The Importance of Ethics and Values in Leadership
Leaders understand and know what they value. They also identify the essence of ethical character or behavior. Most of the best leaders in the world exhibit both their core values and their ethics in their leadership style and actions. Leadership ethics and values ought to be visible since leaders live actions daily. The absence of trust is an issue in several workplaces. If leaders or management recognize their values in these workplaces, the distrust is comprehensible.
To operate as a leader, it is required that a leader must walk the talk as an example to be significant in guiding the employees and make them develop trust and a demonstration of ethical and principled character (Schein & Schein, 2017, p. 20). Workplace ethics occupy the same path that a leader displays. If the leadership of an institution has a code of conduct and ethical expectations, they become an organization joke if the leaders fail to live up to their code. Leaders that show ethical character significantly influence the actions of the subjects.
The character is an English word that is derived from the Greek character and was initially used as a mark awed in the lead of a coin. Later, the word came to describe a distinguishing mark by which one thing was eminent and differentiated from others, and mostly to mean the collection of qualities that differentiate one person from another (BowersHall et al., 2017, p. 558). Currently, this focus on uniqueness or individualism tends to combine character with personality. For instance, people may say, when thinking of an individual‘s distinctive trait, social gesticulations, or practice of dress, that he or she has individuality or that he is relatively a character. The character is fashioned by the foundation of political, cost-effective, and family lives, subsequently becoming a good individual will involve entrance to the suitable institutions.
The observations of honorable character apprehended by Plato, Stoics, Aristotle, and the Socrates are the beginning points for most other theoretical discussions of character. These ancient moralists disagreed on various issues concerning virtue; it is important to view at some points of similarity of their arguments and the importance of discussing character (Vogel, 2017, p. 6). Most of Plato’s conversations evaluate and analyze the nature of virtue and character of the virtuous individual. For instance, at the start of Plato’s Laches, the character proposes that bravery consists of standing one’s ground in battle.
Dimensions of Character
Ethical dimensions
At the heart of one main strategy to ethics, an approach including among its proponents is the assurance that ethics is essentially connected to what kind of individuals we are. Most of Plato’s conversations, for instance, emphasize what type of people we should be and start with evaluations of meticulous virtues. On the supposition that what type of an individual one is comprised of the character of a person, the connection involving moral character and virtue is comprehensible (Francioli et al., 2018, p. 893). The moral character of an individual can be thought as mainly a function of whether she has or requires a variety of moral virtues and vices. The virtues and vices that include an individual’s moral character are naturally understood as temperaments to conduct personally in definite manners in certain types of situations. For example, an honest individual is predisposed to telling the fact when questioned. These temperaments are naturally comprehended as comparatively steady and enduring. Additionally, they are also characteristically understood to be vigorous, that is reliable transversely a broad-spectrum of circumstances. Under this section, the character is divided into five dimensions;
- Striving for success: requires an individual to develop a strong work and character ethic and consciously doing the best in every aspect of life (Kyongmin & Woojeong, 2018, p. 17). That dimension is a set of values that inform how an individual go through his work. It also advocates for individual accountability and responsibility based on the intrinsic and extrinsic value of a person’s work.
- Cultivating individual integrity: identifying and working on a sense of honor varying from honesty in a relationship. This entails adhering to code regarding the intergroup of values and working in a manner befitting community
- Contributing to the society: Identifying and performing on an individual’s responsibility to the local community and the larger society, local and countrywide as well as international.
- Taking the viewpoint of others seriously: identifying and working on the responsibility to inform an individual’s decision; engaging miscellaneous and challenging perceptions as a resource for citizenship. Responsibility, in this case, entails respecting the right of other people to have a diverse understanding of the world, appreciating well-substantiated viewpoints that be at variance from an individual’s, comprehending the worth that unique viewpoints bring to the development of knowledge (Van Wart, 2015, p. 24).
- Developing capability ethically and decently of thinking: developing an individual’s and societal principles and being competent to articulate and take steps upon those principles conscientiously, developing a mature logic of moral understanding and individual character, being proficient in recognizing and analyze moral quandary and taking action properly.
Values and ethics are important to any individual and organization. Values are things that are considered important by an individual or jointly by an institution. When values are shared by every member of the society or organization, they become tools for making decisions, analyzing the expected results, and making choices among alternatives (Miska & Mendenhall, 2018, p. 119). Values are the incarnation of what an individual or group believed, and ought to be the foundation for the conduct of either an individual or the society. If the society does not share the same values, apparently there will be a detach in individual values, and the same values will be dysfunctional.
The core values of an individual’s character shape or determine decision-making throughout the life. They are the character’s moral direction, and every core values of a character are specific to them (Jamal & Bakar, 2017, p. 371). These are the obsession in people’s hearts; what encourage fighting and arguing and never giving up. When core values are followed, peace and rightness will exist; therefore, core values can be applied in writing powerful character development in the life of an individual.
Character core values can be the incredible quantity of pressure to the character of an individual. Character core values will always make an individual’s character appear paradoxical and which is a fine, pragmatic thing that includes intricacy and profundity to the individual’s personality. If a character has options between two of the values, it can push their limits to develop and change.
Theories of Leadership
Leadership theories have been used in very many contexts. It has also been used in real situations as well as practical circumstances. There are several theories of leadership as there are researchers, professors, and philosophers that have premeditated and in due course published their management as their leader’s theories (Jreisat, 2016, 373). Theories are regularly grouped by which feature is supposed or thought to describe the leader the most.
Leadership theories try to describe and illustrate how and why certain people become leaders. Such types of theories always emphasize the uniqueness of leaders. However, some try to recognize the behaviors that people can adapt to improve their leadership capabilities in diverse circumstances. In many discussions, it has proposed that such skills were and are just abilities that individuals were born with. Some contemporary theories recommend that possessing definite traits may assist make individuals nature leaders, however, that experience and situational variables play a critical role.
As mentioned earlier, the psychology of leadership theories has been introduced to define precisely how and why particular people become great leaders. In the context of character, what exactly makes a good leader? Is it through some certain characters that make an individual a better leader? Do characteristics of the circumstance make it more possible that particular individuals will take responsibility? Closely looking at leaders in different locations around, whether the president, employer or any other individual who is considered in one way or the other, people may wonder exactly why these people do extremely well in those positions in the society (Dugan, Turman & Barnes, 2017). The majority of the society has been interested in leadership throughout our history as human beings. However, it has only been reasonably currently that some prescribed leadership theories have come out. At as the same time a lot of various leadership theories have come out, most can be classified as one of eight most important kinds:
a. “The Great Man” Theories
The theory views a leader as somebody born with the important distinctiveness such as charisma, self-confidence, intellect, and social skills that make them natural-born leaders. Great man theories presume that the capability of leadership is intrinsic, great leaders are born and not made (Seijts & Macmillan, 2018). These theories always often represent great leaders as gallant, mythic and fated to climb to leadership when required. The term Great Man was used because, at that era, leadership was contemplated of mainly as made eminence, particularly regarding military leadership.
b. Trait Theories
The theories have some similarities with Great Man theories. The theories assume that different individuals inherit specific characters and qualities that make them better well-matched to leadership. The theories always recognize a specific individuality or behavioral characteristics shared by leaders, for instance, traits like unreservedness, confidence and bravery are all traits that could probably be connected to immense leaders. If a specific trait is a major aspect of leadership, then how do we describe individuals with those qualities but are not leaders? This is one the toughest questions that makes it difficult to use the trait theories to describe and explain leadership (Suhuan, Zhiyong & Hongsheng, 2018, p. 19). There are lots of people with these characters or traits connected with leadership, but these individuals are not and have never sought any positions of leadership within the organizations or the society.
c. Contingency Theories
The theories in this setting emphasize on specific variables connected to the surroundings that might decide which given the style of leadership is best compatible with the situation. The theory suggests and stipulates that no leadership style is unsurpassed in all circumstances. It asserts that effective leadership is not just concerning qualities of the leader, but also regards the striking the right balance between characters, needs and the context (Henriksen & Børgesen, 2016, p. 390). Good leaders are capable of assessing the needs of the subjects, take stock of the circumstance, and then amend their characters accordingly. Achievement relies on some variables as well as the leadership style, qualities of the subjects and aspects of the condition or circumstances.
There are several means of thinking about leadership, varying form emphasizing on the individuality traits of perfect leadership to focusing features of the condition that assist settle on deciding on how individual lead. Like it is in the case of other things, leadership is a highly multi-complicated topic, and it is a combination of various and numerous elements that assist in finding out why some populace become or make good leaders.
Leadership theory is a compelling phrase that captures the enthusiasm, vision, and supremacy of the man following the title. Through the generations, from Julius Caesar to Barack Obama, leadership theories title is meant to be conferred on the well-known few who have the aptitude to live up to its legacy. The current organization workforce has its share of leaders as well: influential path-breakers who encourage and persuade minor individuals to march their grand dream while there are enough mediocre administrators, possibly the vision of each expert to develop into an inspiring leader who makes a distinction (Grandy & Sliwa, 2017, p. 430).
Thoughts regarding authority have created in a recorded viewpoint with specific qualities and accentuations which can be followed through a course of events from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. These have been comprehensively sorted into ideal models of established, value-based, visionary and, most as of late, natural hypotheses which show their recognizing highlights, ideas, and philosophy (Batmanghlich, 2015). While a worldview can be a valuable build for concentrate to help translation and comprehension, a solitary worldview is probably not going to be shown in an unadulterated shape or a solitary verifiable period, just because it is a piece of a procedure of creating considering and looking at encounters. The wide range of worldview attributes can enable us to comprehend the scope of initiative methodologies which can work contemporaneously inside a similar association and people, contingent upon setting and circumstance. So it is presumably more adept to see the improvement of thoughts regarding administration as a range instead of a continuum, with a chameleon-like capacity to adjust and mix hues to fit the earth and setting.
The role of theory in leadership connects to the institutional leadership and how the leaders and the rest of staffs relate to the organization or business. The management defines the roles of employees and how people perform their roles with the organization. Under the suppositions of the role theory, leaders always explain or define their functions within an institution based on how the staffs see the leader’s function (Tadajewski & Jones, 2014, p. 1252). For instance, employees may have an unsatisfied customer, but rather than decide on how to resolve the conflict with the customer; the staff may see this as the function of the manager or leader. While the staff may take the function of getting the information on what the consumer’s issue is, the staff leaves the decision to that of the manager. Since this is the norm, the manager views that as his role, according to the role theory, to determine customer issues. Leadership has a straight cause and impact association upon institutions and their achievement. They also determine principles, culture, change lenience and staff encouragement. The leaders shape organizational policies together with their implementation and effectiveness. Leaders can come out at any echelon of an organization and are not restricted to administration. Flourishing leaders do, nevertheless, have one thing in general. They persuade or influence people next to them to reap maximum advantage from institutional, resources, together with its most important and expensive: the people. The influence of leaders and their efficiency in affecting an individual to a shared vision can straightly transform the workplace and the staff in general. Leadership plays an important role in the success of the organization based on the roles and types of leaders as well as the possible effect on organizations.
Contemporary leadership theories define leaders based on the traits or how they use their influence and power to achieve objectives. When applying trait-based metaphors, leaders may be grouped or categorized as despotic, democratic, technical or fascinating. If looking at leaders from the swap of power to secure results, leaders are transactional or transformational and situational. Indulgent of these diverse tropes can offer a vocabulary for a conversation that can end up to significant and desired results. It is important to know that not all leaders are created with the same characters or equal, leadership qualities may vary immensely across industries or simply within an institution. Also, recognizing a person leader’s style is important to analyzing leadership quality and success in particular as it relates to institutional objectives.
On ideal models, it offers a psychological fringe it gives a psychological edge or focal point through which we can look at thoughts and make a way to deal with exploring the experience of authority (Taylor & Lynham, 2013, p. 91). The aim is that it throws some light on our comprehension of the subject, when seen inside that casing, and makes theoretical apparatuses to help the investigation. It can be compared to an image outline in that it should attract regard for what is inside and should supplement its subject, yet the selection of materials and configuration can modify the manner by which the subject is seen, changing the accentuation of a portion of the highlights entirely subjective (Pless & Maak, 2011, p. 9). It is vital, like this, to recollect that a worldview can’t and ought not to endeavor to be complete but rather can enable us to see an old subject from another viewpoint.
Conclusion
The result of all this is a culture in which time pressure dominates decision making; where there is a mad dash for the dollar to meet ever-rising financial goals; an atmosphere of adversarial relations both in the market and in the workplace; loneliness at the top as well as throughout managerial ranks, elitism that demotivates the masses and leads to alienation. The existent worldview advances a culture that builds the financial abundance yet just for a few, to the detriment of enthusiastic and social satisfaction, and to the detriment of the debilitated masses. There is something else entirely to it. Not to be disregarded. Debilitation in the working environment intuitively undermines political majority rule government.
References
Batmanghlich, C. A. (2015). Why Leaders Fail Ethically a Paradigmatic Evaluation of Leadership. Why Leaders Fail Ethically. Cham, Springer. doi.10.1007/978-3-319-12733-0.
Bowers, MR, Hall, JR, & Srinivasan, MM. (2017). ‘Organizational culture and leadership style: The missing combination for selecting the right leader for effective crisis management’, Business Horizons, vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 551-563.
Dugan, J. P., Turman, N. T., & Barnes, A. C. (2017). Leadership theory: a facilitator’s guide for cultivating critical perspectives.
Francioli, L, Conway, PM, Hansen, ÅM, Holten, A, Grynderup, MB, Persson, R, Mikkelsen, EG, Costa, G, & Høgh, A. (2018). ‘Quality of Leadership and Workplace Bullying: The Mediating Role of Social Community at Work in a Two-Year Follow-Up Study’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 147, no. 4, pp. 889-899.
Grandy, G, & Sliwa, M. (2017). ‘Contemplative Leadership: The Possibilities for the Ethics of Leadership Theory and Practice’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 143, no. 3, pp. 423-440.
Henriksen, TD, & Børgesen, K. (2016). ‘Can good leadership be learned through business games?’, Human Resource Development International, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 388-405.
Jamal, J, & Bakar, HA. (2017). ‘The Mediating Role of Charismatic Leadership Communication in a Crisis: A Malaysian Example’, International Journal of Business Communication, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 369-393.
Jreisat, J. (2016). ‘Leadership and Culture: Comparative Models of Top Civil Servant Training’, American Review of Public Administration, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 372-374.
Kyongmin, L, & Woojeong, C. (2018). ‘The Relationship between Transformational Leadership of Immediate Superiors, Organizational Culture, and Affective Commitment in Fitness Club Employees’, Sport Mont, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 15-19.
Miska, C, & Mendenhall, ME. (2018). ‘Responsible Leadership: A Mapping of Extant Research and Future Directions’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 148, no. 1, pp. 117-134.
Pless, N, & Maak, T. (2011). ‘Responsible Leadership: Pathways to the Future’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 98, pp. 3-13.
Schein, E. H., & Schein, P. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership. 5th edn, Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons.
Seijts, G. H., & Macmillan, K. (2018). Leadership in practice: theory and cases in leadership character.
Suhuan, D, Zhiyong, L, & Hongsheng, C. (2018). ‘Mediating Influences Of Ethical Leadership On Employee Creativity’, Social Behavior & Personality: an international journal, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 323-338.
Tadajewski, M, & Jones, DB. (2014). ‘Historical research in marketing theory and practice: a review essay’, Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 30, no. 11-12, pp. 1239-1291.
Taylor, RG, & Lynham, SA. (2013). ‘Systemic leadership for socio-political stewardship’, South African Journal of Business Management, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 87-99.
Van Wart, M. (2015). Leadership and culture comparative models of top civil servant training. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Vogel, DJ. (2017). ‘Haas Research on Leadership: AN INTRODUCTION’, California Management Review, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 5-7.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
