Download ETHICS-BASED LEADERSHIP THEORIES Ethic based approaches

ETHICS-BASED LEADERSHIP THEORIES
Ethic based approaches are generally used by leadership to
influence people who they concern lead by their personal charisma vision
and skill. Ethics-based approaches then to have three major concerns
(Ciulla 2004:Ciulla, Price. And Murphy 2005). The first concern and virtue
is the intent of individuals, whether they are leaders or members of the
organization. How does the character and virtue of individuals shape their
moral compass to do good?. The second concern involves selecting the
proper means for doing good. In this philosophy, this is often called the
deontological or duty approach. Being moral means knowing and following
appropriate social customs stemming from laws, rules, and mores. The
third concern is selecting the proper ends. In philosophy, this often called
the theological or utilitarian approach. An example is when a male
manager is approached by any angry female employee who accuses a
supervisor of sexual harassment and provides three instances of
inappropriate language and behavior. Ultimately, all three concerns- good
intent, proper means, and appropriate ends must be functioning for good
leadership (as a process) to be robust.
Perspective on Ethics-Based Leadership
The basic integrity model of the virtuous leader
Nearly all ethical focus on, include, or assume basic leader integrity.
The basic meaning of integrity is wholeness, and that in turn is based on
notions of consistency with one’s own words, thoughts, principles, actions,
and social setting. The three most common hallmarks of integrity are
honesty, trustworthiness, and fairness.
The first level of honesty involves telling the truth in all oral and
written expression. Honest people from this perspective do not tell lies,
even by reframing “white” or courtesy lies. Further, they are truthful in both
private and public situations.
The second element of integrity relates to trustworthiness, which
can involve several elements. Trustworthy people know what their
principles are and are able to state them so that others know “where they
stand”. Of course, trusthworthy people are consistent with own their
principle (Manz, et al. 2008; Palanski and Yammarino 2009).
A third major element of integrity is fairness. Fairness implies that
ones knows and follows rules ad makes sure that they apply to all.
Because those with management and executive responsibilities have a lot
of discretion, fairness is important in the equality of treatment as well as in
making rational and appropriate exceptions.
The ethical leader as moral manager
Certainly on of the first mandates of ethical leader and an ethical
leadership process is to make sure that the rules, regulations, and
expected mores are:

Explicitly stated

Clearly and fully taught to new organizational members

Refresh and updated for veteran members, and

Enforced consistently and fairly for all.
Exhibition 6.1
Ethical leadership based on personal integrity
Honesty
Tells the truth; comes forth
with appropriate information
Trustworthiness
Fairness
Knows principles; act on principle
Provides equivalent treatment;
commitments
would want
consistently. Follows through on
Integrity
Provides consistency of words,
principles, and equitable actions
provides others with treatment s/he
Organizations depend on members to know and follow their “duty”
(Trevino, Weaver, and Reynolds 2006). This is particularly true in public
sector organizations in which the delegation of authority to work on the
public’s behalf derives from statute and is articulated through
administrative law. The important of ethical leadership is most pbvious
when it si absent. Image an entrepreneurial public agency, such as an
economic development agency, in which the rules and regulations are not
clearly stated, so that agency personnel are always guessing just how
much initiative they should take into their own hands.
The ethical leader as authentic
If the moral manager perspective emphasizes the external role of
authorized values, authentic leadership emphasizes the internal
perspective. Core values of authentic leaders include trustworthiness,
credibility, respect for others, fairness, accountability, and other aspects of
basic personal integrity that were discussed above. They are adept at selfregulation in terms of their emotional intelligence, self-improvement goals,
and balance congruence between their actual and ideal selves. The
authentic leadership construct takes into the individual’s role beyond the
mere passive acceptance of social norms; authentic leaders are
responsible for being self-aware and self-regulating. Critics (e.g., Cooper.
Scandura, and Schriesheim 2005) have noted a number of challenges in
developing this “very normative approach” first, the definitions of authentic
leadership seem some what amorphous and all inclusive and definition
become circular. Finally, as theorists work at setting up more elaborate
research protocols, the distance between their research and practitioner
accessibility seems ever greater (see George 2003 for a good practitioner
application of authentic leadership).
The ethical leader as spiritual mentor to followers, clients, and
constituents
While spiritual as a school of thought only emerged in 2003, it has
strong precedents in the servant leadership tradition emerged in 2003, it
has strong precedents in the servant leadership tradition (Greenleaf 1977)
and Kohlbergian ethics (1981).
The spiritual servant leadership philosophy is an ancient one that
clearly recognizable in the writings of great humanitarians such as LaoTzu and Jesus. The basic ide is that the notion that the people are to ser in
the writings of great humanitarians such as Lao-Tzu and Jesus. The basic
ide is that the notion that the people are to serve the king, or potentate is
backward and fundamentally wrong: it is leader who is privileged to serve
the people.
Kohlberg established three levels of moral development that have
been used by many leadership ethicists. Level 1 is pre-conventional and
includes he obedience and punishment orientation, and self-interest
orientation of those with immature or undeveloped moral compasses. The
second level is the conventional, which includes the conformity stage and
the authority and social order maintaining orientation. The highest level is
the post-conventional, which includes the social contract orientation, and
the ultimate universal ethical principles stage.
A challenge of servant and spiritual leadership is its abstraction
from normal organizational authorization procedures and functions.
Another challenge involves deciding whether it is a normative or empirical
approach, and whether the ideal methods are perspective or descriptive.
Finally, sometimes there is vey strong resistance to the normative thrust of
servant leadership in the private sector where the market can be seen as
the primary source of wisdom, and the concerns of shareholders and
owners are paramount to the success of capitalism (‘a la Milton Friedman
1970) .
The ethical leader as a transforming agent of change for the common
good
From the beginnings of the transformational and charismatic
leadership renaissance in the late 1970s, major intellectual efforts were
made to distinguish change oriented and bigger than life leaders driven
primarily by personal ego or “personalized” concerns from those driven by
“socialized” concerns.
Heifetz’s adaptive leadership model (1994) focuses on the need of
leaders to focus on the hard work of consensus building in tackling
complex contemporary problems. He distinguish between routine technical
problems, which are handled through expertise, and adaptive problems,
such as crime, poverty, and educational reform which require innovative
and value laden approaches. A strength of this perspective is that there is
no doubt that change is a major, and frequently critical, function of leaders,
especially executives. Transforming leadership theory integrates
managerial and normative values into a single model.
A variety of potential weakness can also be posited. First, whenever
theories marry descriptive and normative perspectives, the blend is always
a bit complex and arbitrary. Second, transforming leadership is still heroic
to the degree that it casts change as the primary function of leaders and
suggest that the other leadership functions are essentially inconsequential
management details. In summary, an ethical perspective on leadership in
unified in the sense that leaders are supposed to take great stock of their
organizational, professional, and societal communities, and integrate the
common good in process and product. Both the means and the ends of
success are put in a social context that emphasizes equity and
sustainability.
GENERIC LEADERSHIP MODEL BASED ON CONSCIOUSNESS
AND CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
Leadership style are base on the level of social consciousness, self
discipline, and courage of the leader, ranging from unethical to exemplary
(Van wart 1998a).
The most common symptom of leaders with unethical styles is they
use their positions for their personal benefit or for a special group at the
expense of others. Also, unethical leaders may use their position and
power to promote the interests of friends at the expense of more qualified
people or to seek retribution against those who cross them. Many leaders
are ethically neutral in their style. They may be unaware of subtle ethical
issues, or if they are aware, fail to take the time to reflect on them.
Exhibition 6.2 Summary of value-based theories (emphasizing
distinct focus)
Types of
ethical
leadership
Moral
management
Alternative
names
Major concern
Major emphases
Proponents of
particular type
Duty approach,
ethics training,
the low-road
approach
 Concern for
organizational and
social standards
Legislative
bodies; Rohr;
Trevino
Authentic
leadership
Positive
leadership
Spiritual
leadership
Servant
leadership,
affective
leadership,
exemplar
leadership
 Concern for one’s own
principles and values
 Concern for selfregulation (“positive”
leadership) leading to
confidence, optimism,
resilience, and so forth
 Concern for making
wholesome change
 Ethical compliance
with organizaional or
legal mandates, for
example, codes of
conduct, professional
standards
 Self-awareness
 Self-improvement
 Open to feedback;
non-defensive
 “positive” influences
on followers
 Care and
compassion
 Hope faith, and
spiritual well-being
 Work as a “calling”
emotional labor
 Sustainability
Greenleaf;
Newman and
Guy; Fry;
Cooper and Hart
Avolio and
Gardner;
Fairholm;
Argyris; Covey
Transforming
leadership
Adaptive
leadership
 Shared
organizational or
community vision
 Organizational or
community
adaptation
 Intellectual
stimulation to
improve organization
or community
Burns; Bass;
Helfetz; Bryson
and Crosby;
Carnevale
Notes: all types assume personal integrity as a requisite foundation for moral
action.
Most of Aristotle’s work on ethics is set in a leadership context
(Aristotle 1953). His virtue based perspective of ethics emphasizes the
rational process that leaders exercise. People of good character ethical
leaders engage in three primary practices. First, people of good character
recognize ethical issues. Second, ethical leaders take the time to reflect on
issues that often pit one important value against another. Third, ethical
leaders find ways to integrate the collective good into appropriate
decisions.
Making a substantial contribution to a group, organization,
community, or system takes sustained hard work, perseverance, and the
involvement of many people, which in turn require trust, empathy, and
nurturance. One type of substantial contribution might be the
accomplishment of a specific project or good work of some magnitude. A
second type of substantial contribution involves raising the moral
consciousness of followers or the community. The final or highest level of
exemplary leadership is often perceived as the willingness to make
sacrifices for the common good and/or to show uncommon courage.
Some of the challenges “strong” leaders often face are:






“to be a lone chief atop pyramid is abnormal and corrupting”
“A self-protective image of omniscience often evolves
from..warped and filtered communication”
“those persons who are atop the pyramids often suffer from a
very real loneliness.”
“…..in too many case the demands of the office destroy
these (leaders) creativity holds too much power.”
“in the end the chief becomes performer, not natural person,
and essential creative power diminish.”
“(a single chief) nourishes the notion among able people that
one must be boss to be effective. And it sanctions, in a
conspicuous way, a pernicious and petty status striving that
corrupts everyone.” (Greenleaf 1977, 63-64)
Exhibition 6.3 A model of ethical and exemplary leadership
The person of good character will
1.
Recognize ethical issues
2.
Reflect on ethical issues
3.
Integrate the collective good into appropriate decisions
4.
Make a substantial contribution
a.
Carry out a project or good work, and/or
b.
Increase the moral awareness of the community
OR
5.
Exhibit sacrifices or courage for the common moral good
a.
Deny oneself for the common good
b. Suffer abuse for the common good
Exhibition 6.4 Causal-chain model implicit in an ethics-based
approach to leadership studies
Leadership styles based on social consciousness,
self-disicpline, courage

Unethical style

Ethically neutral style

Ethical style

Exemplary ethical style
Intervening variables
None

Moderating variables

Consciousness of ethical
responsibilities
Performance variables

Greatest common good

Empowerment of followers

Decision quality

Self-discipline

Courage of conviction