Ethics beyond leadership: can ethics survive bad leadership? (original) (raw)

Ethical Leadership and Organizational Culture: Literature Perspective

International Journal of Innovative Research and Development, 2017

Ethical leadership begins at the top with the chief executives championing every ethical activity for then followers to emulate them and respect the ethical behaviour within an organization. Ethical leadership has been found to be positively and significantly associated with transformational leadership and transformational culture of the organization. This comes in the background of unethical and financial scandals and leadership failures of nations in recent history. Organizational culture in this study refers to the underlying assumptions, beliefs, values, attitudes and expectations shared by an organization's members, including unwritten codes of conduct and behaviour. The study examines ethical leadership in relationship to organizational culture. A detailed review of extant literature is undertaken relevant to ethical leadership and organizational culture. Underpinning theories aligned to the study topic are examined and a conceptual model described. The study culminates with suggestions on the benefits of ethical leadership.

Ethics in Management Ethical Leadership and Culture

Recently, ethics is one of the fundamental issues that companies had to pay attention to because of global economic crises, corporate scandals, and rising importance of environmental concerns. Furthermore, scarcity of resources forced companies to think about sustainability within ethical issues. Devastating effects of the problems that companies dealing with have some consequences at the last instance. Ethics in management is becoming an ascending subject with all stakeholders, from a single customer to governmental practices. In this chapter, ethics in management will be discussed with its theoretical development, relation with organizational culture, and leadership.

The role of ethical leadership in organizational culture

Jurnal Mantik, 2023

This paper aims to examine more deeply the role of ethical leadership in organizational culture. This is an interesting study to discuss considering that leadership is a central activity in an organization, with a top leader as a central figure, so that a leader needs leadership ethics, because a leader becomes an uswah or role model for his subordinates and has a significant influence on the performance of their subordinates. In this paper, this research uses a qualitative research type with a library research approach with data collection techniques through various references, then data reduction and conclusions are carried out. The results of the study show that leadership ethics plays a role in organizational culture. Ethical leadership affects performance in the organization, both the performance of leaders and followers. The leader is a determining factor in creating ethical behavior and ethical climate in the organization. The leader develops a strategy for developing ethical behavior which is part of the organizational strategy. The leader compiles an organizational code of ethics and implements it as a guide to the behavior of members of the organization and becomes a role model for ethical behavior.

Ethics and leadership: Enablers and stumbling blocks

Journal of Public Affairs, 2010

Many of the scandals, indiscretions and collapses, over the last few years, at formerly venerated organizations were the results of toxic relationships, dubious economic models, opaque workplace paradigms, as well as questionable collective and individual actions and behaviours of people who, ordinarily, would not be considered 'typically criminal'. The individuals involved have typically been people with good education, caring parents, were community contributors and, by all accounts, appeared to be upstanding members of society. Their involvement, therefore, in corrupt acts and relationships thus brings a numbers of issues under questionan important one of which is their ethical maturity, and the forming of that ethical development through important societal institutions such as: religion, education and the family. We set out to understand what some of the stumbling blocks were that prevent individuals from courageously acting on their sometimes vast bases of theoretical/common knowledge with respect to ethics and morals, but which has not yet become common practice. Additionally, we also sought to understand what the various enablers were for individuals who were able to live and act ethically, to further enhance such ethical and moral living and working. Our research sample was 646 middle managers who were all enrolled on the MBA programs of the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Erasmus University (Netherlands). The research respondents self-reported on both the stumbling blocks and enablers, through writing up their personal experiences for our research. They also reported on what some of the practical actions were that they employed to live and work ethically.

Managing organizational ethics: How ethics becomes pervasive within organizations

Business Horizons, 2021

This study analyzes real experiences of culture management to better understand how ethics permeates organizations. In addition to reviewing the literature, we used an action-research methodology and conducted semistructured interviews in Spain and in the U.S. to approach the complexity and challenges of fostering a culture in which ethical considerations are a regular part of business discussions and decision making. The consistency of findings suggests patterns of organizational conditions, cultural elements, and opportunities that influence the management of organizational cultures centered on core ethical values. The ethical competencies of leaders and of the workforce also emerged as key factors. We identify three conditionsda sense of responsibility to society, conditions for ethical deliberation, and respect for moral autonomydcoupled with a diverse set of cultural elements that cause ethics to take root in culture when the opportunity arises. Leaders can use this knowledge of the mechanisms by which organizational factors influence ethical pervasiveness to better manage organizational ethics.

A corporate culture pattern to manage business ethics

International Journal of Value-Based Management, 2002

Within the general frame of proposals for an adequate management of business ethics, this paper is based on the vision of corporate culture as a pattern to achieve such purpose. If we consider ethics as a specific value of corporate culture, we may resort to the mechanism of cultural change and implementation in order to manage ethics. Despite the difficulties it entails in terms of time and money investment, this procedure is one of the safest ways to reach ethical values which are known, shared and then practiced by all the members of a corporation, whatever the category. From this central standpoint, and basing ourselves on our own proposal for the management of culture, we shall describe which specific steps must be taken in order to achieve a set of ethical values which are both realistic and furthermore shared by all collaborators of an organization.

Ethics of the Leader – an Essential Condition for Business Success

2019

The mission of ethics is not only to expose the theoretical aspects of morality, but also to be a practical, real guide in guiding and improving the moral life of society. Defined over time in different ways, depending on the context or the specific field of practical applicability, ethics has been focused on the principles and standards that should govern the social relationships between individuals and organizations and have always prompted the interest of those interested in living in a better world, mindful of the needs and aspirations of others, to appreciate true human values and to promote exemplary patterns of behavior. The role of ethics is to help people and institutions decide what is best to do, what criteria to choose and what their moral motivations are in their actions. For Romanian companies confronted with the difficulties arising from the transition from one society to another, from one system of values to another, business ethics is not only a new issue but a very...

Fostering Ethical Leadership in Organizations

European Journal of Business and Management, 2014

High profile ethical scandals engulfing every sphere of life and profession have gained importance currently. For example, major business failures such as WorldCom, Enron, Tyco International, HealthSouth, Parmalat, and Lehman Brothers are among business organizations where leaders failed ethically for a number of reasons. It has been noted that ethical leadership failures have affected the culture, reputation and productivity of organizations. With the ever-increasing number of extensively discussed ethical scandals, the question has come up how these ethical failures could have been prevented. Moreover, previous research work shows that ethical leadership remains largely unexplored and there is still paucity of knowledge regarding antecedents of ethical leadership. Thus, this study addresses the question: What facilitates and increases ethical leadership? This paper is an attempt to look for strategies that could foster ethical behaviour as well as prevent unethical practices in organizations. Pedagogical and didactic implications for leadership educators have been delineated. Equally, future research directions are suggested. Future at embracing authentic ethical leadership in various domains of society embracing educational institutions, businesses, civil organizations, governments and homes can only be secured by reinstating holistic education and character formation of students in all places of learning.

Ethical Leadership in Organisations: A Synthesis of Literature

A lot of controversies have arisen in recent times, as corporate leaders are brought under scrutiny by the media and other stakeholders. This has changed the game for a lot of them and it is no longer business as usual. What would have been ignored in times past would make headlines especially when it comes to ethical issues. As a leader of an organization, one is no longer responsible to just the shareholders in terms of maximizing profit. But as ethical leadership is concerned, the responsibility of ensuring that there is a clear line between what is acceptable and what is not acceptable while driving the organization to reaching set goals becomes paramount. The pitfall for several leaders is that, in the bid to achieve short-term goals, they cross the ethical lines which has major repercussions for the entire organization. This paper takes a holistic review of literature at the concepts of ethics, leadership and ethical leadership and the fundamental principles of ethical leadership. It also discusses cases of ethical misappropriations by selected organizations and the consequences of such actions. This conceptual paper provides practical solutions to the issues bordering on ethics and leadership in organisations.