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Ethical Leadership

1. Introduction:

This article is based on Ethical Leadership. Ethical Leadership expresses the act of following a set of values and principles that are widely accepted as providing a solid foundation for the general good. Honesty, regard, faith, justice, openness, and sincerity are a few of them. It is envisioned authentic conduct as consisting of both a moral manager and a moral individual. The moral person component of authentic leadership describes the moral character of the leader.

Thus, high degrees of honesty, reliability, and integrity are displayed by ethical leaders. They also act ethically by making the appropriate decision when presented with a moral choice. While speaking with colleagues, they are open and direct and show a lot of compassion for others. This report evaluates how the employees are inspired by ethical behavior, demonstrates through example in the workplace, and also tackles some issues and challenges in the modern business world.

2.1. Ethical Leadership:

Ethical leadership plays a vital role in every success of business life. Being an ethical leader is beneficial for a variety of factors. As collectively, leaders can motivate people in their vicinity to act morally. Setting an example and providing guidance for moral conduct will encourage others to follow suit. In this way, leaders can have a beneficial effect on a large number of people by offering them a method of action that will serve everyone’s interests (Den Hartog, (2015), p9 (3)).  Being an authentic leader is crucial for establishing trust and respect on a personal level. Being a leader is a long-term endeavor. A manager can be immediately booted from the A-league for acting dishonestly, and it might seriously harm their reputation or that of their organization. Additionally, unethical actions frequently damage a person’s self-esteem, which results in a worse than an ideal end and a missed chance to realize one’s complete capacity.

Even while effective behavior covers a wide range of matter, it ultimately comes to these six key components (Treviño & Brown, (2014), p4 (2)).These elements also work in a workplace environment.

–         Integrity. Integrity seems to be what makes moral leaders deserving of the faith people have in them. It denotes a commitment on the part of leaders to communicate honestly with others, disclose the facts as they are, and treat rivals fairly.

–         Fairness. Being fair is treating everyone equally, providing the opportunity to all without showing preference, and denouncing unethical conduct, deceit, and any other activities that can endanger another.

–         Esteem. Regardless of their status or distinguishing features, ethical leaders appreciate all those around them. This indicates that they value diversity, encourage integration, and pay attention to all stakeholders.

–         Morality. When beliefs, thoughts, and deeds are congruent and continuous, integrity is displayed. To show authenticity, one must act following their words and not just speak the discourse.

–         Responsibility. Being responsible entails accepting control, accepting the responsibilities and authority that go with that as well, and would always reacting including being engaged in trying circumstances.

–         Transparency. Visibility primarily affects how stakeholders are communicated with. It entails maintaining an open line of communication, accepting criticism, and sharing the details others require to complete their duties.

2.2. Advocates the need for ethical leadership in modern business:

In modern business, advocates or leaders need ethical leadership for improving the markets as well as the environment also. Truthful competitiveness should lead to lower costs and higher-quality goods or services in the interest of all buyers and sellers, but notably for the customer. The only way this is possible, though, is if the marketplace is open and truthful and when customers are fully and truthfully educated regarding their purchasing options (KO & Kang, (2018), p3 (2)).

Organizations deceive to maximize profits, which leads to unethical competition. In contemporary corporate environments, the bulk of organizations’ top leadership and short-term results, such as accounting, economic, and market measurements of organizational performance, were evaluated. This method of performance assessment not only greater innovation and relatively rapid, but it also creates a climate where the company’s management is under pressure to achieve and/or publish favorable financial results. The rewards for achieving financial goals are substantial, such as stock option admiration and financially rewarding reward bundles, while the penalties for falling short of goals can be severe.

Such constraints had the potential to have a detrimental impact by encouraging a narrow perspective of achievement and leading to ethical difficulties over how judgments about how to conduct business should be made. Because employees demand more from their employment than a tight perspective on the lowest part of profitability, this is especially troublesome. Since business executives create both the actual and perceived aspects of work, the moral attitude of management has a big impact on the work environment where people make decisions. That’s why advocates need leadership in business (Yukl & Prussia, (2013), p5 (2)).

Therefore, various leadership theories exist, but they all share the characteristic that ethics is at the center of the idea of management. According to scholarly writing (Sharif & Scandura, (2014), p3 (7)) ethical leaders are the workers’ interpretations of ethical conduct drawn from organizational leaders’ actions.

To promote normatively suitable behavior to followers via two-way interaction, encouragement, and decision-making, ethical leadership entails “the presentation of contextually proper behavior through personal acts and interpersonal relationships.” Using rewards and penalties wherever necessary to keep their colleagues accountable for their behavior, organizational leaders who operate in a normatively acceptable manner are presumed to be reliable, ethical, genuine, or equitable. While ethical behavior is mirrored in a variety of leadership approaches, such as organizational commitment and leadership style, authentic leaders stand out by exhibiting qualities that are in line with normative ethical ideals, including justice, integrity, and dependability. As the author stated (Demirtas, (2015) ,p6(3)), When pursuing relatively momentary organizational effectiveness and bottom-line goals, effective leaders do not infringe on ethical principles instead, they model the moral behavior of managers, reward staff for adhering to ethical standards, communicate about ethics and communicate about ethics. Ethical leadership is distinguishable from related concepts like idealized influence by emphasizing moral governance via transaction processing implies such as rewards and consequences. This conceptual difference is likely to manifest itself in the way ethical leaders affect the work encounter in terms of a company’s core components.

Thus, advocates make good decisions that might impact other people. They adhere to ethical judgment guidelines and decide things that are impartial and independent. However, when compared to other management conceptions like idealized influence and interactional justice, the moral management element of authentic behavior highlights the feature of leader behavior that is unique. By clearly preserving ethical principles in their behavior, a moral director acts as a role model for employees. By rewarding or punishing the workers who uphold ethical norms, he encourages moral behavior among his subordinates. He also accomplishes the goal of regularly emphasizing the value of morals to colleagues.

It has also been stated that ethical leadership handles all the workplace challenges using all the principles which were drawn out because if advocates adopt ethical leadership as they are now more willing to explore options to improve the standard of living and well-being of their subordinates. . It is beneficial in avoiding specific types of immoral practices, including as accounting scandals, misrepresenting terms of the contract, and the distribution of hazardous products, from occurring by reducing an almost exclusively concentration on lowest part performance. Ethical leaders show care and concern for the methods by which results are achieved in addition to pursuing business and investment goals. Ethical leaders influence the manner in which staff members come to understand their own duties by reprimanding staff members who transgress ethical norms, providing an instance of how to perform things correctly, and having conversations with staff about business practices.

Studies have shown that moral leaders influence job task creation in a way that permits employees to feel task relevance and autonomy in their employment, instead of simply focusing on bottom-line performance. Employees also feel fulfilled in their organization and tasks for moral leaders put up more effort, which in turn leads to greater levels of organizational contextual performance and task performance. As a result, when a company’s management broadens its perspective beyond a strict concentration on base results and trying to enhance employees’ well-being, companies may unwittingly record greater profits as a consequence of workers being so much more involved and eventually more efficient.

2.3. Advocates conduct the effective Ethical Leader:

According to scholarly writers (Frisch & Huppenbauer, (2014), p5 (9)), good leaders have seven conducts in common. These conducts such as Strong ethical fiber, initiative, consideration of the interests of stakeholders, and a burning desire to do the right thing are all characteristics of authentic leadership. Ethical leaders or advocates are skilled administrators who have a comprehensive view of the company’s ethical culture. Effective leaders or advocates serve as role models for the organization’s principles, and are open and participating actively in organizational management.

By pieces of evidence of advocates, it asserts that moral leadership improves staff wellbeing while also having a favorable effect on reducing unethical behavior by employees. The relationship between ethical leadership and various types of unethical behavior displayed by personnel, including such wrongful acts, harassment, or employee-organization deviant, has formed the subject of numerous research. In terms of employee turnover intention, organizational commitment, and career satisfaction, ethical leadership is significantly connected with employees’ approval of their managers, trust in coworkers and the organization’s administration, enthusiasm and positive about organizational destiny, and overall work motivation (Bello, (2012) ,p6(1)).Thus, empirical pieces of evidence by advocates also demonstrate that ethical leadership is successful in promoting results that directly benefit an organization, such as staff members’ engagement in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and improved work engagement. Management & morals go with each other. While some people have a tendency to believe that one must choose between being prosperous and successful and acting morally, this is absolutely false. Success depends on moral people and moral leadership

3. Conclusion:

This is to be concluded that advocates and leaders have business aims, such as encouraging moral behavior, advancing quality employees, boosting individuals’ senses of accountability, and fostering a sense of pride and commitment to the businesses are the focus of authentic behavior. Additionally, by strengthening their sense of loyalty to the organization, it fosters productivity and performance. These objectives of moral leaders ultimately affect a company’s bottom line, however subtly and without putting the company at risk of litigation. The moral quandaries, and ethical concerns can all be avoided with ethical leadership.

Additionally, it can assist businesses in expanding their network of alliances and clients, which ultimately results in increased revenue. Another essential component of an organization’s ultimate success is having loyal staff. Thus, by encouraging, fostering, and cultivating a culture that trust and respect, ethical leaders create the ideal environment for their workforce. Major characteristics result from this, including less turnover, increased production, and increased commitment by adapting an ethical leadership

References:

Den Hartog, D. N. (2015). Ethical leadership. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav. 2(1), 409-434. Available at, https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032414-111237

Treviño, L. K., & Brown, M. E. (2014). Ethical leadership. Available at, https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-16828-024

KO, C., Ma, J., Bartnik, R., Haney, M. H., & Kang, M. (2018). Ethical leadership: An integrative review and future research agenda. Ethics & Behavior28(2), 104-132. Available at, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508422.2017.1318069

Yukl, G., Mahsud, R., Hassan, S., & Prussia, G. E. (2013). An improved measure of ethical leadership. Journal of leadership & organizational studies20(1), 38-48. Available at, https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=ethical+leadership&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2012&as_yhi=

Frisch, C., & Huppenbauer, M. (2014). New insights into ethical leadership: A qualitative investigation of the experiences of executive ethical leaders. Journal of Business Ethics123(1), 23-43. Available at, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-013-1797-9

Bello, S. M. (2012). Impact of ethical leadership on employee job performance. International Journal of Business and Social Science3(11). Available at , https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/31773697/shukbell_article_1-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1659615968&Signature=fpO-23s2sLIkc1DnzjIQ9C3EOEQ2Lwt0xd8jI3t0-7eT8ipkczAFfPRSnDnqLdfmVKlEZxDpxCchbKf1Ktu6NTM6FGPrTWfAQHA5oZVNILysBpNA86rmB7gpFtnjOX1b1NyZqT-c~-Ba-wcdtq2Un-ghxg5VFvBliC06WYiXsU~hxEGlXTlESfOgybfdKap9zEYoiitzjL5x6WPyJ74wGSfS5pMamiI0Fk23ASGritJ3vvx9ielzwYy6gsdfaju-ld9Db~k-jH2EfhjHqo2UmdPSRTHDSWTwh~uX3qCS48C2q1MtzcrcHcOZRocCMjEcbUJKz9DXZD23IebJQf6z0A__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA

Sharif, M. M., & Scandura, T. A. (2014). Do perceptions of ethical conduct matter during organizational change? Ethical leadership and employee involvement. Journal of Business Ethics124(2), 185-196. Available at, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-013-1869-x

Demirtas, O. (2015). Ethical leadership influence at organizations: Evidence from the field. Journal of Business Ethics126(2), 273-284. Available at, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-013-1950-5

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