The Ethical Issues in Leadership and Running of Organizations
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The Ethical Issues in Leadership and Running of Organizations.
Leadership at organizational levels is one of the most challenging tasks especially when one does not have the genetic strength to handle the pressures that come with such roles. Organizations are governed and operated in line with the global ethics of conducting the various activities that they deem to venture in and products they aim to produce or services they want to offer. In the 21st century, globalization has opened the global society to the need for the establishment of standards regarding the raw materials, manufacturing processes, outsourcing, investments, safety standards, energy use and marketing strategies with the aid of interconnection through the internet and satellite communication systems. This discussion aims at highlighting the leadership ethics by elucidating both the ethical challenges of leadership and the ethical management of conflicts alongside the ways of improving ethical performance. Moreover, it also reveals the challenges that are encountered in each level of governance and leadership in the various organizations concerning the implementation of the ethical requirements.
The establishment of ethics that cover the businesses and the business practices is a venture that can be described as the most significant contributor to some of the world’s most enormous social problems that are currently encountered. Harmonizing the self-interests of every individual has become a problem owing to the nature of the cultural diversity depicted in the number of cultures that are found in the world. The operations of businesses, therefore, must confront and overcome the dilemmas that emanate from the ethical diversity needs.
The leadership of the organizations must therefore evaluate and come up with the amount of time they are willing to devote towards influencing others within the powers provided to them by the ethics of the strategy employed. For instance, the process of recruiting individuals for the top positions in the organizations is one that requires much attention as these individual act as the backbone of the company and serves as the ethics enforcers.
The selection of the form of power comes in as result of reliance on the ethical issues concerning the system of governance that the company aims to utilize. One thing for sure is that none of all the forms of power is immoral to warrant the establishment of the ethics regarding their implementation. Their establishment reaffirms the need to have diversity in the way power is expressed by the lead task force of a company to lower ranks in the organization regarding rewarding and punishing the individuals in these levels.
The followers of the leaders in the organizations do the bulk of the work in the company hence much attention should be given to the growth of their powers. The ethics of the growth of the powers of the individuals labeled as subordinates should not be overlooked as companies spend a massive amount of money in training the leaders hence it would be a tragedy of gigantic proportions to fail to recognize their need to grow as the leaders cannot render their services without the assistance of the followers.
A good leader must have the knowledge of the ethics of his or her office in the process of decision making, service delivery and deliberation on the essential aspects of the company. Times change and some of the aspects of the ethics get modified, some of them even vary from place to place depending on the nature of leadership system employed.
For instance, the transformational leadership system requires a different set of instruction and ethics when compared with the transactional form of leadership in as much as both have the goal of meeting the targets of the company.
However, it is worth noting that power is of greater concern to leaders because, to them, power is equated to the value of money as they tend to exert its effect directly on the followers who are also faced with the ethical challenges of followership obligation, obedience, cynicism, and dissent. For instance, the followers have duties that they must accomplish both externally and internally at the firm. They are obliged to meet goals and targets which will warrant the provision of paychecks, prestige, training and retirement benefits by the firm. At the same time, they have obligations to the government through payment of taxes and responsibilities back at home.
The stretching of these responsibilities tends to rip off the relationship between the employees and their employers when the former fails to abide by specific rules due to personal problems. An excellent example of such situation is when the company demands collide with the cultural practices of the employee that are deemed mandatory in life or where the company uses a system that encompasses traveling, spending sleepless nights, working in environments that endanger the mental health of an individual. Such situations tend to cut off the connection of individual employees with their family and friends making it difficult for the employees to determine their ethical obligations.
When one oversteps the ethics of either culture or work, the challenge of obedience sets in as the next problem. At one point, the employee is faced with a tough decision to make, when to disobey some of the ethics of job? Right? The reason why people go to work is to meet their needs and make life easy right? To some, work serves as the source of motivation, thanks to the theory Y and theory X of motivation.
The proponent of the theory X and theory Y of motivation reasoned his ideas in a manner that depicts that he had the ethical dilemma aspects of the nature of the job that the employees face on their day to day life. The employees are faced with a situation where they ask themselves if the salary they receive is worth the job they do, whether they can maintain the objectives of the company alongside maintaining a healthy personal life and productive relationships with friends.
The leaders of a company should ensure that the employees become part of the vital decision-making sessions to remove the tendency of them becoming cynical since they tend to alienate themselves as powerless considering their ranks in the organization. Cynicism is not healthy for an organization as it generates negative feelings, cultures resistivity to change and destroys trust amongst the employees and lowering of job satisfaction.
The cynical nature of the employees is not a bad virtue as some of the cynical employees tend to bear realistic perspective on some of the challenges the company is facing as well as being resistant to the unethical behaviors of some of the leaders.
Leaders, on the other hand, need to assess themselves to ensure that the privileges are not over enjoyed as they are destructive to the personality of the individual in power. Most people tend to misuse the power vested in them and the privileges that accompany such positions in meeting their insatiable appetite for good life.
The society is set to have economic classes; there is little that can be done to do away with this vice, just like the fingers of the hand, do they have the same size? They are not equal, yet they live in harmony by respecting one another without overstepping the boundaries.
Leaders should emulate this and know that they are at the top to render services and not to brag about the wage gap and the privileges that are accorded to them due to their positional advantage over the other employees. Companies should have a well laid motivational strategy that takes care of the diversity of its employees without favoring others. For instance, the CEO, and the individuals within these ranks should have a better pay, they deserve it, but the individuals in the lower ranks should be entitled to privileges such as training and more incentives to enable them to grow their skills to become better people as they aim to climb up in the ranks of achievement.
Maslow’s hierarchy of wants is an example and a supportive theory of the way the organizations should carry out their roles with regards to the motivation of the employees both from entry level to the senior ones. The primary want is to satisfy the basic needs, such as getting food, paying rent and other needs. This is usually catered for by the salary during negotiation before proceeding to the subsequent needs until one hits the self-actualization need at the top of the pyramid.
The disparities that exist in the organizations can be bridged by engaging in activities that aim at improving the group ethical performance. Viewing the company as a group makes it easier to evaluate the strengths and the weaknesses of the undertakings of the firm as group mediated decisions are sound and more firm as compared to individual decision of a few members of the board. This does not mean that the board should not make the decisions, it is their mandate to make decisions, but it should come from the options brought forward by the groups at the grassroots of the company. The beauty of this approach is that everyone is involved in the activities of the company thus a culture of cooperative orientation is matured, and people carry out their fair share of roles in the company.
The study of group dynamics shows that when people work as a group, it is easy to notice their strengths and weaknesses and it makes it hard for an individual to succumb to the committing of the unethical practices that might compromise the general outcome of the activities of the company. Each person in the group will tend to stand out by acting like a morally responsible team member, but in a real sense, unknown to them, they will be delivering to the best of their ability.
Groups help people to influence one another, engage in healthy problem solving, developing of a positive relationship with the other group members, sharing and accurate interpretation of the instructions as a unit as opposed to the situation of an individual. Moreover, it also aids in the building of self-esteem of the other members of the team, aid in minimizing wastage as people share resources and it helps the employees to value and accept their differences culturally and abilities.
References
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