Review the papers below and watch Challenger: The Untold Story Part 7 of 10 (Links to an external site.).
what ethical situations came up in the video. How did the leader’s decision impacted the results of the Challenger’s mission. What ethical values did you take away from this video that you can apply in your own leadership
Review:
Ethical Leaders
Impact of Ethics on Leadership
Introduction
Leaders are the one that keep us on the right path, direction, and can lead us in better way. When we talk about leadership, we often think of famous individuals. We may think of great political personalities Wash- ington, Churchill, and Roosevelt. We may think of the personalities of so- cial movements Martin Luther King, Caesar Chavez. In fact,” leadership is many different things to different people in different circumstanc- es” (Ensley, Hmieleski, & Pearce, 2006). In short a leader is a character (object) ranging from one to many different attributes with which he/she influence others to make them their followers willingly. It is very easy to have a vision but to accomplish it, depends upon how tough is that path that takes you up to that vision and what strategies do you adopt to ac- complish it. A character who can utilize his abilities and recourses effec- tively and efficiently to produce maximum output while engaging his fol- lowers is an effective and efficient leader. “An effective and ethical lead- er makes others feel good about themselves, as well as the work they are doing. The leader has a vision of what she/he wants to achieve and can communicate that vision to others in a way that makes people want to be part of it” (Balthazard, Waldman, & Warren, 2009).
This article is based on previous findings which explain effects of ethical communication, ethical quality, ethical collaboration, ethical suc- cession planning, and ethical tenure over leadership standards.
Leadership standards
The leadership standard is the level at which a leader is to be seen by followers, competitors etc. The standard of leader ship is measured based on the different qualities an individual has and among those quali- ties ethics is one of them.
An effective ethical leader will create “candor“ in the work place.
Page 20 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 4, Issue 5, Special Issue, 2012
Leaders always are willing to and have courage to bring innovation and change. The main objective of ethical leader is to bring relation of trust.
Figure 1: Impact of Ethics on leadership standards
Factor
Goal/Objective
Hypothesis 1: Communication enhances leadership standards
Hypothesis 2: Ethical quality enhances standard of Leadership
Hypothesis 3: Ethical collaboration has positive effect on leadership standards
Hypothesis 4: Succession planning enhances standard of Leadership
Hypothesis 5: Ethical tenure has direct effect on leadership
F1: Ethical Communication
F2: Ethical Quality
F3: Ethical Collaborations
Planning
F5: Ethical Tenure
Leadership Standards
F4: Ethical Succession
Ethical communication
“Ethical communication plays vital role in enhancing leadership standards. Through effective and ethical communication, leaders always give proper directions. They set up standards and proper guideline for the team. During decision making process leaders have to communicate in groups, teams in and outside the organizations. “It is very important for effective leader that he should be soft spoken because leaders always
Page 21 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 4, Issue 5, Special Issue, 2012
have to convince the followers and motivate the team members through communication skills” (Simola, Barling, & Turner, 2009).
Through ethical and effective communication leaders have to face different challenges in a day to day life which could be in a form of con- flicts. It is the moral responsibility of leaders to remove all these conflicts from teams. “Leaders are the one that keep us on the right path, right direction, and can lead us in better way” (Gardner, Fischer, & Hunt, 2009).
Culture also plays important role in ethical communication and lead- ership. It’s the culture which is actual surrounding set of standards which leaders have to follow. Motivation is also important in ethical communica- tion. “Motivational behaviors refer to those behaviours which promote team members exerting continued effort, especially in times of difficulty. Behaviours indicative of this category include reward and recognition of performance as well as behaviours which insure that the needs and val- ues of members are met through the provision of support for individuals and their efforts” (Shawn Burke, et al., 2006). Leader’s behaviour is im- portant for team cohesiveness that might be influenced by societal cul- ture. There are no studies known to us exploring this moderating influ- ence of societal culture. “Assumptions about relationships between lead- ership and team processes are generalized to other cultures, both in management literature and management training programs” (Wendt, Eu- wemab, & Emmerik, 2009).
Communication standard means all the norms which all the individ- uals have to follow in an organization. In communication standards they usually define the truthfulness, openness, availability and accessibility. Leaders always communicate through those standards that they stand accountable for. They usually use an e-mail or an office memo because these are the two ways which can be used for inters office communica- tion and is accountable.
Page 22 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 4, Issue 5, Special Issue, 2012
Ethical quality
“Ethical quality means to bring the standard of excellence and meet- ing the standards through quality, when we talk about quality we always think about cost because quality and cost has direct relationship. Quality always pays its cost, and ethical quality means that ethical leaders should always understand the three factors which ensure the global market and competitiveness of an organization which are as below.
- Quality product
- Quality customer service
- Quality delivery” (Morgeson & DeRue, 2006).
When we think about quality we always think about innovation and leaders always try to push their followers so that they could bring innova- tion in the product. Most of the leaders try to implement the standard and implement the procedures of six sigma and lean production . Most leaders use the process of supply chain management so that they can re- move the bottle neck and fast the process Bob Galvin, Chairman of Motorola, implemented Six Sigma throughout the company in the early 1980s. Just two years after launching Six Sigma, Motorola was honoured with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award” (Shawn Burke, et al., 2006).
Quality stands means to bring perfection in product line and quality control usually leaders try to implement the concept of total quality man- agement and use of six sigma, during the production life cycle, there are checks and controls of different points and usually they do the sampling to control the quality, there are also some set standards which leaders make sure the companies are following those like ISO (international standard organizational).
Page 23 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 4, Issue 5, Special Issue, 2012
Ethical collaboration
Ethical leaders always try to pick the most proper person for the work to get it done they always try to hire the perfect person for the right job, and they also hire from the other companies wise leaders al- ways try to concentrate and address issues which are in organiza- tion ,solve problems of the organization . The leaders who make collec- tive and celebrative decision always makes better decision for the organi- zation, effective and ethical collaboration is only possible when the legal advisors or leaders are more open and fluid, as we know that risk is al- ways associated with the organizations and they hire the legal advisors and experts who can guide the leaders the legality of the process and job. So “when leaders are making decisions they always consult with there advisors and if the advisors are more fluid its more chances of ethi- cal collaboration” (Lyons & Schneider, 2009).
As we know this is the era of cut throat computation and companies are trying to hire the right and perfect person for the perfect job before giving any responsibilities companies usually check the knowledge and skills so that they can evaluate weather the person is enough competent that he will be able to deliver.
Ethical Succession Planning
“In ethical succession planning leaders set up the long term vision and mission for the organization in which they define that where they want to be in specific time period and where they are now in planning process leaders usually work with organization and they define the goals and strategies which are to be targeted in the long term and they usually follow the standards which are defined in achieving the quality” (Wendt, et al., 2009). Succession planning enables your organization to identify talented employees and provide education to develop them for future higher level and broader responsibilities. Succession planning helps you
Page 24 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 4, Issue 5, Special Issue, 2012
“build bench strength. In ethical succession planning leaders always try to introduce training and development programs and they develop there employees according to the organization set standards , in planning pro- cess there is also control and leaders control the employees through ethi- cal planning because to have control on organization leaders always want to have some action plan and without planning you cant control in organ- ization “Teams whose leaders set high-performance goals, exhort and en- courage members to adopt and achieve these goals, provide performance strategies to achieve these goals, and model appropriate performance strategies will display higher team efficacy and cohesion than teams with leaders who do not engage in such activities” (Zaccaroa, Rittmana, & Marksb, 2001) .
The purpose behind the existence of the organization is vision and ethical leaders usually define the vision of the company before hiring when the new employees are in the hiring phase leaders usually define the vision and they then gave the tasks to employees to move forward as a mission. vision and mission are the back bones of the organizations which always keep the employees in certain direction so that they can al- ways move on the right track .vision the track which ethical leaders al- ways follow and always keep there followers on that track.
Ethical Tenure
“Ethical tenure means the time period for leaders to stay as a leader in American culture it varies from four to eight years, but there are no standards for leaders to stay as a leader for certain time frame, the ten- ure of the leaders always depends upon the organization growth, if the organization is growing and its gain market share and market growth this means the leader is successful other wise if the organization is moving towards down turn. it’s the ethical responsibility of leader to quit” (Balthazard, et al., 2009)” . Industry and corporations, businesses,
Page 25 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 4, Issue 5, Special Issue, 2012
organizations have no length of tenure. But Organizations need to decide if their leadership, like its government counterpart, should have a shelf life. If the company, the customers, the board of directors, and stock- holders all feel that the leader of the company is ethically communi- cating, investing in quality, and efficiently collaborating in order to build a succession plan, then there should be no reason to have the leader step down, until he or she chooses so “How duration affects the amount of time leaders spend intervening, however, is less clear. Longer events clearly provide the leader with a greater opportunity to become involved in the team, suggesting there may be a positive relationship between du- ration and time spent intervening by the leader“ (Friedrich, Vessey, Schuelke, Ruark, & Mumford, 2009).
As we know that leaders are always have some time frame in which they have to deliver because if they are not been able to deliver they are not been able to survive for the long terms so strategic leaders and ethi- cal leaders are for only for certain time frame in which they can deliver (Dubrin, 2010).
Conclusions
“There is a lot which has been written on ethical leadership and standards on which leaders have to perform but if you just search the dot com world ( web pages ) you will see that leaders are only popular until an unless they perform , there are so many books about leadership but its very obvious to say that” (Dubrin, 2010). “Leaders don’t write books they just do it “so leaders always have to motivation and spirit to influ- ence the people and bring changes in environment. “Ethical leadership has been examined from multiple perspectives. For example, ethical leadership may be viewed as a function of leader character or it may be viewed as a function of organizational structure or system. The view that ethical leadership is based on leader character proposes that the ethical
Page 26 Oeconomics of Knowledge, Volume 4, Issue 5, Special Issue, 2012
leader must apply ethical standards and the degree that ethical standards are neglected or applied is a function of the leader’s individual personality characteristics and moral standards (Jones, 1995). Jones stated that to guarantee ethical leadership a leader must be chosen according to their high moral standards” (Ford & Seers, 2006). ”The personality character- istics of an ethical leader include self-control, purposefulness, mindful- ness, and a regard for consequences. The ethical leader increases ethical awareness and accountability in an organization. In theory, the ethical leader would have high moral standards that would reign regardless of organizational structure. However, even the most moral and ethical indi- vidual may be faced with conflicting demands that challenge their stand- ards “a distinguishable set of two or more people who interact, dynami- cally, interdependently, and adaptively toward a common and valued goal /objective /mission, who have been assigned specific roles or func- tions to perform, and who have a limited life-span of membership “ (Zaccaroa, et al., 2001). The higher the level of leader–member ex- change relationship quality within the team, the higher the level of within -group climate agreement among team members” (Ford & Seers, 2006).
