Compare & Contrast Notions of Ethical Leadership
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Compare & Contrast Notions of Ethical Leadership
- 1. Compare and Contrast Notions of Ethical Leadership Presented by: Jill Charpia
- 2. Introduction Comparing and contrasting leadership concepts will help to provide an understanding of the relationship of Ethical Stewardship, Trust, and Leadership. The following areas will be discussed in this presentation: 1) How do Caldwell et al. define leadership? 2) In what manner do leaders serve as role models (better or worse) for ethical behavior? 3) What impact does the concept of trustworthiness have on the level of trust in organizational leadership? 4) How do Caldwell et al. describe ethical stewardship? 5) Do you agree with Caldwell et al.’s thoughts on the importance of ethical stewardship? 6) What is the correlation between leadership, trustworthiness, and ethical stewardship? 7) How is Unethical Stewardship Solved? Conclusion
- 3. How do Caldwell et al. define leadership? Caldwell, Hays, and Long (2002) defines leadership by: “Honoring a model of leadership that rises to the level of ethical stewardship can enable businesses to build trust, improve profitability, and achieve more effective results long- term.” Based upon Chemer’s Leadership model Incorporates 3 tasks: Resource Development Resource Utilization Image management
- 4. In what manner do leaders serve as role models (better or worse) for ethical behavior? Murphy’s Discussion on Responsibility Impact of Negative Role Models Example: World War II Hitler’s influence Separation of Powers US Democratic System
- 5. What impact does the concept of trustworthiness have on the level of trust in organizational leadership? Relationship of Ethics and Leadership Levine (2013) Example: Hilary Clinton, Presidential Candidate Strong and Experienced Leadership Poor Ethical Values Impact of Trustworthiness
- 6. How do Caldwell et al. describe ethical stewardship? Caldwell (2013) utilizes James Carlopio’s statement to describe ethical stewardship. Carlopio (2002) states, “(t)oday’s leaders must resist the powerful temptation of self-interest and must be motivated by broader values and principles ‘based on a morally established duty owed an a fiduciary obligation”. Example: Body Armor Purchase Potential Consequences Relationship of Ethical Stewardship and Trust
- 7. Do you agree with Caldwell et al.’s thoughts on the importance of ethical stewardship? Yes! Why? Fundamentally Correct Concept Increasing consciousness of the Population Example Enron Scandal Leadership Failure Unintended consequences
- 8. What is the correlation between leadership, trustworthiness, and ethical stewardship? Consider the Opposite Ethical Values and Poor Leadership Success Rates Discussion-Politics and Our Leadership Compromise
- 9. How is Unethical Stewardship Solved? Short and Simple; It’s not Can be decreased Increased level of financial wealth. Stronger Government Harsher Enforced Laws
- 10. Perceived Rate of Corruption By Country Wikipedia, 2015
- 11. Continuing the Discussion Concept-Three legged Stool Ethical Stewardship Trust Leadership Common Perception and Norms Influencing Factors
- 12. Conclusion Comparing and contrasting leadership concepts will help to provide an understanding of the relationship of Ethical Stewardship, Trust, and Leadership. The following areas were discussed in this presentation: 1) How do Caldwell et al. define leadership? 2) In what manner do leaders serve as role models (better or worse) for ethical behavior? 3) What impact does the concept of trustworthiness have on the level of trust in organizational leadership? 4) How do Caldwell et al. describe ethical stewardship? 5) Do you agree with Caldwell et al.’s thoughts on the importance of ethical stewardship? 6) What is the correlation between leadership, trustworthiness, and ethical stewardship? 7) How is Unethical Stewardship Solved? 8) Continuing the Discussion
- 13. References Caldwell, C., Hayes, L. A., & Long, D. T. (2010). Leadership, trustworthiness, and ethical stewardship. Journal of Business Ethics, 96(4), 497-512. doi: 10.1007/s10551- 010-0489-y Carlopio, J.: 2002, ‘The Best Articles about Leadership from the Last Ten Years’, BOSS Financial Review, August Edition, pp. 71–7 Corruption Perceptions Index. (2015). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Corruption_Perceptions_Index Lakshmi, B. (2014). Leadership Ethics in Today's World: Key Issues and Perspectives. ASCI Journal Of Management, 44(1), 66-72. Levine, M., & Boaks, J. (2014). What Does Ethics Have to do with Leadership?. Journal Of Business Ethics, 124(2), 225-242. doi:10.1007/s10551-013-1807-y Murphy, P. E. (2009). The relevance of responsibility to ethical business decisions. Journal of Business Ethics, 90, 245-252. doi: 10.1007/s10551-010-0378-4 n.d., 2015. Easy Guide to Understanding ENRON Scandal Summary. Retrieved from http://finance.laws.com/enron-scandal-summary Sagas, M., & Wigley, B. J. (2014). Gray Area Ethical Leadership in the NCAA: The Ethics of Doing the Wrong Things Right. Journal Of Intercollegiate Sport, 7(1), 40-57.
Editor's Notes
- The purpose of this presentation is to compare and contrast leadership concepts and discuss how each area relates to one another. Throughout the discussion the following will be addressed: 1) How do Caldwell et al. define leadership? 2) In what manner do leaders serve as role models (better or worse) for ethical behavior? 3) What impact does the concept of trustworthiness have on the level of trust in organizational leadership? 4) How do Caldwell et al. describe ethical stewardship? 5) Do you agree with Caldwell et al.’s thoughts on the importance of ethical stewardship? 6) What is the correlation between leadership, trustworthiness, and ethical stewardship? As ethical leadership is explored, leaders in business can begin to formulate an opinion on what works best for their own companies. By understanding the impact of compliance to a certain standard, a business leader could shift each to ensure they are finding the best possible leadership practices. As each leader does so within their own corporation, they can understand the shift to the bottom line. Also, by understanding how to influence ethical stewardship, they could find ways to increase the levels of trust within the corporation. At the end of the day, creating a profitable company with high standards in both trust and ethical stewardship is the end goal.
- Caldwell et. al, 2002 defines leadership by: “Honoring a model of leadership that rises to the level of ethical stewardship can enable businesses to build trust, improve profitability, and achieve more effective results long-term.” (Caldwell et al., 2002) Over time there have been a variety of definitions for the term “leadership”. While leadership is a broad term and can mean one thing to this person, it may be something entirely different to another. Caldwell et. Al, 2010 utilizes Chemer’s model to form their foundation of the definition. The determining factor appears to be based upon what the employees’ value in a leader. The overall concept of leadership incorporates trust levels and ethical behavior. Caldwell, Hayes, and Long, (2010) discuss leadership in their view based on Chemer’s leadership model. They utilize this model as the foundation for business and attached high levels of interpersonal trust, ethical stewardship to build their definition of ethical leadership. The model incorporates three tasks which leadership must incorporate. The three tasks are: 1) resource development, resource utilization, and image management (Caldwell, et al., 2010). In utilizing these three tasks, leadership can influence productivity and profitability. Overall, a leader would want to control this piece within their corporation to provide the foundation the company stands upon. Even if only one area within the model is lacking, it can certainly have high impacts in all areas of the business. For example, an employee seeing management showing up late for meetings consistently may lose trust leadership and begin to mimic managements’ actions. As employees lose trust, productivity is likely to decrease, which could significantly lower the company’s profitability.
- Murphy 2010 begins his discussion on responsibility of individuals to act morally, the newness of the concept, and how it serves as a foundation for ethics. According to his article, this concept is relatively new. This discussion bring the example of World War II and the extermination of a race come to mind. During the course of the war, Hitler’s military forces learned from his behavior. In this war effort, Hitler certainly served as a role model, an exceptionally negative role model, who held little to no ethical values. He served in the role of a dictator, until many of his followers came to form the same ideas and philosophies. If the subordinates were not in agreement with Hilter’s philosophies they were either beaten into submission or killed. This method was certainly persuasive. In other instances, individuals may have seen the positive effect on the German people which reemphasized Hitler’s mission, thereby deepening the commitment of German followers. While Hitler served as a role model for the lack of ethical behavior, his influence will be forever felt in our history. As we take a look at this example, we can take a look at a way to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again. By defining and assigning levels of responsibility to members of the corporation up front, such as who is the responsible party, to whom are they responsible to, and for what are they responsible for, a separation of power can be formed. This concept is one the democratic system the US utilizes. This system is far from perfect, but certainly could prevent this level of an atrocity.
- Levine (2013) discusses an exceptionally valid point when he talks about ethics and leadership and how they can be misconstrued due to perception. For example, a leader may have very low ethical standards, but could be perceived and an excellent leader because he’s always able to get the job done. While politics are certainly a touchy subject, we can review Hillary Clinton and her leadership as well as ethics. While the American population understands the level of commitment and the ability to lead the country and her teams, she certainly has a disgustingly low level of ethics. This is an area where not only our criminal system, the highest level of government, as well as many within the American population are turning a blind eye. By evaluating the poles, a significant number of the American public perceives that Hillary would be a good leader, even with her low ethical standards. The standard appears to be lowered for those serving in the political realm, while a majority of the American public would have already been tried, convicted, and incarcerated for sending and receiving top secret documents through personal email. With this example in mind, a significant portion of the American population should be able to evaluate her level of trustworthiness within this organization and effectively remove her from power.
- Caldwell et. al. (2013) utilizes the following concept provided by James Carlopio (2002) to describe ethical stewardship. Carlopio states, “(t)oday’s leaders must resist the powerful temptation of self-interest and must be motivated by broader values and principles ‘based on a morally established duty owed an a fiduciary obligation”. Throughout their discussion they develop the idea that leaders that have ethical stewardship will have higher levels of trust. In most cases, this would appear to be true. By focusing on doing the right thing in business consistently, the notion is that they would be more trustworthy. In this instance, an employee could understand the decision making process and the ideas behind the decisions. This would allow an employee to feel more secure in the outcome, which in essence increases trust. For example, leadership with the government purchasing organization chooses to purchase body armor from an unauthorized source in Iran to save money. First off, this could place troops in danger due to the quality of the product as well as the potential of funding organizations that support terrorism. The ethical decision making process is clouded due to the cheaper brand of equipment which in the end influences the level of trust between the troops on the ground and the purchasing organization.
- The overall answer is, yes, I do agree with what Caldwell has to say on ethical stewardship. Leadership needs to be based on ethical stewardship, especially as our culture is becoming increasing conscious in this area. The example that comes to mind in this category would be the Enron Scandal. While the company’s business was booming, many members of Enron’s leadership chose to forgo their role in ethical stewardship. As leadership embezzled funds and reported illegitimate earnings, While Enron’s leaders took advantage of the falsified earnings, the company was hemorrhaging. My belief of the impact of ethical stewardship starts at the very top and needs to be incorporated throughout the organization to be effective. Enron’s leadership showed us exactly how unethical behavior first bankrupted their own business, and second provided sentences to a number of those involved with the scandal. Within Caldwell’s (2013) discussion, he noted the three categories that were needed to initially build trust play into ethical stewardship. Those categories were: 1) resource utilization, 2) relationship development, and 3) image management. This ended up being a 70 billion dollar error in judgment that will affect a significant amount of people for the remainder of their lives (n.d., 2015).
- Another important factor to consider is whether or not having ethical values will make a person a good leader. Previously we discussed Hilter and his impact on the world. He had little to no ethical values, as one could see, but is considered one of the most powerful leaders of all time. Now, we can take a moment to discuss if the opposite is true. Levine and Boaks (2012) discuss the connection between values and leadership success. While it appears to be true that a leader must have some values to be successful, whether it’s a commitment to the end goal or to the people that support a leader, it does not guarantee success. Many leaders that have strong ethical values will end up failing over time. If we turn to Washington DC and the members of our Senate and Congress. While a majority of the members enter into their oath with the American public at the core of their hearts, and their Christian and honorable values in their hands; the political world changes people. The individuals that tend to have the strong ethical backgrounds that have the need to do right by their constituents most often have tendencies to be turned. There is a high level of compromise that has to go on to pass a bill, create legislation, and honor the party, whether republican or democratic. If this weren’t the case, lobbyists would have a hard time finding jobs.
- There’s one short and simple answer for this question. It’s not. While there can always be greater steps taken to ensure ethics are incorporated and at the center of decision making, the one factor that will never be controlled is human nature. The saying says something like, people are inherently good”. While living in the business world, this concept should be in the mind, but a realization that people tend to go after their desires often bending their ethics to meet their own needs. This may be identified as a pessimistic point of view, but is a hard one to shake. Rates appear to decrease as the countries move from third world to first world countries. The better off a country is financially, the stronger the government becomes, harsher enforced laws, and the less corruption and unethical leadership. While this is an overall methodology, one cannot forget that the Enrons of the world exist in our own backyards.
- To take a brief look at the perceived corruption rates by county. Wikipedia (2015) presents the results from a variety of different factors to determine the level of validity of the rate of corruption. The United States ranks towards to the top of the scale in the least amount of corruption while, while increasingly poor African countries rate towards the highest levels of corruption on the list. As we can see, the level of perceived corruption lessons as the level of government increases. While there is hope for unethical stewardship to decrease, one must always be aware of the possibilities that do exist.
- Ethical Stewardship may be a relatively new concept in the business world in comparison to a variety of practices. Ethical leadership is tied to trust and leadership, but these three items are currently one leg on a three legged stool. While all are necessary at some point, the level in which they are players are not always equal which causes the stool to tip to one side. One can see that as poverty levels increase the leg that holds the ethical leadership side is shortened, causing the others to tip. The research conducted with this paper shows that while ethical leadership is desired, it is not always present. As researchers and educators, we need to hold ourselves accountable to get the word out and to always push towards the side of the greater good to ensure values and ethics are at the highest possible level. This paper also shows that one may trust an unethical but effective leader. While the general norm starts with ethical stewardship is equal to higher levels of trust, and low levels of trust generally is formulated out of low ethical stewardship, this is not always the case. As a researcher, the goal will be to remain as unbiased as possible and ensure all viewpoints are explored for the best possible solutions.
- The purpose of this paper was to compare and contrast leadership concepts and discuss how each area relates to one another. Throughout the discussion the following were addressed: 1) How do Caldwell et al. define leadership? 2) In what manner do leaders serve as role models (better or worse) for ethical behavior? 3) What impact does the concept of trustworthiness have on the level of trust in organizational leadership? 4) How do Caldwell et al. describe ethical stewardship? 5) Do you agree with Caldwell et al.’s thoughts on the importance of ethical stewardship? 6) What is the correlation between leadership, trustworthiness, and ethical stewardship? As ethical leadership is explored, leaders in business can begin to formulate an opinion on what works best for their own companies. By understanding the impact of compliance to a certain standard, a business leader could shift each to ensure they are finding the best possible leadership practices. Within this paper, the discussion also included areas to look out for and questionable practices. It also discussed the level of influence of human nature on unethical stewardship and corruption practices. In summary, unethical practices may decreased, while trust and ethical stewardship increase, but will more than likely never entirely go away.