Blog1-Leadership and Ethics Blog

Introduction

This paper focuses on ethical leadership in analysing the statements “Ethical Leadership is defined as “the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement and decision- making,” and “ethical leaders will foster employees’ work engagement, which in turn enhances pro-organizational and decreases counterproductive work behaviour." The first part describes the debate on two areas of ethics associated with this statement. The second part considers various real-life examples of ethical and unethical behaviours in companies.

Part 1

The first part of the statement focuses on how leaders demonstrate ethics through their actions and interpersonal relationships. Here, there are two sides of the debate that could be explained by two leadership theories. There are trait and process theories of leadership. 

Under the trait theory, leaders have some innate qualities that make them great leaders. The theory assumes that organizations that focus on identifying people with the right characteristics to thrive in a particular position. Leadership tests can help identify the existence or non-existence of these factors (Colbert et al., 2012). Through these desirable traits, leaders will be driven to implement ethical principles of honesty, justice, integrity, respect, and transparency.

The traits are also desirable to inspire and motivate followers to implement the same in their behaviours. This describes the nature of productive interpersonal relationships developing from interactions with followers. The idea under this part of the ethical debate is that ethical behaviour develops from internal traits. This limits the number of individuals that can behave the most ethically. 

However, the process theory is available to anyone willing to improve. The theory emphasizes leadership interactions with their followers to increasingly develop leadership capabilities. Process leadership works in an observable process that can be learned and improved through training (Sharma & Jain, 2013).

Through various interactions, leaders learn about different personalities in their followers and learn to improve them over time. These interactions enhance communication and reinforcement in the effort to reinforce interactions. This way, leaders can make effective decisions knowing they will not affect interactions.

Process theory is limited by the fact that it takes long or huge investments to achieve the ethical behaviours desired in a firm. Here, the debate is that firms could select unsuitable candidates for a leadership role.

In light of this debate about ethics and leadership, it is important to note that development and growth are vital to enhancing skills. Leaders with inborn characteristics that promote ethical behaviour are still preferred because their skills and traits can be enhanced through training and self-assessments.

Part 2

Various real-life scenarios and examples of ethical and unethical leadership behaviour can help understand the ethical debate better. According to Weinstein (2019), ethical leadership is beneficial for achieving a company's bottom line. The leadership team at Baxter Credit Union (BCU) is an example of ethical leadership that occurred after the Hurricane Maria disaster in 2017 in Puerto Rico. 34 employees and about 26,000 of the organization’s members were affected by the disaster. 

Due to the interactions developed between the leadership team and its employees and members, BCU leaders understood the need to demonstrate ethical behaviour (Weinstein, 2019). This follows the process theory, where various interactions support ethical practices.

While individuals could have innate abilities to lead, some of their decisions can draw criticisms and accusations of being unethical. The example chosen here is Elon Musk, who has been involved or mentioned in several incidents of unethical behaviour.

In 2018, Tesla, where Musk works as the CEO, came under pressure due to accusations of poor treatment of employees and working conditions. Musk was accused of tweeting snappish reports and calling investors names (Dishman, 2019). While Musk is thought to have innate leadership traits according to the trait theory, his behaviours show that even such individuals’ behaviours can constitute unethical behaviour.

Recommendation and conclusion

Therefore, if companies want to achieve ethical management, the suggestion here is that companies first need to select highly ethical employees, and establish ethical codes and decision-making rules. Senior management can influence the moral behavior of employees through the reward and punishment mechanism. In addition, companies also need to set relevant ethical questions, and conduct ethical training and education for employees, so as to standardize the ethical behavior of the company. In this aspect, both trait and process theories of leadership offer a great understanding of what qualifies a great leader. I would argue that both approaches are effective but must consider the crucial aspect of improving over time. This concept is emphasized in the process theory more than the trait theory. This could explain the two scenarios of ethical and unethical leadership in companies.

References

Colbert, A. E., Judge, T. A., Choi, D., & Wang, G. (2012). Assessing the trait theory of leadership using self and observer ratings of personality: The mediating role of contributions to group success. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(4), 670-685.

Dishman, L. (2019). These are the best and worst leaders of 2018. Fast Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/90278934/these-are-the-best-and-worst-leaders-of-2018.

Sharma, M. K., & Jain, S. (2013). Leadership management: Principles, models and theories. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, 3(3), 309-318.

Weinstein, B. (2019). Seven Bold Leaders Reveal How Ethical Leadership Is A Boon To Business. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceweinstein/2019/10/14/seven-bold-leaders-reveal-how-ethical-leadership-is-a-boon-to-business/?sh=45a40dd454cf.