Personal Reflection Paper

Module 6: Leading with Courage

Lecture 1:  Ethical Challenges

Lecture 2:  Moral Leadership and Courage

Module 6: Leading with Courage

Lecture 1:  Ethical Challenges

Lecture 2:  Moral Leadership and Courage

• Describe ethical challenge facing today’s leaders

• Explain the meaning of “Do Good Work”

• Discuss how leaders “Set the Tone”

• Review the levels of Personal Moral Development

Lecture 1 Objectives

Hitler: A Good Leader?

Hitler: A Good Leader?

Effective?  

Hitler: A Good Leader?

Effective?  Yes

Ethical?     

Hitler: A Good Leader?

Effective?  Yes

Ethical?   No  

Hitler: A Good Leader?

Effective?  Yes

Good Leaders: 

“Do Good Work”

Balance:  Effectiveness (results) Ethics (practices)

Ethical Climate in Business Today

• Leaders face pressures that challenge their  ability to do the right thing

• Obstacles for leaders o Personal weakness and self‐interest  o Pressures to:  Cut costs and increase profits  Meet the demands of vendors or business 

partners and look successful  Please shareholders

Business Scandals

Volkswagen Siemens Hewlett‐Packard Bre‐X Deutsche Bank AG Martha Stewart Swissair Enron Lance Armstrong – SRAM Corp

Organizational Values

Respect Integrity Communication Excellence

Organizational Values

Organizational Values

Respect Integrity Communication Excellence

“Reputation”

Pete Rose Dan Rather

Kimba Woods Ken Lay

Lance Armstrong Gary Hart

Arthur Andersen

Leaders Set the Ethical Tone

• Act as positive role models • Signal what matters by their behavior • Focus on employees, customers, and the greater good • Not paying attention to gaining benefits themselves  • Honest with employees, partners, customers, vendors, 

and shareholders • Strive for fairness and honor agreements • Share the credit for successes and accept the blame 

when things go wrong • Speak up against acts they believe are wrong

 Calling in sick when you’re not really sick.

 Accepting credit for something that someone else did.

 Conducting personal business during work hours (personal email  message; long lunch breaks; etc.)

 Engaging in negative gossip or spreading rumors about someone.

 Explaining behavior with, “It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.”

 Relying on your boss to check your work for errors.

 Bad mouthing the organization or management to outside people.

 Telling or passing along an ethnically or sexually‐oriented joke.

Leaders Set the Ethical Tone

Gray Areas?

Leaders Set the Ethical Tone and employees follow

Employees admit to being totally non‐productive 7 hours a week (20% of total time)

50% of employees call in sick when they are not

Over 80% of Fortune 500 companies have had a major ethical scandal in the last decade

25% of workers expect to compromise their beliefs to get ahead on the job

16.5% of employees report using drugs or alcohol when working

50% of workers state they only put in about a 45% effort into their job

Moral Development

The internal characteristic that influences a leader’s  capacity to make moral choices is the individual’s level  of moral development

Personal Moral Development

Sources: Based on Lawrence Kohlberg, “Moral Stages and Moralization: The Cognitive-Developmental Approach,” in Moral Development and Behavior Theory, Research, and Social Issues, ed. Thomas Likona (Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976), 31–53; and Jill W. Graham, “Leadership, Moral Development, and Citizenship Behavior,” Business Ethics Quarterly 5, no. 1 (January 1995), 43–54

Complete:

Leader’s Self‐Insight 6.1

Self‐Assessment “Ethical Maturity”

Video

“Enron Scandal”

Video

“Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson  Resigns Amid Scandal”