This document discusses leadership approaches and characteristics that can enhance leadership skills. It covers several topics related to ethics, values, and leadership including qualities of ethical leadership, generational differences in values, ethical dilemmas, servant leadership, and creating an ethical organizational climate. The key points are that a leader's values and ethical code are important determinants of how power is exercised; servant leadership focuses on serving followers' needs; and establishing clear ethical policies, communicating core values, and rewarding ethical behavior can help create an ethical climate in an organization.

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Joseph Fredrick Mutupha (PhD)
The Commandant
Police College - Zomba

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES;
At the end of this presentation participants will be able to:
 Describe four qualities of leadership that engender trust
 Understand differences in values across generations
 Differentiate between Values, ethics, and morals
 Examine the basic assumptions and issues of two
contrasting sets of assumptions people make about human
nature.

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES CONT…
 Identify the four ethical dilemmas that are so common
to our experience
 Appreciate approaches to leadership
 State and explain ten characteristics of servant leaders
 Examine the quality of ethical climate in organizations

4. INTRODUCTION
 Leaders can use power for good or ill. A Leader’s
personal values and ethical code may be among the most
important determinants of how that leader exercises the
various sources of power available.
 There is a distinction between leaders and managers that
says leaders do the right things whereas managers do things
right.
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AIM
The aim of this presentation is to equip participants with
knowledge about the leadership approaches and
characteristics in order to enhance their leadership skills.

6. LEADERSHIP
 Gardner (1990) said leaders ultimately must be judged
on the basis of a framework of values, not just in terms of
their effectiveness.
 Burns (1978) took an even more extreme view regarding
the moral dimension of leadership, maintaining that leaders
who do not behave ethically do not demonstrate true
leadership.
 Bennis and Goldsmith (1997) described four qualities of
leadership that engender trust: vision, empathy,
consistency, and integrity.
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7.  Vision: Pull people together on the basis of shared
beliefs and a common sense of organizational purpose and
belonging.
 Empathy: Understand the world as we see and
experience it.
 Consistency: Changes are understood as a process of
evolution in light of relevant new evidence
 Integrity: Demonstrate their commitment to higher
principles through their actions.
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8.  McGregor (1966) identified two contrasting sets of assumptions
people make about human nature, calling these Theory X and Theory
Y
 Theory X: reflects a more pessimistic view of others. Managers
with this orientation rely heavily on coercive, external control
methods to motivate workers, such as pay, disciplinary techniques,
punishments, and threats. They assume people are not naturally
industrious or motivated to work.
 Theory Y: on the other hand, reflects a view that most people are
intrinsically motivated by their work. Rather than needing to be
coaxed or coerced to work productively, such people value a sense of
achievement, personal growth, pride in contributing to their
organization, and respect for a job
well done.
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9. VALUES, ETHICS, AND MORALS
 Values are “constructs representing generalized
behaviors or states of affairs that are considered the
individual to be important”( Gordon, 1975). Values are
learned through the socialization process, and they become
internalized and for most people represent integral
components of the self.
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10. ETHICS AND MORALS
 Ethics is a branch of philosophy dealing with principles of right
conduct. Historically, ethics has focused on the use of reason to find
appropriate principle or rules to govern conduct.
 Morals: deal more with how various rules of conduct are applied
in actual behavior. Both must be used responsibly for us to be
effective ethical actors.
GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN VALUES
 The pervasive influence of broad forces like major historical
events and trends, technological changes, and economic conditions
tends to create common value systems among people growing at a
particular time.
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11. Zemke said, differences in values across generations and
how those value differences affect their approaches to
work and leadership.
 The Veterans (1922–1943) Veterans came of age
during the Great Depression and World War II, and they
represent a wealth of lore and wisdom.
 The Baby Boomers (1942–1960) These were the
postwar babies who came of age during violent, social
protests, experimentation with new values. In the
workplace they have passion about bringing participation,
spirit, heart, and humanity.
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12.  The Gen Xers (1960–1980): Gen Xers grew up during
the era of the Watergate scandal, the energy crisis, higher
divorce rates, MTV, and corporate downsizing; many were
latchkey kids. As a group they tend to be technologically
savvy, independent, and skeptical of institutions and
hierarchy.
 The Nexters (1980–): Also known as millennials
Nexters share an optimism born, perhaps, from having
been raised by parents devoted to the task of bringing their
generation to adulthood; they are the children of soccer
moms and Little League dads.
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13. IMPACT OF THE GEN XERS LEADERSHIP
PROCESS AT WORK
 Research found that while past generations might have
at least acknowledged positional authority, this new
generation has little respect for and less interest in leaders
who are unable to demonstrate that they can personally
produce. In other words, this generation doesn’t define
leading as sitting in meetings and making profound vision
statements, but instead as eliminating obstacles and giving
employees what they need to work well and comfortably
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14. MORALAND ETHICAL REASONING AND
ACTION
 Moral reasoning refers to the process leaders use to
make decisions about ethical and unethical behaviors.
Moral reasoning does not refer to the morality of
individuals perse, or their espoused values, but rather to
the manner by which they solve moral problems
 Values play a key role in the moral reasoning process
because value differences among individuals often result
in different judgments regarding ethical and unethical
behavior.
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15. THE ETHICAL DILEMMA
Rushworth Kidder (1995) identified the four ethical
dilemmas that are so common to our experience that
they serve as models or paradigms:
 Truth versus loyalty, such as honestly answering a
question when doing so could compromise a real or
implied promise of confidentiality to others.
 Individual versus community, such as whether you
should protect the confidentiality of someone’s medical
condition when the condition itself may pose threat to
the larger community.
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16.  Short-term versus long-term, such as how a parent
chooses to balance spending time with children now as
compared with investments in career that may provide
greater benefits for the family in the long run.
 Justice versus mercy, such as deciding whether to
excuse a person’s misbehavior because of extenuating
circumstances or a conviction that he or she has “learned a
lesson.”
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17. PRINCIPLES FOR RESOLVING ETHICAL
DILEMMAS
Kidder offers three principles for resolving ethical
dilemmas as:
 Ends-based thinking: Often characterized as “do
what’s best for the greatest number of people.” It is also
known as utilitarianism in philosophy, and it’s premised
on the idea that right and wrong are best determined by
considering the consequences or results of an action.
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18.  Rule-based thinking: Characterized as “following the
highest principle or duty.” This is determined not by any
projection of what the results of an act may be but rather
by determining the kinds of standards everyone should
uphold all the time, whatever the situation.
 Care-based thinking: Describes what many think of
as the Golden Rule of conduct common in some form to
many of the world’s religions: “Do what you want others
to do to you.” In essence, this approach applies the
criterion of reversibility in determining the rightness of
actions.
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19. ETHICS AND VALUES-BASED APPROACHES TO
LEADERSHIP
Avolio (2008) and his associates have defined ethical leadership
as having two core components:
 The moral person: The moral person is seen as a principled
decision maker who cares about people and the broader society.
The actions of such people indicate they try to do the right things
personally and professionally, and they can be characterized as
honest, fair, and open.
 The moral manager: Make ethics an explicit part of their
leadership agenda by communicating an ethics and values
message, by visibly and intentionally role modeling ethical
behavior.
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20. APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP
 Authentic leadership: Authentic leaders exhibit a
consistency between their values, their beliefs, and their
actions. They have strong ethical convictions that guide
their behavior not so much to avoid doing “wrong” things
as to always try to do the “right” things, including treating
others with respect and dignity.
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21.  Servant leadership: The leader’s primary role may be
understood as doing whatever it takes to ensure that
things run smoothly, tasks are performed, and goals are
met. From the contrasting perspective of servant
leadership, the leader’s role is literally to serve others.
Servant leaders develop people, helping them to strive
and flourish.
Servant leaders want those they serve to become
healthier, wiser, freer, and more autonomous. Servant
leaders serve followers.
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22. TEN CHARACTERISTICS OF SERVANT LEADERS
 Listening: While all leaders need to communicate
effectively, the focus is often on communicating to others;
but servant leadership puts the emphasis on listening
effectively to others.
 Empathy: Servant leaders need to understand others’
feelings and perspectives.
 Healing: Servant leaders help foster each person’s
emotional and spiritual health and wholeness.
 Awareness: Servant leaders understand their own
values, feelings, strengths, and weaknesses. 22

23.  Persuasion: Rather than relying on positional
authority, servant leaders influence others through their
persuasiveness.
 Conceptualization: Servant leaders need to integrate
present realities and future possibilities.
 Foresight: Servant leaders need to have a well-
developed sense of intuition about how the past, present,
and future are connected.
 Stewardship: Servant leaders are stewards who hold
an organization’s resources in trust for the greater good.
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24.  Commitment to others’ growth: The ultimate test
of a servant leader’s work is whether those served
develop toward being more responsible, caring, and
competent individuals.
 Building community: Such individual growth and
development is most likely to happen when one is part
of a supportive community.
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25. THE ROLES OF VALUES IN ORGANIZATIONAL
LEADERSHIP
 In any organization, the top leadership’s collective
values play a significant role in determining the dominant
values throughout the organization, just as an individual
leader’s values play a significant role in determining team
climate.
 Research has shown that employees with values
similar to the organization or team are more satisfied and
likely to stay; those with dissimilar values are more likely
to leave.
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26. QUALITIES OF GOOD LEADERSHIP
 Interpersonal behaviors: They showed care,
concern, and compassion for others. They were
hardworking and helpful. They valued their relationships
with others, working actively to maintain and sustain
them. They tended to focus on the positive rather than the
negative, and accepted others’ failures.
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27.  Basic fairness: A specific quality of their interpersonal
behaviors was manifested in the fairness shown others.
They were not only open to input from others but actively
sought it. They tended to offer explanations of decisions.
They treated others respectfully, never condescendingly,
even amid disagreements.
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28.  Ethical actions and self-expectations: They held
themselves to high ethical standards and behaved
consistently in both their public and private lives. They
accepted responsibility for and were open about their own
ethical failings. They were perceived as honest,
trustworthy, humble, and having high integrity.
 Articulating ethical standards: They articulated a
consistent ethical vision and were uncompromising toward
it and the high ethical standards it implied. They held
others ethically accountable and put ethical standards
above personal and short-term company interests.
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29. QUALITY OF ETHICAL CLIMATE IN
ORGANIZATIONS
 One variable that moderates an employee’s
likelihood of raising such concerns is the general quality
of ethical climate in the organization.
Ethical climate: Refers to those in which ethical
standards and norms have been consistently, clearly, and
pervasively communicated throughout the organization
and embraced and enforced by organizational leaders in
both word and example.
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30. ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND
CHALLENGES IN A FORMAL LEADERSHIP
 Leaders more than followers: Possess unique degrees
of both legitimate and coercive power;
 Enjoy greater privileges
 Have access to more information
 Have greater authority and responsibility
 Interact with a broader range of stakeholders who
expect equitable treatment
 Must balance sometimes competing loyalties when
making decisions.
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31.  Unethical climates: Are those in which questionable
or outright unethical behavior exists with little action
taken to correct such behavior, or (worse) where such
misbehavior is even condoned. It’s likely that employees
experience some degree of moral distress whenever a
manager is perceived to behave unethically, but the
distress is usually greater in unethical climates.
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32. CREATING AND SUSTAINING AN ETHICAL
CLIMATE
 Several “fronts” of leadership action are needed to
establish an ethical organizational climate:
 Formal ethics policies and procedures: Certain
formal policies and procedures are probably necessary if
not sufficient conditions for creating an ethical climate.
These include formal statements of ethical standards and
policies, along with reporting mechanisms, disciplinary
procedures, and penalties for suspected ethical violations.
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33.  Core ideology: It represents the organization’s
purpose, guiding principles, basic identity, and most
important values.
 Integrity: The core ideology must be part of the fabric
of every level and unit in the organization. Just as
personal integrity describes an individual whose outward
behavior and inward values are congruent and
transparent, organizational integrity describes an
organization whose pronouncements are congruent with
its public and private actions at every level and in every
office.
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34.  Structural reinforcement: An organization’s
structure and systems can be designed to encourage
higher ethical performance and discourage unethical
performance.
 Performance evaluation systems that provide
opportunities for anonymous feedback increase the
likelihood that “dark side” behaviors would be reported,
and thus discourage their enactment.
 Reward systems can promote honesty, fair treatment
of customers, courtesy, and other desirable behaviors.
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35.  Process focus: How those goals are achieved needs to
be a focus of attention and emphasis too.
 When senior leaders set exceptionally high goals and
show that they expect goals to be achieved whatever it
takes, it’s a recipe that may tempt and seemingly turn a
blind eye to unethical behavior.
 Principle-centered leadership: developed and
popularized by Covey which postulates a fundamental
interdependence between the personal, the interpersonal,
the managerial, and the organizational levels of
leadership.
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36.  Personal: The first imperative is to be a trustworthy
person, and that depends on both one’s character and
competence. Only if one is trustworthy can one have
trusting relationships with others.
 Interpersonal: Relationships that lack trust are
characterized by self-protective efforts to control and
verify each other’s behavior.
 Managerial: Only in the context of trusting
relationships will a manager risk empowering others to
make full use of their talents and energies.
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37. NOTE:
 Creating an ethical climate is not easy or just a matter
of following a simple recipe. Conflicts over values can
arise even when an organization has clearly published
values that are embraced by everyone. That can happen
when employees and leaders have divergent perceptions
of whether the leader’s behavior embodies important
corporate values.
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38. SUMMARY
 This chapter has reviewed evidence regarding the
relationships among ethics, values, and leadership.
 Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with right
conduct.
 Values are constructs that represent general sets of
behaviors or states of affairs those individuals consider
important, and they are a central part of a leader’s
psychological makeup.
 Values affect leadership through a cultural context
within which various attributes and behaviors are regarded
differentially positively or negatively.
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39.  It’s not just the content of one’s beliefs about right
and wrong that matters, though. How one makes moral
or ethical judgments, or the manner by which one solves
moral problems, is also important and is referred to as
moral reasoning.
 Some approaches to moral reasoning posit that it is
developed by going through qualitative stages of
successively more advanced moral reasoning.
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40.  Ethical action, of course, involves more than just the
cognitive process of moral reasoning. That’s why
people’s behavior does not always conform to how they
predict they’ll act, or with their espoused values.
 Furthermore, the thorniest ethical dilemmas people
face tend not to involve choices between what is right or
wrong but between two different “rights.” In such cases it
is useful to apply several different principles for resolving
moral dilemmas.
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End