APA style, 4 pages, Ethics in leadership research paper, due in 30 hours

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Based on Price (2008), leaders deserve a “moral exception” in the society where their rule-breaking and promise-breaking actions are justified since they have power over the locals that they lead. Price outlines various assumptions that make leaders exceptional in the society and that make them take part in rule-breaking. one assumption that Price outlines is that leaders serve group ends. In relation to Trump, I belive that the assumption is valid to brand leaders as exceptional members of the society as we have seen in various cases were Trump was only acting in favor of certain groups while ignoring the rights of other minority groups e.g. after banning all transgender individuals in the military. Again, he outlines that leaders adhere to common leader norms which is exactly what President Trump is doing concerning the issue banning of transgender in the military. By doing so, Trump is portraying himself as an exceptional individual who is just trying to adhere to common leader norms while ignoring the members of the transgender community. Price also elaborates that leaders only serve the groups that they deem valuable. Indeed, this is what he is doing. He also points out thefact that leaders know how to use their power as one of the assumptions that make them exceptional members of the community. Trump’s open hatred towards the LGBTQ community is as a result of the political power he is entitled to and hence he can decide to use as he wants to. Relating to the actions of followers, Price affirms that exceptional leaders have traits that make their supporters continue supporting them as they feel that their actions are justified. For instance, one can argue that Trump’s action was only received negatively by the minority human rights activist groups such as LGBTQ community while the large remaining population praised his bold move as they believed it was justified according to the norms and the underlying societal beliefs. Price also argues that leaders possess a leadership related personality that leads them to support some behaviour.

Trumps followers sternly back him in whatever he does and this, I believe, makes them agree to grant him a moral exception for the actions he recently took relating to the ban of transgender individuals in the military. Although there has are no explicit conversations of his followers voicing their views on the matter, there has been a number of individuals that have opened up to support Trumps decision concerning the ban of transgender in military. Indeed, this is why he even secured the critical support from the courts that upheld his decision and turned into a national law. The non-supporters, for instance, the Oregon Transgender population lashed on the president’s view terming it as disgraceful. The executive director for the group Nancy Haque claims that thousands of patriotic transgender Americans are already serving in the military and such a move will be a great disservice to them.

Price (2008) discusses both the psychological and ethical egoism and how they contribute to leaders taking part in actions that serve their selfish desires and their selfish interests. According to Price, he explains psychological egoism by arguing that leaders are justified when the act on behalf of their interests since by nature, all human beings are selfish. In ethical egoism, he outlines that the actions of leaders are also justified as far as they advance the leader’s self-interests and not necessarily their selfish desires. Trump’s supporters can argue to justify the inclusion of his selfish desires in his self-interests. For instance, they believe that Trump was satisfying his desire to see American people get back to the traditional societal norms when the transgender issue was not known. Through this, one can claim that Trump was using his desire in addition to his self-interest to propel his views.

Attached article on Narcissism and unethical leadership elaborates on this type of leadership, terming it as a form of leadership in which the leader is only careful about their interests and not those of the general public. According to the reading leaders who take part in such forms of leadership, in one way or another, indulge I acts such as one-way communications, insensitivity to others, one-way control of power among others ill behaviours. In our case, it is clear that Trump has indulged in Narcissism and Unethical leadership since he has openly practiced insensitivity towards others. When he banned all the members of the transgender community from the military, he was being insensitive towards others and did not care about their feelings. All he cares about were his selfish interests.

In the book, Price argues that traits and virtues are only descriptive and therefore do not predict leader behavior. There are some President Trump’s traits and virtues that followers support that make him follow ethical norms regarding the subject matter. One of Trumps’ trait is his low interpersonal sensitivity. President Trump can be described as being direct and someone who is not really concerned about the feelings of other people. The support from his followers has made him make decisions that may hurt other people. For instance, he made a decision to ban transgenders from the military. This action does not take the rights of the transgenders into consideration. Another trait is that Mr. Trump is highly inquisitive. This means that he questions almost everything. The support from his follows made him question transgenders and he ended up banning them from the military. The fact that his followers support these traits shows that Trump’s ethical behavior is not governed by his following of ethical forms.

Kleptocracy is a form of governance in which the leaders are corrupt and they use their political power to steal public resources. Kleptocratic leaders steal public resources to accumulate their personal wealth and increase political powers. In the United States some policies have been formulated to show the introduction Kleptocratic governance. A major policy that has been formulated in the recent past is tax reduction for various industries. This has been done with a selfish interest to benefit a few wealthy Americans. The fact that Trump was supported by powerful billionaires is the reason why he formulates polices that benefit a small number of people.

There is evidence to show that there are kleptocratic influences. The appointment of relatives by the US president to hold top government positions is form of Kleptocracy as the president used his powers to benefit his relatives. A good example of nepotism that can be pointed out is the appointment of his son-in-law as the White House senior adviser and his daughter as advisor. and Moreover, he threatens the press and promotes secrecy. These show that he is hiding somethings from the public. In reference to the subject matter, the President used his political powers to make a decision of banning transgenders from the military. He claimed that he consulted with his generals about the decision. However, the move is a clear use of his political matters to introduce the ban.

Some actions that are permissible under Kleptocracy are problematic to the democratic notion of ethical leaderships. One of the actions is legislation. In Kleptocracy, leaders make laws that satisfy their own interests. Legislation is problematic to democratic notion of ethical leadership is kleptocratic leaders use the notion of democracy to make laws that allow them to accumulate wealth. Another action is election that allows for the selection of a leader by the people. Leaders manipulate voters and electoral bodies so as to hold positions in the political arena. This action is problematic to the democratic notion of ethical leadership as kleptocratic leaders perform their actions in the name of democracy. An example of these actions in relation to the issue is the decision of banning transgender from the military. The president claims that the decision was agreed upon by the generals. However, this is a decision made using kleptocratic principles rather than democracy.

References

Wike, R., Stokes, B., Poushter, J., & Fetterolf, J. (2017). US image suffers as publics around world question Trump’s leadership. Pew Research Center, 26.