1. Identify three reasons why there may be ethical leadership failures and explain why failed leadership occurs.

What Is Ethical Leadership?

The ethical leader understands that positive relationships built on respect, openness, and trust are critical to creating an ethical organization environment. The underlying principles of ethical leadership are: integrity, honesty, fairness, justice, responsibility, accountability, and empathy. Covey addresses a principle-centered leadership approach to ones personal life and organization development. He emphasizes that principle-centered leadership occurs when ones internal values form the basis of external actions. Principle-based leaders influence the ethical actions of those in the organization by transforming their own behavior first. Covey encourages principle-centered leaders to build greater, more trusting and communicative relationships with others in the workplace.

Ethical leaders strive to honor and respect others in the organization and seek to empower others to achieve success by focusing on right action. An ethical organization is a community of people working together in an environment of mutual respect, where they grow personally, feel fulfilled, contribute to a common good, and share in the internal rewards, such as the achievement of a level of excellence common to a practice as well as the rewards of a job well done. By emphasizing community and internal rewards, ethical leaders commit to following a virtue-oriented approach to decision making based on a foundation of values-based leadership.

John Maxwell, the internationally recognized leadership expert, said, A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.⁴ (Links to an external site.) Leaders lead by example. They set an ethical tone at the top. Page 507They lead with an attitude of Do what I say as well as what I do. Ciulla argues that what is distinctive of leadership is the concept of vision: Visions are not simple goals, but rather ways of seeing the future that implicitly or explicitly entail some notion of the good.⁵ (Links to an external site.)

Lawton and Paez developed a framework for ethical leadership built on three interlocking questions: First, who are leaders and what are their characteristics? Second, how do ethical leaders do what they do? Third, why do leaders do as they do and what are the outcomes of ethical leadership?⁶ (Links to an external site.) They suggest that the three factors will not necessarily form discrete areas of ethics.

CONCLUSION:

A moral manager serves as a role model for ethical conduct in a way that is visible to employees. A moral manager communicates regularly and persuasively with employees about ethical standards, principles, and values. Moral managers use reward systems to hold employees accountable to ethical standards. They understand that doing the right thing is more than having a code of conduct but also requires carrying through ethical intent with ethical action.

Answer the following discussion question:

1. Identify three reasons why there may be ethical leadership failures and explain why failed leadership occurs.