Ethical Behavior In Leadership & Management
Ethics are a key topic among leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs. Ethics are also often misunderstood or not
understood at all by many in these fields.
It is important that we have a good grasp of ethics in order to reach a
deep level of understanding in leadership and management. Ethics are more than a set of rules or guidelines
of behavior, they are an outline of conduct.
We must delve deep into the why of practicing ethical behavior in order
to really unlock the level of relationships desired in order to lead efficiently.
What are Ethics?
Ethics are the standards of right and wrong that influence behavior,
while ethical behavior is the behavior that is accepted as “right” as opposed
to “wrong” according to those standards.
I have retrieved this definition from “Management 9th Ed.” Written
by Angelo Kinicki and Brian K. Williams.
Right and wrong are not meant to be understood as subjective social interpretation,
rather they are meant to be underlying principles known as common-sense to the culture
and population. What we need to
understand here is that ethics are standards that are understood from culture,
and in order to practice them we first need to be versed in the culture that we
are practicing them in. This is universally
applicable so long as you are practicing leadership, management, or
entrepreneurship in the United States, however, this still applies all around
the world.
What is Being "Unethical"?
Behaving unethically refers to exhibiting behavior that is “wrong” as
opposed to “right”. Once again we are
using the culturally accepted moral definitions of “right” and “wrong” here. Theft is the most common example to use. We all know that it is considered “wrong” to
steal, yet many people do it anyway.
There are many reasons that employees steal from their employer, and
every employee when deciding whether to do this has encountered an ethical
dilemma. They recognize that they stand
to personally benefit from the theft, however, that what they are doing is
intrinsically and culturally “wrong”.
Other common unethical behaviors include stealing company time, abusing
co-workers or reports, or cheating in the workplace often to earn benefits that
you otherwise would not receive.
Ethical Dilemmas
We encounter dilemmas frequently in life and leadership. When we begin to enter the realm of management,
leadership, and entrepreneurship we tend to encounter them a lot. Ethical dilemmas are situations where we must
decide on whether to act in a way that benefits us or our corporation. We will frequently run into situations where
we may have clear paths to benefits for ourselves, our company, or others that
just aren’t “right”. The decision sounds
simple, but when placed in these real-life situations, things may get hairy.
Most texts on management refer to four approaches to resolve ethical
dilemmas. I will summarize them as Utilitarian,
Individual, Moral-rights, and Justice approaches. The utilitarian approach is the strategy of
deciding on what will cause the greatest good for the largest number of people. This is a common favorite and usually the one
that an average person would turn to when attempting to act ethically and faced
with an ethical dilemma. The individual
approach is the process of solving an ethical dilemma by choosing the course of
action that will result in the individual’s best outcome. This decision usually results in better
outcomes for everyone if properly applied.
The moral-rights approach respects morality in the decision making of
solving the ethical dilemma and taps into the individual’s morals and standards
guided by what they believe to be correct regarding the fundamental rights of
human beings. The justice approach to
solving ethical dilemmas refers to being guided by respect for impartial
standards of fairness.
Ethics in Leadership
What this means for leaders of organizations is that we must be able to
understand our culture and act accordingly.
We will be constantly judged as leaders based on our decisions and
courses of actions when we encounter ethical dilemmas. It may feel as if no one is watching and we
could decide whichever route we wish without any consequence. If this is the way you are thinking, then you
are wrong. Leaders especially are always
under a lot of scrutiny. If no one else
is paying attention, you can always bet that the ones that you lead are. Your team will be looking to you as a model
and guide to their own behaviors, so when a member of your team takes notice
that you are about to encounter or are currently encountering an ethical
dilemma, their attention will shift to you and your behaviors.
If you are a leader of a team in an organization and you allow your team
to witness you choose the unethical route out of an ethical dilemma, you are
voluntarily shaping their own values regarding the team. That is, you can devalue your team by not navigating
ethically through dilemmas at any given time.
This is also true in situations and encounters outside of work that
involve your team, be it an organizational team or even your family. So often leaders, or people in general, find
themselves in unfavorable circumstances in life because of their teammates actions
that are direct results of their own poorly navigated dilemmas in life where
they acted unethically themselves. Take
full advantage of this team building opportunity inside and outside of business
by taking a self-inventory every time you encounter an ethical dilemma and ask yourself
who is watching, and who are you influencing.
Self Preservation Through Ethics in Leadership
We can hold claim to our position as leaders by practicing ethical
behavior. As stated above, our decisions
influence others, especially in positions of leadership. People will continue to follow an ethical
leader. An ethical leader will be a
leader that the people want to follow.
Our level of influence grows as others witness our ability to make “right”
decisions in arenas other than work performance. The deeper we venture into morals and values,
the deeper in impact on any team member witnessing the dilemma. Aside from this, we connect more deeply with
ourselves and our leadership potential as we encounter and act ethically
through management and ethical dilemmas encountered during management. Each encounter builds on the other and allows
us to gain an ethical mentality that makes the next dilemma easier to navigate
than the former.
Acting Ethically to Grow
Demonstrating ethical actions in front of others is important for any
leader, however, it is specifically important if you are a leader that is
searching for a higher leadership role.
I speak a lot about promotions, because, no one is born a leader. I was a floor level factory laborer promoted
into a leadership position. Some of us
may have gone to school and discovered leadership there, however, this was not
the case for me. I started out on a team
at a job and became a leader long before a position of leadership. If you find yourself in this position and do
want to see a positional level or title of leadership, demonstrating your knowledge
and willingness to act ethically could dramatically improve your chances of
seeing this come to fruition. Managers
want to promote those of good ethical character. Sometimes you may get lucky and land a
promotion on work performance alone, however, this is usually not the
case. This is especially not the case in
situations where there are many candidates applying for the same job. Ethics, morals, values, and character all
play a huge part in the promotion process and in some circumstances far
outweigh job performance.
Ethics in the Home
I think of my wife and children whom I love all very much and reflect on
ethical dilemmas that they have witnessed me navigate. I think of the tough times and how I handled
them and the impact that I had on them when I displayed ethical action that did
not seem in our best interest. How could
a child understand if they are not taught ethics? How does this make sense to such an
elementary brain? Imagine if we weren’t
taught morals, values, or cultural norms.
What do you do when you encounter a bill that is truly yours, but you
could escape from if you so choose, however, make the ethically sound decision
and pay it anyway because it is your responsibility and your child asks
why? Situations like these offer the
perfect environment to begin to teach ethics to our children so that we can
have a more ethically sound society. Practicing
ethics far exceeds the reach of business, management, leadership,
entrepreneurship, and work. Practicing
ethics has an impact on the entire world and I believe it starts in our home.
The Take Away
If ethical behavior is a new concept to you, I suggest that you begin by
looking for ethical dilemmas that you encounter in your day to day life. I suggest that you begin to think about
cultural and society norms and think in terms of right and wrong. I don’t suggest that you pick a strategy to solve
ethical dilemmas and only focus on applying that strategy to life, however, if
you had to pick one or two, I would suggest to go with the Utilitarian approach,
which nets the greatest good for the most people, or the Moral-rights approach,
which yields the decision that respects the fundamental rights for human
beings. If we start with these two we
will end up with positive decisions that are easy to arrive at based on the
simplistic way to deduce what is wrong.
Ethical action is one of those things that just by paying attention you
are going to see improvement and begin to view dilemmas in a way that will beg
you to act accordingly. There is a lot
of self-discovery here. You may be the
type of person that encounters some resistance from yourself when you are attempting
to make the ethical decision. If that is
the case, you have discovered an area of self that you need to work on to
improve your leadership ability and potential.
Just remember that an ethical world is a good one, and we should all
strive for good, because this will yield a positive place for our families to
thrive in.
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