Question 1:\u00a0What are the moral implications of leadership behaviour?<\/p>\n
Since the leadership behaviour is definitely related to three factors including the leaders, the followers, and the organizational context or certain events or challenges,\u00a0I would like to consider the answers according to the components of authentic leadership development theory (Avolio & Gardner, 2005), ethical theories, and principles of ethical leadership (Northouse, 2016).<\/p>\n
(1) Considering the influence\/impact of the consequences of leaders’ conduct<\/p>\n
There will be many types of conducts involved in leaders’ actions, such as making decisions, dealing with conflict, express their preferences and emotions. Each conduct would produce its particular consequences (Northouse, 2016) revealed eventually in short term or long term, and in turn the consequences would influence the followers and the context. Therefore, whether the leaders have consider about the consequences and the impacts and how they are going to act could greatly reveal the leaders’ ethical level ((Northouse, 2016).<\/p>\n
(2) Arranging the hierarchy of interests<\/p>\n
I concluded the types of interest which should be considered and balanced by leaders including self-interest, interest of others, and the interest of the community. Regarding to the moral conducts which shows the concern for self-interest or concern for the interest of others, the figure 13.1 (Northouse, 2016, p. 334) and the three approaches including ethical egoism, utilitarianism, and altruism demonstrate the way in which leaders arrange their personal hierarchy of interests. Apparently, the leader who take the job or the power for his\/her selfish enjoys represents\u00a0 ethical egoism\u00a0(Northouse, 2016). So, there is a great chance that the leader might cheat, conceal, or act dishonestly to maximize his\/her own profit.\u00a0 Utilitarianism means that the leader should behave “to create the greatest good for the greatest number”\u00a0(Northouse, 2016, p.334). I think the leader would consider both self-interest and the interest of others, therefore, the moral level of the leader would be moderate. In terms of altruism, the leader may consider most about the interest of the others and the community, “even when it runs contrary to his or her own self-interests” (Northouse, 2016, p.335). I deem the approach of altruism, to some extent, equals to the spirit of sacrifice. The leaders need to give up personal self-interests to make a contribution to the interest of the others and the mutual interests. Hence, demonstrating altruism requires that the leader need to be psychological healthy. In another word, he\/she has the ability to construe his\/her loss of self-interest in a positive way, and the capacity of balancing the feelings and emotions. This point echoes the positive psychological capital of authentic leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005).<\/p>\n
Positive psychological capacities, such as “confidence, optimism, hope and resiliency” (Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p. 322), are drawn on emphasizing the self-awareness and self-regulatory behaviours of the leaders (Luthans & Avolio, 2003). Combined with the authentic leadership, the moral behaviours of a leader showing altruism would be consciously keeping a cool head of what he\/she is doing and where he\/she is leading, keeping the answers honestly to himself\/herself, and staying consistent during the process.<\/p>\n
(3) Viewing their duty<\/p>\n
“Whether a given action is ethical rests not only with its consequences, but also with whether the action itself is good” (Northouse, 2016, p.335). The duty of the leader mainly focuses on the leader’s moral obligation and responsibilities\u00a0(Northouse, 2016). Then, the process for the leader to take the responsibilities, such as helping the followers “assess their own values and needs in order to raise them to a higher level of functioning” (p. 338) and\u00a0 “telling the truth, keeping promises, and respecting others” (p. 335) or not, can be resorted to assess the moral level of the leader.<\/p>\n
(4) Further learning to enhance or update their virtues and moral abilities through practice<\/p>\n
I add this aspect for it implies that a leader with high ethical spirit has the urge to be a “morally appropriate human being” (Northouse, 2016, p.335). Despite the moral factors of the leaders are always categorized into the virtue-based theories which state that virtues are part of the individual’s characteristics (Pojman, 1995), Northouse (2016) argues that the virtues and moral abilities can be acquired and enhanced through practice.<\/p>\n
Combined with the authentic leadership, I think the moral abilities include the ability of self-awareness and self-regulation (Avolio & Gardner, 2005), the ability to “incorporate positive moral perspectives” (p. 324), and being \u201ctemperance, generosity, modesty, fairness, and justice\u201d (Northouse, 2016, p.336). I always think that it is easy for the leader to demonstrate a high level of morality in their conducts when the context is stable and harmonious. In order to keep the morality in the destructive, unstable, or threatened context which could trigger destructive leadership (Northouse, 2016), the leader would actively practice their heart and validate their faith to be competent and moral in all kinds of context. The initiative to practice and to forge the moral abilities can genuinely explain the will of the leader to achieve a higher level of morality.<\/p>\n
Question 2:\u00a0How can you enable your organization to grow and flourish?<\/p>\n
(1) Building a supportive and trust context<\/p>\n
The organization is consist of staff including leaders, managers, and followers. In order to enable the organization to grow, it is fundamentally to enable the staff to grow. Therefore, creating a supportive context should be the first thing to do. “For leaders and followers to be effective, leaders must promote an inclusive organizational climate that enables themselves and followers to continually learn and grow”\u00a0(Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p. 327). Further, when facing tough issues, it is significant for the leader to create “a ‘holding environment’ in which there is trust, nurturance, and empathy”\u00a0(Northouse, 2016, p.338). Within the holding environment, there are \u201cclarity about project scope, meetings times, and a clearly defined set of operating procedures and ground rules in which people can get together, share feedback together and learn together\u201d (Cameron & Green, 2015, p. 210). With the trust climate and collaboration, the staff could effectively tackle the hard issues, their confidence and abilities would grow as well. In turn, the organization would grow eventually.<\/p>\n
(2) Engaging in more charitable activities<\/p>\n
The organization could intentionally do more charity, such as donating books to the schools, visiting the\u00a0orphanage, and so on. These charitable works could create and “institutionalize an ethical culture”(BuildingCapacity, 2013) within the organization. When an ethical culture is formed in the organization, all staff would be motivated to work towards something larger than themselves, such as contributing to the good of the organization and the community. In the long-term perspective, the organization and the community will definitely flourish and be benefited.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n (3) Increasing sustainable superior performance<\/p>\n “Sustainable superior performance” can be interchangeably used as “sustainable competitive advantage” (Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p. 328). The sustainable competitive advantage means when a company is “implementing a value creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential competitors and when these firms are unable to duplicate the benefits of this strategy” (Barney, 1991, pp. 99-120). In another word, when the organization has the sustainable competitive advantage, it is unlikely to be overwhelmed by other companies. Also, it is clear that sustained superior performance can help the organization “achieve persistently high performance and growth over a long period of time” (Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p. 328). Besides “financial, human, social, and psychological capital” (Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p. 328) which are included in the sustained performance, I think that keeping to the\u00a0organizational code of ethics (BuildingCapacity, 2013<\/span>) should also count. Moreover, obeying the code of ethics should be seen as the underpinning of all the performances.<\/p>\n (4) Providing trainings<\/p>\n Most of the companies provide technical training for the staff all the time. As far as I am concerned, the training regarding leadership and ethics should also be provided. For example, the ethical training could help the staff gain a better understanding of the codes of ethics in employee manual\u00a0(BuildingCapacity, 2013). The staff should have a clear sense of what they can do and what they cannot do. Also, the ethical training could build the capacity of empathy for the staff. People would understand the situations or perspectives of others with the power of empathy. In turn, the communication would be greatly facilitated and the consensus within the organization will be achieved easily.\u00a0 The staff would work productively when they are sharing a mutual goal\u00a0(Cameron & Green, 2015), and the organization can be flourishing apparently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Questions: If you have any working experience, do you familiar with the codes of ethics in your company? How do you think of or understand the codes?<\/p>\n References<\/p>\n Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The leadership quarterly<\/i>, 16<\/i>(3), 315-338.<\/p>\n Barney, J. B. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17,<\/em> 99-120.<\/p>\n BuildingCapacity. (2013, March 29). What is Ethical Leadership? [Video file]. Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ks2QGoIq5nA<\/p>\n Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete<\/em>\u00a0guide to the models, tools, and techniques of organizational change.<\/em> (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page.<\/p>\n Luthans, F., & Avolio, B. J. (2003). Authentic leadership: A positive developmental approach. In K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton, & R. E. Quinn (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship<\/em> (pp. 241-261). San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler.<\/p>\n Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice.<\/em> Sage publications.<\/p>\n Pojman, L. P. (1995). Ethical theory: Classical and contemporary readings<\/em> (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.<\/p>\n