Leadership and ethics chapter 5

Five "fronts" of leadership action are required to create an ethical climate.

Formal ethics policies and procedures - formal statements of ethical standards/policies, reporting mechanisms, disciplinary procedures, and penalties Core ideology - organization's purpose, guiding principles, basic identity, and most important values Integrity - core ideology is congruent with all public and private actions throughout the organization Structural reinforcement - organization's structure and systems encourage higher ethical performance and discourage unethical performance Process focus - how goals are achieved is as important as achievement

Research shows that ethical role models are characterized by four general categories of attitudes and behaviors:

Interpersonal behaviors: show care, concern, and compassion for others. Basic fairness: show fairness to others Ethical actions and self-expectations: hold themselves to high ethical standards Articulating ethical standards: articulate a consistent ethical vision and are uncompromising toward it

Moral potency has three key components.

Moral ownership is a felt sense of responsibility not only for the ethical nature of one's own behavior but also for one's commitment not to allow unethical things to happen within one's broader sphere of influence. Moral courage refers to the fortitude to face risk and overcome fears associated with taking ethical action. Moral efficacy is the confidence in one's capability to mobilize personal, interpersonal, and other external resources to persist despite moral adversity.

Kidder identified four common ethical dilemmas.

Truth vs. loyalty - honestly answering a question that may compromise confidentiality Individual vs. community -compromising the rights of an individual for the good of the community Short-term vs. long-term - balancing spending time with family against making career investments for future benefits Justice vs. mercy -excusing a person's behavior due to extenuating circumstances or convicting to teach a lesson

Values

"constructs representing generalized behaviors or states of affairs that are considered by the individual to be important."

Authentic leadership

"to thine own self be true."

There is new interest in leadership approaches that are based on the interdependence between effective leadership and certain value systems.

Authentic leadership Servant leadership

Kidder offers three principles for resolving ethical dilemmas.

Ends-based thinking - "Do what's best for the greatest number of people." It is also known as utilitarianism. Rule-based thinking - It is consistent with Kantian philosophy and is characterized as "following the highest principle or duty." Care-based thinking - "Do what you want others to do to you." It is similar to the Golden Rule of conduct common in some form to many world religions.

The study of authentic leadership has gained momentum because of the following beliefs:

Enhancing self-awareness can help people in organizations find more meaning at work Promoting transparency and openness in relationships builds trust and commitment Fostering more inclusive structures and practices can help build more positive ethical climates

Research has identified 4 biases that affect our moral decision making.

Implicit prejudice refers to subconscious prejudices that affect our decisions without us being aware of them. In-group favoritism involves doing acts of kindness and favors for those who are like us. Overclaiming credit involves overrating the quality of our own work and contributions. Conflicts of interest adversely impact ethical judgments and bias our perceptions of situations.

The general quality of an organization's ethical climate affects whether or not employees raise ethical concerns.

In ethical climates, ethical standards/norms are consistently and clearly communicated, embraced, and enforced by organizational leaders. In unethical climates, unethical behavior exists with little corrective action, and misbehavior may even be condoned.

People in an organization vary in the relative importance they place on values.

Instrumental values refer to modes of behavior (being helpful, being responsible). Terminal values refer to desired end states (family security, social recognition).

Gen Xers have a clearly different view of authority than previous generations.

Leadership is viewed as removing obstacles and giving followers what they need to work. Leaders must "earn their stripes" rather than advance by seniority.

Ten characteristics describe servant leaders:

Listening Empathy Healing Awareness Persuasion Conceptualization Foresight Stewardship Commitment to others' growth Building community

Greene suggests a dual-process theory of moral judgment.

Moral judgments dealing with rights or duties are made by automatic emotional responses while those made on a utilitarian basis are made more cognitively.

When people behave badly, they use the following methods to interpret their behavior in a self-protective way.

Moral justification Euphemistic labeling Advantageous comparison Displacement or diffusion of responsibility Disregard or distortion of consequences Dehumanization Attribution of blame

Principle-centered leadership asserts a fundamental interdependence between the personal, interpersonal, managerial, and organizational levels of leadership.

Personal: Be a trustworthy person in terms of both character and competence. Interpersonal: A lack of trust leads to self-protective efforts to control and verify each other's behavior. Managerial: Empowering others requires a trusting relationship, team building, delegation, communication, negotiation, and self-management. Organizational: Creativity requires that the organization's structure, systems (training, reward, communication), strategy, and vision be aligned and mutually supportive.

Each generation is molded by distinctive experiences at their critical developmental periods.

The Veterans (1922-1943) The Baby Boomers (1942-1960) The Gen Xers (1961-1981) Millennials (1982-2005)

Avolio asserts that there are two components of ethical leadership.

The moral person is a principled decision maker who cares about people and the broader society. The moral manager makes ethics an explicit part of the leadership agenda by communicating messages of ethics and values and by modeling ethical behavior.

Two contrasting sets of assumptions people make about human nature:

Theory X asserts that most people need extrinsic motivation because they are not naturally motivated to work. Theory Y asserts that most people are intrinsically motivated by their work.

Pervasive influences of broad forces at a particular time tend to create common value systems.

This may contribute to misunderstandings and tension during interactions between older leaders and younger followers.

Four qualities of leadership engender trust:

Vision Empathy Consistency Integrity

A common but challenging ethical dilemma

involves choosing between two "rights."

Upward ethical leadership

involves individuals showing leadership by taking actions to uphold ethical standards when higher-ups misbehave.

Moral reasoning

is the process leaders use to make decisions about ethical and unethical behaviors i.e. the manner by which they solve moral dilemmas.

Leaders should internalize a strong set of ethics

principles of right conduct or a system of moral values.

Servant leadership

views serving others to be the leader's role.