Where are our ‘Ethical Leaders’?
Introduction
In the highly competitive global business environment, people are being more interested in the leaders’ ethical behaviour. Experimental verification shows that leadership has been recognised as more and more business sophistication. Ethical leadership has become fundamental part to develop businesses.
Characteristic of ethical leadership
Ethical leadership means fully respecting others’ right and treating others with dignity, and using power in a socially responsible manner (Gini, 1997). It is recognized that ethical leaders are individuals who behave with integrity, courage and trustworthiness; meanwhile, they are relationship-centered, with fairness and altruism as the decisive characteristic of their interactions with others (Crews, 2015). In terms of governance, ethical leadership shows compliance with formal accountability measures and practice keen insight in decision-making responsibilities. More significantly, leaders who are considered to have a senses of morality show strong consistency in the things and behaviors they advocate.
Integrity is being identified as an important part of effectiveness of leadership (Gardner et al., 2005). Palanski and Yammarino (2009) included “wholeness” of integrity that Brown & Trevino (2006) have identified the characteristics such as honesty, kindness and trustworthiness are positive traits of ethical leadership.
Mekhum (2020) argued that in moderate level ethical leadership employees show genuine emotions will improve work performance and reduce stress. He further stated that employees’ emotions management (deep behavior and surface behavior) can improve employees’ work performance and reduce the perceived pressure of followers when they have personality traits (Mekhum, 2020).
Three themes of ethical leadership
Crews (2015) argued that there are three themes that define the ethical leadership: value alignment, governance, and relationship-centered.
The theme of value alignment embodies the most salient characteristic of ethical leadership. To be regarded as ethical leader, the individual’s values and character must be closely integrated with behaviour.
The theme of governance describes ethical leaders whose decision are determined by a fair and transparent process that follows the “letters” of law and the “spirit” of the law. In doing so, ethical leaders are responsible for their actions (Lee and Cheng, 2011). Decisions are made wisely and carried out in a fair and informed manner.
Lastly, ethical leasers are relationship-centered, that is, how they communicated and connect with others is the focus of their leadership style. The relationship between them is determined by fairness, which includes qualities such as empathy and respect which are characteristic of altruism (Bencsik et al., 2019).
Case Study
Taking 3M as an example, 3M has been a well-respected and profitable company in the world for more than a century, one of its key successes is its ethic commitment. More than a decade in the world, 3M has been rated as one of the most ethical companies, and it has won the most ethical company award for the three consecutive years (Ethisphere® Institute, 2021).
Long time ago, 3M has realized that if the company expects their leaders to be ethical, it needs a culture of personal responsibility and ethic. The company has developed leadership behaviors and code of conduct that all employees from the lowest-paid workers to the C-suite levels have to comply with and discuss in the performance evaluation annually (Investors.3m.com, 2020).
Comes to ethical behavior ingrained in the company’s culture, 3M demonstrates that ethical leadership is the easiest. Decision-makers have a deep understanding that ethical choices are better for the company’s long-term development; at the end they will be reluctant to make unethical choices.
Therefore, to adapt to contemporary era of business environment, ethical leadership is being more and more important and critical. On the other hand, the ethical leadership has to look into the activities not only benefit the company itself but to look beyond the benefit of the society and the environment.
Reflection
Companies wishing to obtain ethical leadership have to make ethical commitments at all levels of the business and be responsible for the wrong choices they make. Sometimes, the short-term gains from unethical decisions seem to be good, but all these gains will disappear when the side effects occur, and the company has to pay severe penalties for the unethical decisions made.
Herein there is no mentioning of measuring the effectiveness of ethical leadership; therefore, how to measure the ethical leadership is a question as the impact of ethical leadership on the company’s performance might be changed due to many potential factors, such as the size, culture and structure of the company. It is interesting to have further and deeper discussion on the ethical leadership and its effective impact to the businesses.
Referencing:
Bencsik, A., Csokas, L. and Seben, Z. (2019) ‘What is the role of Ethics in an Ideal Leadership Style?’, Proceedings of the European Conference on Management, Leadership & Governance, pp. 63–72. doi: 10.34190/MLG.19.093. [Accessed 30 March 2021]
Brown, M., & Trevino, L. K. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions.
The Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 595–615. [Accessed 1 April 2021].
Crews, J. (2015) ‘What is an Ethical Leader? The Characteristics of Ethical Leadership from the Perceptions Held by Australian Senior Executives’, Journal of Business & Management, 21(1), pp. 29–58. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=bth&AN=119316285&site=ehost-live [Accessed: 2 April 2021].
Ethisphere® Institute | Good. Smart. Business. Profit.®. 2021. Honorees [online] Available at: <https://www.worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees/?fwp_country=united-states> [Accessed 2 April 2021].
Gardner, W. L., Avolio, B. J., Walumbwa, F. O., Luthans, F., & May, D. R. (2005). ‘Can you see the real me?’ A self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 343–372. [Accessed 30 March 2021]
Gini, A. (1997). Moral leadership: A review. Journal of Business Ethics, 16, 323–330. [Accessed 1 April 2021].
Investors.3m.com. 2020. 3M – Financials – Annual Reports & Proxy Statements. [online] Available at: <https://investors.3m.com/financials/annual-reports-and-proxy-statements/default.aspx> [Accessed 2 April 2021].
Lee, S. and Cheng, I.-H. (2011) ‘Characteristics and Dimensions of Ethical Leadership in Public Relations’, Journal of Public Relations Research, 23(1), pp. 46–74. doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2010.504790. [Accessed 30 March 2021].
Mekhum, W. (2020) ‘Impact of Ethical Leadership on Organizational Outcomes through Mediation of Emotional Labor and Moderation of Followers’ Personality Traits’, Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(3), pp. 87–96. doi: 10.5530/srp.2020.3.10.
Palanski, M. E., & Yammarino, F. J. (2007). Integrity and leadership: Clearing the conceptual confusion. European Management Journal, 25(3), 171–184. [Accessed 30 March 2021].
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