Nice Guys lose, Don’t they? Ethical Dilemmas

1. Nice Guys lose, Don’t they?Ethical Dilemmas

2. Orientation • Why leaders can’t ignore ethics • Ethical issues often unwelcome in pursuit of economic success • Focus of dilemmas on whether cost of ethics damages profits • Is leadership ultimately a moral process? • Ethical behaviour vital dimension in understanding leadership process

3. Platforms of Understanding • Where does ethics appear on personal leadership map? • Leadership literature largely ignores ethical dilemmas • Ciulla explores what is meant by ‘good’ leadership • MacGregor Burns and ethical implications of transformational leadership • Greenleaf’s ‘servant leadership’ explores ethical development of followers

4. Ciulla’s Exploration of Ethical Leadership • Focuses on understanding how to confront moral dilemmas of leadership • Dilemma rests on beliefs about conduct and achievement • Ethical ‘tokenism’ – way ethics are integrated in leadership texts • Ethics seen as matter of practical knowledge not needing theoretical exploration

5. Significance of ‘Good’ Leadership • Broader implications of ethics for organization not understood • Simplistic notion that good leadership only associated with effectiveness of results • Focus on describing what leaders do rather than ethical consequences of leader’s actions • Ciulla’s good leadership addresses moral well-being & development of followers

6. Voices of Ethical Leadership • MacGregor Burns - Transformational Leadership places strong emphasis on followers’ needs, values & morals • Leader attempts to move followers to higher standards of moral responsibility • Leader differentiated from follower with more developed sense of ethical values • Leader engages with followers & helps in personal struggles regarding conflicting values & process • Addresses weaknesses of coercive authoritarian leader styles

7. Greenleaf – Servant Leadership • Leadership about attending to moral needs of followers • Good leadership – followers take on ethical values of leader • Followers developed into morally responsible and autonomous leaders • Ethics at the heart of leadership – treat others as you wish to be treated

8. The Manipulative Leader • Manipulation an influence process • Use implies relationships with low concern for moral issues • Manipulative leaders argue for ‘best’ interests of others • Leadership style can be highly effective and associated with integrity • Leader’s role to influence through non-coercive means • Strategies of seduction - When does manipulation become morally acceptable?

9. Ethical Dilemmas of Leadership • Good leadership means more than productive leadership • Should successful leadership styles that ignores well-being of followers be encouraged? • Ignoring ethical responsibilities removes dilemma • Concern with ethics as means to achieving ends (compliance) unable to deal with non-ethical and productive possibilities, or with ethical and unproductive possibilities

10. Summary (1) • Morality versus effectiveness of performance is the fundamental ethical dilemma • Dealing with dilemmas, leaders often seek pragmatic justification of actions (including tokenism, and ethical rhetoric) • Tension between commercial well-being and ethical probity increasingly ‘on the agenda’ • Equating good leadership with short-term productivity can hide ethical dilemmas

11. Summary (2) • Attention to ethics aligned with business success • Ethical Imperative – maps of Burns & Greenleaf offer moral certainty for leaders • If leadership is a moral process then ethical dilemmas remain to be worked through in practice • As role models, leaders have an obligation to align values of followers to the ethical values of leadership • Morality of leaders then helps develop a moral as well as an economically sensitised culture