LEADERSHIP CHAP12PP

CHAPTER TWELVE
LEADERSHIP ETHICS
AND DIVERSITY

© Prentice Hall 2006

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Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
do the following:






Explain why ethical leadership is so
important in organizations.
Describe major ethical issues that leaders
face and approaches for addressing those
issues.
Explain how leaders can create an ethical
climate in their organization.

© Prentice Hall 2006

12-2

Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
do the following:






Describe the role of spirituality in creating an
ethical organizational climate.
Explain the competitive and advantages of
diversity for organizations.
Describe leadership strategies and behaviors
for creating a multicultural organization.

© Prentice Hall 2006

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An Example of Leadership Ethics
The collapse of Enron








Enron executives developed a deceiving web of
pseudo-partnerships with newly created “investment
companies” that were actually Enron subsidiaries.
The executives had encouraged and modeled an
organizational culture of individualism, innovation,
aggressive cleverness, and excess at the expense of
compassionate, honest, and responsible leadership.
These unethical leaders demonstrate the importance of
leadership in establishing an ethical climate in an
organization.
Leaders are the prime example that followers emulate
when it comes to ethical or unethical behavior .

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Ethics and Leadership
Ethics is the study of morality and the moral
choices people make in their relationships
with others.
 Ethics concerns how we should behave in
the roles that society gives us.
 Leaders are often in roles that can determine
the well-being of others and they sometimes
influence the broader good.



technically good (effective)
morally good.

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Power
Power is the basis for a leader’s influence on followers


the more power a leader has, the more likely that
followers will comply with the leader’s wishes



the greater a leader’s power, the greater the potential
for abuse

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Corrupting influences of power
Power may become desired as an end in itself and be
sought at any cost
 Power differences may cause followers to give the

leader false positive feedback and create an elevated
sense of self-worth on the leader
 The leader may devalue followers’ worth and to
avoid regular contact with followers or mistreat them
A leader’s failure to acknowledge the ethical limits
of power causes a loss of credibility and trust and
does devastating damage to the leader and his
constituency


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Moral Consistency
If leaders’ behavior does not match
their stated values, they will lose the
trust of their followers and colleagues

• A leader’s moral inconsistencies are
open to public scrutiny
• Leaders who do not behave consistently
with their stated ethical values risk
being labeled hypocrites.

© Prentice Hall 2006

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Approaches to Ethical Behavior
Categorical
CategoricalImperative
Imperative
Follow
Followuniversal
universal
moral
morallaws
laws

Moral
MoralLearning
Learning

Persistent
Persistentefforts
efforts
to
tobe
bejust,
just,
prudent,
prudent,&&truthful
truthful..

Virtue
VirtueEthic
Ethic

High
Highmoral
moral
character
characterresults
results
in
ethical
behavior.
in ethical behavior.

Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism

Approaches
Approaches to
to
Ethical
Ethical Behavior
Behavior

Greatest
Greatestgood
goodfor
for
greatest
greatestnumber
number

Altruism

Altruism

Primary
Primaryconcern
concernisis
for
forothers’
others’welfare
welfare

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Creating an Ethical Climate
Role
Rolemodeling
modelingimportant
important
values
valuesand
andbehaviors.
behaviors.
Spiritual
Spiritualawareness
awareness
as
asaaguide
guideto

toaction
action

Creating
Creatingan
an
Ethical
EthicalClimate
Climate

Socially
Sociallyresponsible
responsible
charismatic/transformational
charismatic/transformational
leadership.
leadership.

Directing
Directingethical
ethical
policies
policiesand
andpractices
practices

Rewarding
Rewardingethical
ethical
and

andpunishing
punishing
unethical
unethicalbehavior.
behavior.

Conducting
Conductingparticipative
participative
discussions
discussionsof
ofethical
ethical
assumptions
assumptionsand
andactions.
actions.
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Charismatic/Transformational
Leadership and Ethics
Charismatic/transformational leaders are considered
unethical when their behavior reflects a self-serving or
egotistical bias rather than altruistic values.




Some charismatic/transformational leaders behave
unethically because they are so committed to otheroriented values that they mistakenly believe
generally applicable moral requirements do not
apply to them.
Transformational leaders sometimes assume
followers are ignorant and leaders have superior
knowledge and insight this encourages leaders to
believe that normal ethical requirements do not
apply to their behavior.

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Spirituality







Spirituality is part of our nature as humans,
The content of our work and the context
(environment) help determine our total work
experience,
the work context and/or content today are
often injurious to the human spirit and may

be getting worse,
Embracing spirituality at work may help
counteract these injurious trends and
benefit organizations, their members, and
communities

© Prentice Hall 2006

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DIVERSITY
Diversity refers to the
multiple social, cultural,
physical, and environmental
differences among people
that affect the way they
think, feel and behave

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Competitive Advantages
of Diversity
Outstanding
OutstandingHuman
Human
Resources

Resources
Cost
CostSavings
Savings
From
FromExperience
Experience
At
AtIntegration
Integration

Competitive
CompetitiveAdvantages
Advantages
of
ofDiversity
Diversity

Effective
Effective
Marketing
Marketing
Strategies
Strategies

Creative
CreativeIdeas
Ideas
And
AndSolutions

Solutions
To
ToProblems
Problems

Flexibility
Flexibilityin
in
Adapting
Adaptingto
to
Environment
Environment
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Leadership for Diversity
Rewarding and
recognizing
those who
promote and
participate in
diversity
programs.

Directing all employees
to participate in
diversity training and

seminars.

Participating in training
and in discussions on
diversity issues and
programs.

Leadership
Leadership
for
forDiversity
Diversity

Supportiveness
through
creation of
flexible
personnel
policies and
mentoring.

Boundary-spanning
to help minorities
build networks and
support groups.
© Prentice Hall 2006

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