Introduction
The importance of leadership in shaping the direction an organization takes cannot be gainsaid. This is because the leadership of an organization is charged with the responsibility of influencing followers and rallying them together for purposes of performing an action, completing a task, or behaving in a specific manner (Bass & Steidlmeier 1999).
The effectiveness of a leader is gauged from his ability to influence organizational processes, stimulate subordinates toward changing their values and attitudes, and augment their self-efficacy beliefs. An effective leader is also able to engage in activities that promote the internalization of his vision by applying strategies of empowerment.
Authorities are of the opinion that a leadership that nurtures employees can easily raise the culture of the organization and values held by employees to very high echelons of ethical concern (Hatch, Kostera & Kozminski 2005). Ethical leadership can only be offered by ethical leaders. It takes an ethical leader to make sure that the entire organization is ethically carrying out its practices.
Ethical leadership has been necessitated by a number of factors which make it the preferred kind of leadership. Further, ethical leadership could be used to counter the effects of bad leadership that has seen many organizations experience problems.
The Need for Ethical Leadership
Ethical leadership practices its leadership roles in a manner that is respectful of other peopleâs rights and dignity. Trevino, Hartman and Brown (2003) opine that âAs leaders are by nature in a position of social power, ethical leadership focuses on how leaders use their social power in the decisions they make, actions they engage in and ways they influence othersâ (p.128). Employees regard leaders who had the highest moral horizons to be ethical.
These leaders stand out from the crowd as fair, just, and had set very clear examples for the rest to follow. When such leaders set standards of ethical behavior and inspire their followers to reciprocate, the entire organization is able to speak the same ethical language, thereby bridging the gap between the ethical and unethical members of the organization. There are compelling reasons why organizations need ethical leaders at the helm.
Ethical leadership involves leaders who act and lead ethically at all times (Mendonca & Kanungo 2006). It is incumbent upon the leader to act as a role model for the organization within which he works and the general community. Usually, a leader is a person of influence whom everybody wishes to emulate.
If a leader acts ethically, the rest of the organization will act similarly and soon everybody will be behaving in the same way. This will lead to an ethical organization and community. People will learn to do good at all times without pressure from those in positions of authority.
An ethical leadership is necessary for purposes of building trust. The leader needs to trust himself to do the right thing. The followers can only follow a leader in whom they have trust to take them to some destination. Other stakeholders such as suppliers and customers are confident dealing with an organization that they trust. All this is possible if the organization is headed by people who can be trusted. That is what an ethical leader should be able to do.
It is important to practice ethical leadership because it comes with respect and credibility for both the leader and the organization. Stakeholders and other people who deal with the organization would easily respect a manager whose word they can believe than the one who is untrustworthy. The name of the organization receives positive mention in business circles because of the credibility of the leader. Financial institutions would find it easy to trust the word of an ethical leader when the organization he leads is associated with credulity.
Ethical leadership is important because it can lead to increased collaboration with various individuals and organizations. Collaboration entails working together for a common course. No person or entity is willing to enter a working arrangement with an entity whose name is in disrepute because this will affect their standing (Brown & Treviño 2006).
Ethical leadership has the potential to attract the collaboration of others within the organization for purposes of achieving more for all the stakeholders. The word, action, and thoughts of ethical can be trusted by those with whom he seeks to collaborate.
There is the need practice leadership for purposes of creating a good organizational climate. The character of a leader practicing ethical leadership is able to rub on everybody else within the organization. When everybody else reaches a level where they will function ethically, a good climate is created.
There will be enhanced teamwork and cooperation within the organization which could easily translate into increased performance and productivity. Interpersonal relationships will be enhanced and all players within the organization will feel at home with each other.
Ethical leadership has the potential to cause people to take a position on a high moral ground. This comes out especially if there is an argument or a situation in which somebody has a view that is strongly opposed to or in support of one of the sides. Ethical leadership will constrain an individual to take a position that is morally right (Ciulla 2004).
Peripheral considerations on the basis of friendship or other unprofessional relations will be consigned to the back burner. The import of this is that decisions and positions will be taken on the basis of objective rather than subjective considerations.
Ethical leadership should be pursued because of its capacity to instill a sense of self respect in the leader and other individuals. There is a degree of self worth that comes with knowing that all your words and actions derive from ethical principles. The same respect comes from knowing that people hold you in high esteem; that they have confidence in your words and actions. Generally, there is need to practice ethical leadership because that is simply the right thing to do, the right way to go.
Qualities of Ethical Leaders
As earlier said, ethical leadership can only be practiced by ethical leaders. Knights and OâLeary (2006) argue that âethics is not only choosing what to do as individuals, but also and essentially discovering who we are in relation to othersâin short our membership of organizations, communities and societiesâ (p.133).
Though all employees in an organization are obligated to observe ethical principles, the responsibility of providing direction rests on the back of the leader. His word and action has a big influence on the words and actions of the employees, who are his followers. There are certain qualities that help distinguish an ethical leader from any other type of leaders.
An ethical leader articulates and embodies the purpose, objectives, and values that govern the operations of the organization. Their words must not just tell a compelling story that is morally rich, but they must live and embody the story that they tell. Such a leader lives in private what he tells in public, in other words, his words and actions must match, both in private and public.
The leader is a reflection of the organization (Bass & Steidlmeier 1999). If for some reason the organization he leads is found in any impropriety, the leader takes responsibility and puts things right. This helps instill trust and confidence in the organization.
Ethical leaders have a focus on the success of the organization rather their own. Such leaders have a clear understanding of their position within the larger constitution of stakeholders. They do not consider their positions as individuals, but they consider the bigger picture, the goals, the dreams, and visions of the entire organization.
Ethical leaders are alive to the fact that the success of individual members of the organization translate into the success of the entire organization. The leaders are concerned about the welfare of their employees and would do everything possible to show concern for them. The do little acts that help boost employee morale and which easily translate into employee loyalty to the organization.
It is in the domain of ethical leaders to hunt for the best employees and develop them for the benefit of the organization. Finding such people is the moral authority they have toward the organization. Training and developing them makes them better employees for the company and increases their knowledge and skills, which they benefit from in the course of working for the company.
By enabling these people to get jobs, the leaders assist them to live improved lives that help in the enhancement of their own value, that of the organization, and the entire community. Character and ethics are major considerations in getting the best people for the organization. By staffing the organization with the best employees who subscribe to sound ethical values, an ethical leader ends up establishing a firm foundation for an ethical organization (Jackson & Parry 2008).
An ethical leader is known to institute a living dialogue concerning values, ethics, as well as create values that the stakeholders would be proud of. Quite often, corporate executives have thought that the problems of ethics can be solved by having an ethics card that can be flashed around to stakeholders.
This is far from the truth because many organizations that had this kind of verbal meaningless code of ethics have been found to have perpetuated unethical practices. An ethical leader communicates the ethical values he holds and that he wants others to espouse with all stakeholders for clarity of purpose (Dirks & Ferrin 2002). He is able to win consensus of all stakeholders that these are the values that they will stand for.
If members hold a conversation in which they agree on certain ethical values, they are able to hold each other accountable in case of any breach. As employees live the values over which they have held a conversation, they constantly check the behavior of the leader to be sure he is living the values. Similarly, the leader checks other stakeholdersâ adherence to the ethical values and principles they agreed upon.
The net effect of this is that there will be a strong commitment on the part of all stakeholders to the upholding of ethical values within the organization. Holding regular conversations would ensure the ethical values remain current and get completely enmeshed in the psych of all stakeholders.
Ethical leaders are able to create mechanisms of dissent (Greenleaf 1977). Corporate executives are a very important people by virtue of their positions. It is the nature of people to obey those they consider to have legitimate authority over them. There are some line managers who may use their positions to intimidate other employees, causing a souring of relations. The ethical leader, aware of this, creates an avenue through which such issues can be solved.
He should inspire confidence among employees that whatever they share with him by way of complaints will remain confidential, and that he will take measures aimed at resolving the conflicts. Among other things, he is able to encourage employees who want to express themselves anonymously to do so by giving room for anonymous emails and toll free phone numbers that he must attend to seriously.
The leaders could also go down several levels to listen to employees and attend to their issues for purposes of creating an environment in which they feel listened to. If dissent is allowed to brew, it could blow off the organization.
Ethical leaders are known to take a charitable approach and understanding of the values of others. They have an understanding of the motivation behind the choices made by different people. It is true that some people will behave in an unethical manner. Rather than seek to vilify them, an ethical leader will want to find out why they behaved the way they did. Ethical leadership does not discourage people from doing wrong, but it encourages and enables them to do the right thing.
Ethical leadership is about making tough calls while remaining creative. Ethical leaders have the responsibility of making difficult decisions which range for the reorientation of organizational strategy together with making positive value proposition that binds all stakeholders to making binding individual personnel decisions (Badaracco, 2002). It is not the nature of ethical leaders to shun making difficult decisions by making excuses and sounding apologetic.
The leader is able consistently integrate the practice of doing what is right and doing what is right for the business. Ethical leadership is not the same thing as being nice, but exercising moral imagination. In the process of exercising their authority, ethical leaders are able to balance between putting the value of stakeholder first and doing that which is ethical in the eyes of other people including those who do not have a stake in the organization.
It is also the character of ethical leaders to have full knowledge of the limitations to which the ethical principles they hold can go. Values are not limitless and have particular spheres within which they are applicable. Some values are limited in terms of the audience to which they are applicable. Ethical leaders must be able to define the limits of these values and must have justifications for applying them when they do in various situations.
Challenges could arise if a leader lacks a clear understanding of the situation in which to apply certain values. There must, for example be, a limit to which leaders put shareholders first because this must balance with doing what is good for other stakeholders within the organization. Like other aspects of our lives, ethics must be enmeshed in good judgment, practical sense, sound advice, and conversations between the leader and those affected.
Ethical leadership must be able to frame actions in ethical terms. This is because of their ability to see leadership as a task that is fully ethical. This is done by considering the rights claims of others, understanding the effects of leading in a particular way on the people, and seeking to understand why some people act the way they do. Though ethical leaders are confident of themselves and the decisions they take, they are not completely infallible because they are humans with certain imperfections.
Their sense of moral values could, in fact, turn out to be poor signposts to the wrong direction. Ethical leaders are responsible for using sound moral judgment, though they also run the risk of being branded self-righteous because of the decisions they make. Ethics are not universal constructions that are carved in stone, but some kind of guidelines that regulate human behavior.
The leader should be able to determine the application of these values in his immediate environment without undermining their consequences (Avolio & Gardner 2005). There are often conflicting issues with regard to principles, cultures, values, and individual differences. An ethical leader requires a character of humility and not self-righteousness. He is committed to his own values and principles, while remaining open to learn from others through conversations.
An ethical leader is able to create a connection with the primary value propositions and seek the support of stakeholders and work with them in a way that engenders societal legitimacy. He understands that the organization operates in an environment where there are other players who have a legitimate claim to it.
Though most business organizations are formed for purposes of creating wealth for the shareholders, there are social responsibilities that they must participate in. It must set aside resources to help those who are needy in the spirit of corporate social responsibility.
Developing Ethical Leadership
Developing ethical leaders is a function of many players. This is done when players start viewing an organization as not only an economic but also an ethical entity. The implication here is that profit, though the motivation behind the establishment of many business entities, is not the sole purpose for the existence of the organization. As much as the organization seeks to pursue its profit motive, it must do so in strict adherence to certain ethical principles and values.
There exist certain concrete measures that can be taken in developing ethical leaders using an agreed framework. The initial step involves the facilitation of a conversation whose purpose is to examine the ways in which the organization is of benefit to its stakeholders, and then create an understanding of the values of the organization.
This can take both a formal and informal dimension. It could also take the form of a meeting convened in for purposes of bringing together all the stakeholders. Such meetings, referred to in other quarters as ethical moments, could provide the opportunity for elaborate discussions and decision making on the values the company must espouse. Old values are discarded while new ones are adapted. The leader, followers, and other stakeholders are then obligated to live by these values and promote them in the entire organization.
Some companies have well-established leadership development processes and programs. These programs spell out the activities that a leader must undertake in a bid to reach acceptable standards of adherence to ethical standards. The programs need to be strengthened by the addition of the concept of ethical leadership. Organizations can do this by engaging stakeholders and participants in discussions to find out their idea of ethical leadership.
The principles upon which there is concurrence are then adapted and used to define how an ethical leader should behave in the context of the organization. This is because each organization is unique in its own way and there can never be what one can consider a universal.
It is the duty of the executives to create an avenue where stakeholders can reach a common ground on how to implement ethical leadership within their organizations. This, as earlier said, should be done during the conversations. Consensus building is very important for the success of the implementation of the ethical values and principles.
The leadership of the organization must be alive to the fact that employees or followers can challenge them on certain aspects of ethical leadership that they may consider are not being adhered to. Indeed, adherence to ethical principles is largely possible in an environment where the leader knows that followers are likely to challenge them.
The fear that such a process would lead to anarchy could be unfounded because this is part of the process of putting things in order. When stakeholders espouse shared values, principles and purposes, they are able to make better decisions that would help inject a sense of pride in the organization.
Countering bad Leadership with Ethical Leadership
Though the above portion of this paper has discussed ethical leadership at length, it is imperative that we consider the ways in which ethical leadership can be used to counter bad leadership (Kellermen 2004). Bad leadership is characterised by incompetence. There is lack of skill or will or both on the part of the leader and some of the followers to take and sustain a good action.
They cannot be credited with any one positive change that they made. Ethical leadership counteracts this by insisting on competence on the part of the leader and the followers. This is seen from their ability to take initiative and employ only the best people whom they will train, develop, and reward.
Bad leadership is also characterised by rigidity. There is a high degree of stiffness and unrelenting nature in the leader and some of the followers. In spite of their competence, they may lack the ability or they are unwilling to adapt to fresh information, ideas, and changing times. Ethical leadership could counter this by being flexible. The leader and his followers embrace change and manage it for the benefit of self and the organization.
A bad leader is intemperate and unpredictable. He is not self-controlled and is surrounded by followers who lack the willingness and ability to make meaningful intervention. Ethical leadership is able to counter this character by being calm and self-controlled and knows how to manage dissent. The followers have been taught to behave in an ethical way and are able to take initiative even when the task is challenging (Gill 2006).
There is a high degree of callousness on the part of a bad leader. Together with some of his followers, this leader is unkind and uncaring. He ignores or flatly discounts the needs, wants, or wishes of his followers. Conversely, an ethical leader is caring and concerned about the welfare of others, especially followers. He takes keen interest in their welfare and seeks to promote their wellness even as they help him keep the organization going.
Bad leadership is also corrupt and given to lying, cheating, and stealing. This makes them lack confidence in each other, even as they put their own selfish interest ahead of those of the public. Ethical leadership could counter this by being honest and sincere. They put the interest of the public above theirs, and know when to apply which type of ethical principle (Blasi 1980). Bad leadership promotes the perpetration of atrocities against others.
According to them, pain could be applied as an instrument of power. They consider it right to inflict pain to women, men, and children. This is countered by ethical leadership which is humane and mindful of the welfare of others. They consider it unethical to inflict psychological or physical to others.
Conclusion
From the foregoing, it is evident that ethical leadership provides the best form of leadership for organizations in modern times. Organizations have been faced with numerous challenges that have been blamed on unethical practices perpetrated by their leaders. It is the responsibility of all stakeholders to chart the course of ethical leadership and demand that their leaders and other stakeholders within the organization adhere to them strictly. This only possible of the spirit of consultations is espoused.
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