Leadership and Ethical Considerations

Leadership and Ethical Considerations

Leadership
Imagine standing in the front of the board, your just about to start the report you worked so hard on, only to find yourself in a room filled with only men in the same black suit. Half of them are talking among themselves, while the other half is tuned into the new blonde that was just hired. Is this just a dream or is this really happening? Well it is a hard fact that in the business world today ethics and gender stereotypes do still exist, though in recent studies the gap between male and female in top management has dropped, there is still a lot that needs to be addressed in ethical practices of companies.
In this paper I will discuss the elements of an ethical organization and talk about the shrinking gap between male and female leaders.
Many of today’s top organizations are faced with challenge of creating an ethical organization. By definition, “organizational ethics is the capacity for an organization to reflect on values in the corporate decision-making process and establish how managers can use these observations in management”, (Carroll, 1987). But before an organization can begin this transformation into an ethical organization, there are some basic elements that an organization must establish first. These include the ethical orientation of the leader, support of top management, and finally an established corporate ethics policy.
The ethical orientation of the leader is considered to be the key factor in promoting ethical behavior among employees. Now a day’s leadership skills are not enough, these skills needs to be pared with integrity and ethical traits/behaviors. These “traits of honesty and integrity have been identified as essential for a leader to be successful in building a trusting relationship with his/her followers”, (Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1991). The ethical leader must take personal, ethical responsibility for his/her actions and decision making. Leaders who demonstrate high ethical standards become role models for...

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