Author: Wafa Siyam

Unit 8-LA 1

Unit 8 Learning Activities

“The primary research questions now are “Do men and women lead differently?” and “Are men more effective leaders than women? Why are women underrepresented in elite leadership roles” (Northouse, 2013, p. 350).? How can leaders level the playing field so that both women and men can have equal opportunities to make meaningful contributions to leadership?

 The Glass ceiling

“The invisible barrier preventing women from ascending into elite leadership positions initially dubbed the glass ceiling, a term introduced into the American vernacular by two Wall Street Journal reporters in 1986″ (Hymowitz & Schellhardt, 1986; as cited in Northouse, 2013, p.353). Limitations with the glass ceiling metaphor identified by Eagly and Carli (2007),” including that it implies that everyone has equal access to lower positions until all women hit this single, invisible, and impassable barrier” (as cited in Northouse, 2013, p.353). In other words, they put forward an alternative image of leadership, and they call it leadership labyrinth. They are conveying the impression of a journey riddled with challenges all along the way, not just near the top, that can have been successfully navigated by women. Which means women face challenges at multiple levels, not only the top.

The “glass ceiling” case study 15.1(Northouse, 2013), its an example of leadership labyrinth. Northouse explained, “the labyrinth whereby women’s underrepresentation in a high-level leadership position generally revolve around three types of reasons” (Northouse, 2013, p.355) are: Human capital differences, gender differences; and prejudice.

In Lisa’s case, her educational achievement and her relationship with her clients and colleagues are seeming accepted, and there is no work-home conflict; however, she appears that she has a good leadership style that can help colleagues and always available to advise peers. However, her self-promotion (self-selecting) style is not enough to change the CEO misconception about her competence and being a partner of the group. Lisa engage and serve the group as a facilitator; however, the CEO wants to have a group leader when it counts for leadership style. Therefore, gender differences identified the gap, and as a woman, she likes to be a team player at the executive level. Additionally, “women exceeded men in the use of democratic or participatory style, and they are more likely to use transformational leadership behaviors and contingent reward, a style that is associated with contemporary notions of effective leadership” (Northouse, 2013, p.352).

The style differences between man and women as explained by Eagly and Johnson (1990); and van Engen and Willemsen, 2004) that “women led in more democratic, or participative manner than men”(as cited in Northouse, 2013, p.350), which explained the reason for choosing this style which produces the most favorable evaluation. Another prominent explanation of the leadership gap that encountered in Lisa’s case is prejudice. The gender-biased stereotype that dominates Lisa’s workplace as her boss acknowledge that her male colleagues know better makes her feel devalued and; therefore, she quit the firm to move to her own investment.

In focus on the leadership effectiveness, Northouse (2013), noted that changing organizational assumption such as gendered-based assumption, the notion of uninterrupted full-time career, and valuing the fixable workers and diversity on their top echelon. “Women who are aware of the labyrinth may circumvent barriers by starting their own venture” (Wirth, 2001; as cited in Northouse, 2013) [which is what Lisa did]. However, providing career development for women through formal “networking programs” and “assigning women to high visibility positions” (Northouse, 2013, p.360)”; will bring the situation to the balancing point. Regarding, developing supportive and effective “mentoring relationships for women” considered a key strategy that will enhance leadership role taking and reduce the gaps” (Northouse, 2013, p.360).

A vivid example of gender-based prejudice noted in Goldin and Rouse ( 2000; as cited in Northouse 2013, p.358), “that male -dominating symphony orchestras made a straightforward change when they asked the applicants to audition while hidden behind the screen”. This small change increases the women chances in symphony orchestras. Considering this example in a leadership role, and Lisa’ case, an organization should ensure that their employee aware of their unconscious biases and how these may affect their decision-making.

Auditing for bias across the organization, it might be a step that human resources should consider to reform and correct the bias which might include writing job description and screening resume, selecting and interviewing candidate, train high-level managers and hold them accountable (Udemy for business, 2017).

A leadership gap may relate to either; lack of mastery of required competencies or lack of necessary skills. Regarding Lisa’s case; she has the transformational leadership style, and she may need the knowledge of the required competencies, which can be garnered by training her in that organization and hold her accountable in partnership.

Reference

Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 971452203409

Udemy for business (2017, November). Breaking the Glass Ceiling: 5 Tips to Fix Gender Bias at Your Organization [Web log post]. Retrieved from: https://business.udemy.com/blog/5-tips-fix-gender-bias-your-organization/

Unit 7-LA 2

Unit 6 Learning Activities

Managerial implications as noted in Transformational leadership and performance across criteria and levels indicates that “transformational leadership tends to be a robust predictor of desirable performance outcomes across situations (Bass, 1997; as cited in Wang, Oh, Courtright & Colbert, 2011, p.253). Transformational leaders enable and motivate their followers to fulfill their assigned job duties in some ways. Transformational leaders (Wang et al., 2011) link their followers‘ work roles to a compelling vision of the organizational future. Therefore, causing followers to view their works as significant and meaningful and thus increase their intrinsic values and potential motivation. For managers, using the transformational leadership style, they raised the probability of high-performance and positive outcome of transforming the relationship of their employees. Since the transformational leaders enable their followers to believe of themselves and they can achieve the attainable goal that set for them; therefore, it will increase self-efficacy (Wang et al., 2011) positively and affect followers performance in a collaborative team setting.

Furthermore, prior research by Barling, Weber, & Kelloway (1996), shows that “transformational leadership style is trainable, with the results of such training being quite substantial” (as cited in Wang et al., 2011, p.253). Employing transformational leadership approach in a team-oriented resulting in maximizing the team potency and effectiveness; therefore, high standard when mentoring or coaching will be achieved.

Therefore, “it is important for organizations to promote transformational leadership through selection practices and training interventions, organizations should also bear in mind that they are likely to derive the most value from transformational leadership in settings involving teamwork and collaboration among employees” (Podsakoff, Ahearne, & MacKenzie, 1997; as cited in Wang et al., 2011, p.253). It is important to acknowledge that TL approach goes beyond task-performance (Wang et al., 2011) of followers and influence them to engage contextual performance; which in regard, is vital for organizational future. It can be through motivating workers, and their team leads to committing work behavior that increases social identity (conferences; national week); thus, promote commitment and organizational citizenship behavior through the exchange process (Northouse, 2016).  Transformational leaders also function as role models that their followers desire to emulate, thereby eliciting higher team commitment, cooperation, and performance. Teaching TL approach to leaders will promote intellectual stimulation to their followers (Northouse, 2016; Wang et al., 2011).  Learning from Transformational leadership approach, and thus, applying it in my Leadership context. Promoting ethical behavior, and willing to serve others in a collaboration; whereby, can be a positive effect on my organizational’ performance and culture.

The five principles of ethical leadership as noted in Northouse (2016, p. 431-437) are respect, service, justice, honesty, and community building.

Respect– as Beauchamp and Bowie (1988) pointed out, “Persons must be treated as having their own autonomously established goals and must never be treated purely as the means to another’s personal goals”(as cited in Northouse, 2016, p.431). Therefore, it requires leaders to be sensitive to followers’ own interests, needs, and conscientious concerns.  In other words, we should not treat others as a means to an end; rather persons should be treated others respecting to decisions and goals. Respect in leadership (Northouse, 2016) means: approaching other people with a sense of their unconditional worth and valuable differences (Kitchener, 1984; as cited in Northouse, 2016, p.431), giving credence to others’ ideas and confirming them as human beings, nurturing followers to becoming aware of their own needs, values, and purposes (Burns 1978; as cited in Northouse, 2016, p.431), being tolerant of opposing views (Northouse, 2016, p. 342). For example, active listening with empathy to subordinates in a way to confirm their beliefs, attitudes and believes; therefore the followers feel competent about their work.

Service– The service in leadership as explained by Northouse (2016), is the leaders who “place their followers ‘ welfare foremost in their plans” (p.432). Therefore, their altruistic service behavior can be approached and observed in activities such as mentoring, empowering, team building, and citizenship behaviors. For example, the ethical principle in the health care of beneficence ((Beauchamp & Childress, 1994; as cited in Northouse, 2016, p.432), where health professionals ought to make choices that benefit the patients. Like health professionals (Northouse, 2016), ethical leaders have “a responsibility to attend to others, be of service to them, and make decisions pertain to them that are beneficial and not harmful to their welfare” (p.432).  Service to others is also the basis of the Servant Leadership model proposed by Greenleaf (1970, 1977). Effective leaders see their own personal vision as an essential part of something larger than themselves-part of the organization and community at large.

Justice- Ethical leaders (Northouse, 2016) “place issues of fairness at the center of their interest” (p.433). They make it their priority to “treat all followers in an equal manner” (Northouse, 2016, p. 435). Concerning with issues of fairness is necessary when cooperating with others when promoting a common interest. Issues of justice arise when there is a limit on goods and resources; therefore, a good leader should have an ethical principle on how to distribute these resources equitably to avoid confects.

Honesty– Being honest is not about telling the truth, it has to do with others being open transparent and representing reality as fully and completely as possible. Its essential for leaders to be authentic, “To be a good leader, one must be honest” (Northouse, 2016, p.435). Jaksa and Pritchard (1988), dishonesty creates distrust; hence, a negative impact on those people who lose faith in what their leaders say and stand for (as cited in Northouse, 2016, p.435). Therefore, leaders impact compromised and no longer trust in their leaders.

For leaders in organizations, being honest means, “Do not promise what you can’t deliver, do not misrepresent, do not hide behind spin-doctored evasions, do not suppress obligations, do not evade accountability, do not accept that the ‘survival of the fittest’ pressures of business release any of us from the responsibility to respect another’s dignity and humanity” (Dalla Costa (1998, p. 164; a cited in Northouse, 2016, p.436).

Community building-This can also construe when leaders need to take into the account their own and followers purpose when working towards attained common goal. Regarding this, incorporating transformational leadership style where leaders try “to move the group toward a common good that is beneficial for both the leaders and the followers” (Burns, 1978; as cited in Northouse, 2016, p.436). Thereby, the leader-follower relationship in the organizational context involved the purpose of everyone and attentive to the interest of community and culture.

It appears that transformational and servant leadership approach (Northouse, 2016) promote the individual and group goals in the common good and public interest. Therefore, I would choose honesty and service others as the two essential principles for my leadership style. I believe they considered as an integral part of the broader domain of leadership. Considering service others as a result of respecting others, and honesty as the link between showing justice and building community; therefore, the leadership approach that serves the greater good of others and excels with honesty have a positive impact in developing the real-world of ethical leadership.

Do you think of any other principles that may become part of the ethical leadership chain?

References:

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 971452203409

Wang, G., Oh, I. S., Courtright, S. H., & Colbert, A. E. (2011). Transformational leadership and performance across criteria and levels: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of research. Group & Organization Management, 36(2), 223-270. Retrieved from: http://ezproxy.student.twu.ca:3201/doi/pdf/10.1177/1059601111401017

Unit 7-LA 1

Unit 7 Learning Activities

Regarding leadership, ethics is about what leaders do and who leaders are. Ethics is “concerned with the virtuousness of Individuals and their motives and provides a system of rules or principles that guide leaders in making a decision about what is right and wrong and good or bad”(Northouse, 2016, p.424). Leaders, when making a decision, choices they made are informed by their ethics. Van Buren (20.13) defines ethics as “principles, values, and beliefs that define what is right and what is wrong behavior.” She posited that “leaders set up the moral tone for the organization, and that staff responds to moral clues from their leaders.” It appears that leaders who are taking actions on ethical issues they face challenges that enable them to set the tone for the behavior of the rest of the organization. In addition to, “leaders can create an ethical culture by – being a role model, communicating ethical standards, promoting the effective financial management, providing ethical training, institutional ethical culture, provide protective mechanisms to employees who bring forth their concerns about ethics violations” (Van Buren, 2013). Northouse (2016) postulated that “ethics is central to leadership because of the nature of the process of influence, the need to engage followers in accomplishing mutual goals, and the impact leaders have on the organization’s values (p.428). The principles of ethical leadership as explained by Northouse (2016), are “respects others, service others, shows justice, manifest honesty, and builds community” (p.431).

Bill George (2003), succinctly states: we need leaders who lead with purpose, values, and integrity; leaders who build enduring organizations, motivate their employees to provide superior customer service and create long-term value for shareholders (p. 9; as cited in Avolio & Gardener, 2005, p.316). The four core elements of authenticity as identified by Kernis (2003) are self-awareness, unbiased processing, relational authenticity, and authentic behavior/action( as cited in Avolio & Gardener,2005, p.317). Shamir and Eilam (2005) They posit the following four characteristics of authentic leaders: (1), authentic leaders are true to themselves (rather than conforming to the expectations of others); (2) authentic leaders motivated by personal convictions (rather than to attain status, honors, or other personal benefits); (3) authentic leaders are originals; that is, they lead from their own personal point of view; and (4) the actions of authentic leaders are based on their personal values and convictions (as cited in Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p.321).

Authentic leadership development involves processes whereby “leaders and followers gain self-awareness and establish open, transparent, trusting and genuine relationships, which in part may be shaped and impacted by planned interventions such as training” (Avolio, 2005, as cited in Avolio & Gardner, 2005, p.322). Authentic leaders foster the development of authenticity in followers through increased self-awareness, self-regulation, and positive modeling; therefore, followers’ authenticity contributes to their well being and the attainment of sustainable and veritable performance (Avolio & Gardener, 2005). The reflection of the true meaning of authenticity requires to have relational transparency (Avolio & Gardener, 2005) between leaders and followers relationship; since it reflects the open and transparent manner in a leader-follower relationship; therefore, elicit the personal and social identification required to secure follower trust and commitment. Therefore, follower’s “self-awareness” and follower’s self-regulation instilled by training; hence, followers aligning their ideas with their leaders in their organization. In turns, it was promising to have an organizational commitment and sustained organizational citizenship behavior, which every workplace should strive to achieve. Nevertheless, positive psychological capital when relates to the capacity of having confidence, being optimistic, hope and resiliency as personal resources; and thus have a positive impact on the leaders and their followers and enable them to bounce from a catastrophic situation and display resiliency rapidly.

Considering the organizational context and leadership interaction in that context required to give leaders opportunity to be sustained and integrated within that context regarding uncertainty, turbulence, and challenge; therefore, altering the setting of itself to make it more authentic. Another way to promote ethical behaviors is to ensure that there is a safe way for staff and stakeholders to hold the leadership ethically accountable (Van Burne, 2013).

For an organization to grow and flourish, needs to have leaders (Van Burne, 2013) who can be a visible role model– and this can be simple as washing your own cup which conveys a positive message to your employee, employees who take cues about appropriate behavior from those at the top. In regard, communicating ethical expectations by creating an organizational code of ethics which states corporate values and ethical rules and principles for safe practice. In my organization, they encourage this practice through online modules that promote patient confidentiality and a respectful workplace. However, all depend on how you develop these expectations, perceive and integrate them into the organizational practice; therefore they promote an organizational culture that influences the employees’ behavior. Strong organizations support their employees by providing them with moral training which may include a code of ethics implemented in employees manual of operation. Transparency, self-regulation, and self- awareness- A respected employees who commit to these codes, they relate to certain behaviors when making decisions. For example, to question our selves these questions; “asking is it fair? Is it honest? Does it advances societal interest, or does it cause a risk? How it feels when you find the decision ended up in the evening news have a positive impact when conveying ethical codes in a respected organization. By this mean, the valued employees increase their self-awareness, and limited to, invite a response from others. Balanced processing to what degree the leaders solicit sufficient opinions and viewpoints prior making decisions. Lastly, provide a protective mechanism – that sustains employee’s commitment and safe practice, in other words, the process of promoting an institutional ethical culture which allows the employee to discuss ethical dilemmas and report unethical behavior without fear or reprimand.

Leaders’ behaviors influence employee engagement, leading to positive organizational outcomes. Servant leaders enacted proven leadership behaviors that improve employee engagement and create a positive environment for a power-exchange among employees(Northouse, 2016). The organizations need to pay particular attention to intervention programs that enhance their managers’ leadership style that promotes ethical behaviors.

Do you think if emotional intelligence has any positive impact on leadership ethics and decisions, and how that can be modeled?

References

Avolio, B. & Gardner, W. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16, 315-338. Retrieved from:  https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca:3744/S1048984305000263/1-s2.0-S1048984305000263-main.pdf?_tid=175592e8-e93e-4f5c-afa1-77ed48791e65&acdnat=1528867396_6bcf6a3a04ae4b0f6607198084558905

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 971452203409

Van Buren, J. (2013, March 29). What is Ethical Leadership?. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks2QGoIq5nA