Summary
Organizational leaders raise their company’s competitiveness by overseeing monetary execution and setting moral standards in the work environment. Moral leaders impact their workers’ mental strengthening through social learning measures. Moreover, it is crucial to promote societal norms and ethical learning to ensure the workers’ mental well-being and the satisfaction of the clients (Dust, Resick, Margolis, Mawritz, & Greenbaum, 2018).
A moral initiative can forestall organization outrages, moral quandaries, and ethical issues in the long perspective. It can likewise help associations acquire organizations and clients, prompting more cash by the end of the day. Steadfast workers are a pivotal component of long-term accomplishment for a business. The given scenario illustrates how one company’s ethics can be questioned from the point of different philosophical theories.
A Nonfictional Leader with Exemplary Ethical Conduct
Gary Hirshberg’s management as CEO of Stonyfield Farm, the world’s largest natural yogurt maker, poses a remarkable example of a great leader with ethical principles at work. Stonyfield Farm became known as an ally of the ecologically friendly planet mission under his administration (Saha, Shashi, Cerchione, Singh, & Dahiya, 2019). He led the company to sustainability and set an example for other dairy-producing organizations.
The sides which make him an ethical leader are his intention to serve the public with honesty and integrity and a fair attitude towards his workers. Hirshberg’s actions and managing strategy are always open to the public and are ethically correct. He treats people equally, which is a fundamental moral duty component (Saha et al., 2019). Ethical leaders will regard everybody, from their bosses to their workers, similarly. Not demonstrating appreciation for the effort of the individuals can rapidly establish a hostile or threatening workplace. This way, it is possible to lose trust and make issues inside the association. Not indicating a similar degree of regard can make individuals believe they are being treated unreasonably and can cause difficulties in the work environment.
Hirshberg knows how to lead the correspondence to ensure their association is in a position of trust and trustworthiness. Without equality, issues can go undetected for quite a while. This can make antagonism and doubt in my association. Leaders who have moral conduct have a remarkable resemblance that is straightforward and open with everyone in their association. This is seen through no synthetics and feasible cultivating (Saha et al., 2019). The CEO ensured that Stonyfield Farm items are natural, and they center around the strength of the cows, the workers, and their clients.
The Deontological and Consequentialist Approach to The Scenario
The two ethics measurement theories, consequentialist, and deontologist would assess the situation from distinct points which could cause contrary results. The consequentialist view would look at the outcomes of integrating the novel artificial joints (Trevino & Nelson, 2017). If there are people who suffer from the side-effects of the invention, then it is considered that the company’s approach is unethical. There is a possibility that hospitals would widely use the product until people with severe infections who were treated with the new system were identified. Deontologists would consider the morals of the actions prior to introducing the product into wide use (Trevino & Nelson, 2017). Thus, the deontological approach might terminate the practical usage of artificial knee joints right when it was revealed that it could cause infections in some patients.
The Cognitive Moral Development
Ethics focuses on the sorts of qualities and ethics an individual or a general public finds proper. Moreover, this is about the uprightness of people and their intentions. A manager’s decisions are often affected by the ethical turn of events (Dust et al., 2018). Kohlberg’s three levels of moral development might explain the given scenario from different perspectives.
- Thinking about which would benefit most the society is a conventional stage. At the conventional level, a person starts to consider what is right for his or her community out of an individual’s concern about societal relationships (Trevino & Nelson, 2017).
- Thinking about the consequences of one’s action is in reverse is a conventional development (Trevino & Nelson, 2017). As a result, if the sales representative is afraid of losing the job because of revealing the information, the person obeys the authorities’ rules. During conventional development, the worker has not yet developed his or her own morals regarding the actions but is concerned about how the company might react.
- Weighing the choices to select the one with the most righteous nature in terms of justice represents the conventional level of development.
- In case the employer is looking at the situation from the law’s and rule’s perspective, this is the post-conventional stage. At this level, the person starts to question the system’s law and justice (Trevino & Nelson, 2017).
- As in the last question, if the individual’s attention is on his or her benefits from outcomes, then it is an indicator of the conventional approach. The person is seeking an award from his or her silence and is not concerned about the situation’s morals as a whole. Hence, this is the first stage of Kohlberg’s theory of ethical progression.
Ethical Lens Inventory
The Preferred Ethical Lens
According to the inventory, my preferred ethical lens is responsibilities. This lens requires having two qualities: autonomy and rationality. Responsibility helps me evaluate the morality of activity by recognizing the general standards by which I will live. With thought about morality, I esteem my explanation and vision to help decide the foundational principles. I accept that an activity is moral in case it satisfies my duties as an honest member of society.
Thus, all my work is finished with care and worry for the other individual. This gives me pleasure in my work and studies. I agree with the results since I follow the rationale to consider the moral standards that deserve to be accepted. I am confident that the individuals who additionally look for reality will locate similar standards. In my opinion, everyone can participate in the pursuit and characterize for themselves what a meaningful life involves while thinking about the desires of other people.
I mostly have this preferred lens in my professional life since any work needs a lot of responsibilities. It helps me to stay involved in the task and my colleagues can always trust me knowing that I will finish the work with utmost care. I am also reliable for my friends and family as they know I do my best to help them. Thus, I believe I have the same preferred lens in all aspects of my life.
Primary Values and Classical Virtue
As it was mentioned earlier, my primary values are based on rationality and autonomy. I prefer to follow the ageless general rules that permit me to utilize those standards to make me the best individual I can be. Nonetheless, while a person is thinking about community, the responsibility gently advantages self-sufficiency. This allows individuals to decide for themselves what is valid. As I move from private activity to the public approach, I start to direct my own comprehension of reality to think about the information and standards of others. As I think about others, I discover a guideline-based way to deal with morals helpful, cautiously surveying which regularly held standards would permit others to create trust in me. At my best, I am self-restrained and stay faithful to my obligations. I think this helps me live a reliable life with carefully chosen logical standards.
I mostly trust my autonomy, while my secondary values center around everyday activities that might support the meaningfulness of my interactions. My method of accomplishing the objectives includes grasping consistency and validity. I care about my own and other people’s safety and wellbeing since it promotes trust in the community. I regard security, as I generally help individuals reserve the option to do whatever they pick in their private lives as long as others are not hurt. I also believe I am quite an honest person as I accept that individuals reserve a privilege not to be deliberately misled by others.
My classical virtue is prudence as I try to make cautious choices on common issues. In search of moral development, I realize the importance of discretion. Make savvy decisions inside a particular setting and start to tune in to my heart and create sympathy for those influenced by my choice. Seeing the issues brought about by pride and outrage, I moderate my standards to guarantee my activities bode well inside a given setting.
As a result, my principal values and classical virtue do not differ from the top values set in the Clarifying Your Values exercise. The exercise implies that responsibility and fairness are some of the most significant characteristics. Responsibility is my ethical lens and fairness is often connected to rationale since, without it, it cannot be achieved. Another essential value revealed from the exercise is compassion. ELI suggests that one of my primary values is autonomy, and this feature is accompanied by the responsibility for my actions and care for others. Both compassion and autonomy relate to concern for my and others’ safety and wellbeing. The responsibility lens covers many aspects including justice, compassion, and honesty indicated in the Clarifying Your Values exercise. Hence, the outcomes are interconnected and accurately describe my qualities.
The Blind Spot
From the ELI, it was revealed that my blind spot is my belief that any method can be justified by motive. With trust in my thinking capacity, I accept that my deliberately contemplated thought processes legitimize my technique for achieving my objectives. Believing that my activities are moving from universal standards, I might not mind others’ reactions to my convictions or my actions. With restricted compassion, I may neglect to test my activity against the genuine results that will cause individuals upset and agony. Being uncaring toward the passionate atmosphere, I may limit the signs that I receive from others that I am tyrannical. At last, attempting to meet each guideline, I may become legalistic and take on increasingly more duty as I neglect to ponder the importance and reason behind my exercises.
In order to mitigate the blind spot, it is necessary to see how to make actions reflect the lives of others. First, it is crucial to remember that I need to make wise and balanced decisions even in cases when no one can witness them. Realizing that my good intentions are for the improvement of myself and my community can develop my ethical principles. Second, talking to people and asking them how they want to be treated can ensure my actions do not harm others. Last, I need to stop thinking about the work’s short timing as a primary determinant of success. Spending more time on each process and concerning quality over time efficiency can improve my attitude towards methods and motive.
The Use of Ethical Lens in Professional Life
Leadership with morals and social standards has a significant present moment and long-term benefits for associations’ development and people’s wellbeing. A moral administration is substantial for an assortment of reasons for clients, representatives, and the organization. Therefore, I find the tips and results from ELI helpful in the professional field and personal relationships. With a better understanding of myself and my values, I can now choose what is right more professionally.
Authority abilities are essential to help make a positive moral culture in an organization. Leaders can help financial specialists feel that the association is a decent, reliable one. Clients are bound to feel faithful when they see leaders set up in an association. Progress is always present in companies with leaders with high moral standards. Accomplices and sellers will comparably feel they can trust and function admirably with an association when they see the honest initiative. For the time being, moral leaders can help support worker assurance and help them feel excited for their administration and their work. It can build inspiration and joint effort in my association and cause everybody to feel more joyful to be grinding away.
References
Dust, S. B., Resick, C. J., Margolis, J. A., Mawritz, M. B., & Greenbaum, R. L. (2018). Ethical leadership and employee success: Examining the roles of psychological empowerment and emotional exhaustion. The Leadership Quarterly, 29(5), 570-583. Web.
Saha, R., Shashi, Cerchione, R., Singh, R., & Dahiya, R. (2019). Effect of ethical leadership and corporate social responsibility on firm performance: A systematic review. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(2), 409-429. Web.
Trevino, L.K, & Nelson, K.A. (2017). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.