Ethical leadership are the principles,
values, and beliefs that define what is right and what is wrong, lead by
someone who influences people and/or has some authority of some kind. CEO and
managers of companies manage a lot of people indifferent scales, where they
need core values and ethical belief to run a company, and these are to be used
in day-to-day work structure.
The leaders have to give trust to
their followers, present themselves with honesty, have consideration of others,
have charisma and charm to be liked by the organization and the people in it,
as well as to be fair with the people around them. Leaders set this moral structure
for an organization or group, and must commit to uphold the values of the
company to be a clear representation of these standards, as well as to set the
tone for the company.
An effective ethical leader has to
act ethically at all times to be an inspiration, and set personal examples to
others. The ethical leader communicates and manages the culture to promote
ethical behavior within people. Leaders
need an open perspective to see the entire spectrum and learn about the diverse
ideas of employees, checking what type of impact his or her decisions will make
on people, the company, and the community. They need this to achieve the right
decisions in their management.
The effective leader needs a good
moral compass and not get into moral disengagement practices. The moral compass
is started at young age, created by the parents, as well as the people who they
surround themselves with. If an adult doesn’t have an adequate moral compass,
they will go outside for guidance in moral disengagement situations. The group
follows the leader, and it will imitate their actions, but is more likely to
imitate unethical behavior, that’s the reason, a leader need to be a great
example for the group at all times.
People have high opinions of their
own character, and this could lead them to act unethically, without them
noticing their behavior, and justifying themselves or getting into a selective
engagement and disengagement of their morality. The believe that we are moral
people and we do good for the community, like a leadership role in a non-profit
or church, can lead to someone to act with little or none self-reflection of
their acts, creating as results unethical mistakes. Some leaders are giving
uncritical support, given them an over confidence comparing to others, like in
the case of Kenneth Lay, a big philanthropist, and son of a Baptist preacher,
that abused his power in the Enron Corporation as well as committing accounting
fraud making him a convicted felon.
To unethical leaders they have a sense
of entitlement where they think rules don’t apply to them, doing wrong things
and they don’t see the issue because they are so convinced of their importance,
justifying themselves from laws and ethical rules of society. The idea that are
rules are important but they could be broken or there are ways around them, is
just one of the justifications leaders can get into to break laws. They believe
they are untouchable, and/or they won’t be caught, but reality is different and
unethical leaders are no exempt from the law.
For a company to establish ethical
behavior, it needs to start from top management. The leaders need to be a
visible role model, where employees can take cues about the appropriate
behavior and examples of how their leaders act, to imitate, and learn from
them.
A lot of the companies, when they
are just starting they focus on the mission and vision statement, as well as
their corporate objectives, but it is necessary to establish and communicate
the expected ethical behavior through a code of ethics, where it showcases the
organization’s values and ethical rules of the company. When employees are just
hired, in their initial training, companies should have trained them in their
code of ethical rules, as well to do more leadership training in the future
where the company can do seminars, workshops, and have it in the employee
manual. A yearly workshop or seminar that combine other leadership training
programs will make the staff and management stronger in their mission, and
maintaining their ethic rules. Management can also institutionalize an ethical
culture by measuring the performance of the staff and seeing if they are
implementing the code of ethics manual in their day-to-day work, and reward the
top people in their scores.
Management need to promote
effective financial management, where they use resources in a socially
responsible way, and are cost-effective but never sacrifice a long-term
institutional capacity. Another
important implementation for a company is to provide a safe protective
mechanism where employees can discuss ethical dilemmas and report unethical
behavior without the fear of being reprimanded. These could be done with
counselors, or other type of manager.
Actions have consequences, and
leaders as well as for followers need to realize what is important for an
objective, but always maintain the moral standards. A leader can question their
actions to make sure all the decisions they are making go to an objective that
is ethical, and your actions are moral contributing to a greater good. Power
can corrupt individuals, and is good to stay grounded and not just focus on
your rights as an individual, but consider other’s rights first. A good leader
is not thinking about themselves, or what is his or her greater good, but thinks
for a bigger picture, and a vision of what is best for the entire group and
community. As a leader, acknowledge when you are wrong, you don’t have to be
right all the time, but knowing your shortcomings and making a change on them,
benefits the entire group. These are just some practices of some of the top
leaders like Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, and Mahatman Gandhi, where they
have a vision for the entire community, and not their benefit.
By Christian Gabriel
