Leadership is one of the life aspects that have evolved since time immemorial. Everyone is a leader somewhere. The difference is in the complexities of tasks that the leader has to deal with in his or her work. Ethical leadership requires the inclusion of moral attributes and wisdom. People would always want to be under a leader who takes considerable steps to deal with challenges and at the same time pursue the company’s vision.
Real Life Dilemma
Creative Solutions Limited is a company that deals with issuance of loans to creditworthy customers. It has been in operation for the past ten years. I have worked for the company for the last one year as the Credit Risk Manager. My work involves the supervision of twenty Credit Officers, ten Collection Officers, and two Recovery Officers. We also have to develop and maintain the Credit Risk policy manual. Sometimes we have had to propose and make some amendments given the dynamic and changing environment of the monetary world.
Everyone has to report to work by 8:00 O’clock in the morning. There is a break time for the tea break at 10:00 A.M for twenty minutes. There is also a lunch break at 1:00 P.M for one hour. The official closing time is 4:30 P.M. The credit officers market the company products and work on the inquiries list until they can close a deal with the client. It means that the client has gone through all the loan processing stages, and the application is acceptable (Northouse, 2010). The stages involve application, credit evaluation process, and approval. The parameters for approval involves the credit worthiness, ability to pay, honesty in giving information and having a business that has existed for the last one year.
We had been experiencing problems with the repayments of the loans. The collection officers had been issuing reports that indicated that the loan payments were not in order. The recovery officers went out to recover some property from the non-paying customers. They discovered that the customers had statements from the company showing how they had been paying and official receipts.
Out of the sixty listed defaulters, twenty of them showed that they had already cleared their debt. Another twenty-five was paying on time and had not defaulted in their payment. They could not trace fifteen clients from the reports. The loan balances for the fifteen clients were adding up to thirty-five million dollars. It came to the realization that some collection officers were asking some clients to give them cash payments that they did not deposit in the company’s bank accounts. Some credit officers were receiving payments from the potential customers so that they give false information to the Credit Department team. The team used the false reports to approve the loans.
The management issued a stern warning to the entire Credit Department. There was a need for an investigation into the matter. There was the suspension of six credit officers and dismissal of four collection officers. I had to organize a training workshop to provide the employees with newly revised rules and regulations. The company had to reorganize. Reichheld (2013) wrote that since “the center of gravity for business loyalty,–whether it be the loyalty of the customers, employees, investors, suppliers, or dealers–is the personal integrity of the senior leadership team and its ability to put its principles into practice.” (p. 6).
Finding a Solution
We started by laying down the company’s vision, mission, and objectives. The staff had to understand the company, know their role, and work towards achieving the goals of their department first, then the company’s vision. They learned that by doing their part, and meeting their given deadlines and objectives, they all contributed towards the company’s success. Since Kouzes and Posner (2012) claim that “credibility is the foundation of leadership” (p. 22), the company assured them that when they are honest and work hard they would also receive promotion and or improved remuneration.
Important Lessons
Credibility offers important achievements to the organization. It enables the organization to have some sense of pride, including its workers. When people work together and they trust each other, there is a strong sense of team spirit. Everyone had a role to play. It enabled them to identify with consistent personal values. The organization is the place where all its workers spend most of their time and energy. They had to have some attachment and commitment to it. We all had to adhere ourselves to the ownership in the company’s structure and process (Treviño & Nelson, 2011).
We discovered that when the staffs had low credibility, they needed the management to keep watching them. They also wanted the company to add wages and salary to motivate them even if they had not performed well. The staff could sometimes start conversations aimed at portraying the wrong image of the company. They could not support the organization positively because they felt unappreciated. They always did something that would not add any value to the company.
The investigations revealed that the workers were spending longer hours than was expected at work. Some of them used to come earlier or leave late so that they can meet their objectives according to their employment contract agreements. The targets they got were almost impossible for them to achieve (Treviño & Nelson, 2011). As a result, there was high employee turnover. The few old employees were the ones who started engaging in non-essential practices to ensure their survival.
The new employees left as soon as they discovered that they could not reach their desired targets. As a result of the company’s lack of motivation and recognition, the workers started doing their jobs as they wished.
Shaping the Attitude
During the training, we started shaping a proper attitude in them. They had to learn that the company would reconstitute the objectives to enable them to be achievable through hard work and passion. The company would also start awarding those who contributed immensely towards the success of the firm. The attitude training involved dealing with incompetency, inability to get along with others, lack of motivation, and refusal to follow instructions (Treviño & Nelson, 2011).
Maxwell and Dornan (2013) asserts that “the importance of helping others to create a more positive or productive attitude is essential to good leadership” (p. 347). The training would lead to the adjustment of perception and feelings after discovering the problems facing the employees. The realization that people come to the organization so that they can serve the interest of the organization, and at the same time satisfy their personal needs is a delicate balance. Once the employee’s personal interest outweighs the organization’s vision, then the organization suffers the loss of his or her good service (Northouse, 2010, p. 250). The balance of self-interest and objective principles is very important. People need to pursue truth through knowledge. As a leader, one must balance the moral consequences as compared to the subjective and objective interest. Parfit (2011) argues that good managerial leadership must find the “middle ground” (p. 29).
The Guiding Principles for Successful Leadership
Maxwell and Dornan (2013) listed “the ten components of success” (p. 347). They are the guiding principles of a successful leader. They deal with personal integrity and the conduct of a leader. They also help the leader to find the working principles on how to engage with the followers. Maxwell and Dornan (2013) write that “we don’t know exactly what your dream is in life or what kind of legacy you want to leave (p. 347). But if you want to make an impact, you will have to become a man or woman capable of influencing others. There is no other way of effectively touching people’s lives. And if you become a person of influence, then maybe someday when other people write down the names of those who made a difference in their lives, your name just might be on the list” (p. 347).
Wisdom is very important in finding the middle ground in the leadership matters. The teleological theories are important in the consequential thinking (Northouse, 2010). The result is most important if the leader and the workers can find the solutions together. The training and discussions helped to find the best decision.
The seven approaches to ethical problem solving are categorical to the understanding of the nature of the problem and finding an amicable way to settle on the most appropriate solutions (Northouse, 2010, p. 250). For instance, the natural law could enable the workers and the management to devote themselves to moral principles in the organic approach of living. One should not act in a manner that does not support the rights of the other person. The management should do their part to motivate and offer a positive working environment for the workers.
The employees should provide good services to the company by having confidence in their work. Everyone must understand that it is their duty to do what is right. It is as important to do what is right as it is to expect good results. In other words, the moral obligation leads to positive results. Every human being has rights in the society (Northouse, 2010). Therefore, the organization and the workers can work together towards preserving and fostering those rights. In discharging human service, the character is essential in determining the morality of the actions. There has to be an authority in this situation. The workers or the followers need to subject their allegiance to the morally constituted authority (Northouse, 2010). Everyone has some guiding instincts. They are in-born qualities that enable one to determine what is right and what is wrong. We all must always keep learning so that we can remember to foster the best attributes of humanity.
Conclusion
Some of the dilemmas in decision-making are the ability to choose between justice and mercy, truth versus loyalty, and individual rights versus community needs. We also need to make a correct judgment between short term goals and long term goals.
References
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2012). Leadership practices inventory (3rd ed., p. 245). Wiley: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Maxwell, J., & Dornan, J. (2013). Becoming a person of influence. Nashville, Tenn.: T. Nelson Publishers.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed., p. 250). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
Parfit, D. (2011). On what matters. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Reichheld, F. (2011). Loyalty rules. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Treviño, L., & Nelson, K. (2011). Managing business ethics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.