the poaching of animals for their coats, environmental hazards created by toxic dumping or oil spills). As a future leader, I often ask myself, can individual virtue survive corporate pressure? Like most conscientious people, I worry about my integrity and character as well as the threats and temptations that I could withstand. My concern is the perception of myself when the balance of accounts has shifted over to causal or statistical explanations of behavior instead of continuing on character, agency, and responsibility.

The moral foible that people fear most in their leaders is personal immorality accompanied by abuse of power. Usually, it is the most successful leaders who suffer the worst ethical failures a confident leader encourages followers to provide him with pertinent information and not flattery. As a proponent of participative leadership, my sense of moral responsibility in business matters would find a solid foundation in involving my subordinates in decisions and taking their views and suggestions into account. Since relationships are the primary vehicle through which successful leadership responsibilities are carried out, then people and interpersonal competencies are central to their effectiveness.

My success as an ethical leader is rooted in self- awareness, self-management, social awareness and relational management. Self-awareness will allow me to recognize my own emotions and how they affect my performance .It provides me with a better sense of my own strengths and weaknesses, more open to seek out feedback and have a better knowledge and sense on how to improve said skills. Self-management requires pacing one self to match a determined situation. Social awareness, which without it, we become disconnected from our environment, is the ability to read groups and people accurately. It also allows an effective leader to discern current emotions and political realities. Relational management is abroad set of competencies that increases the likelihood that one will induce desirable responses in others. This includes the ability to communicate clearly and convincingly, to persuade others, to disarm conflict, to build strong personal bonds, to develop others to work toward common goals and to enlist others in the pursuit of new initiatives; regarding their relationship with as one of mutual influence .Rather than using control strategies to manage followers, a an ethical and effective leader will develop followers capability and confidence in taking actions and making decisions that are in alignment with and support collective goals. Furthermore, encouraging followers to question assumptions, re frame problems and look at new approaches. Followers are included in the efforts to address and solve group and organizational problems and creativity is encouraged. This results in actively crafting a vision, examining shortcomings in the status quo and seeking a better understanding of organizational hope and desired accomplishments