Ethical Leadership
The Importance of Ethical Leadership
Ethical leadership is the foundation to successful leadership. There is no substitute for honesty and integrity inside and outside of the workplace. It is something that is extremely difficult to earn back. Once someone’s ethical persona has been jeopardized that person may not ever be able to regain it, especially if that person continues to work among the same peers.
Ethical leadership sets the tone for the culture of the organization. In the article The Ethical Commitment to Compliance: Building Value-Based Cultures, it mentions that a study was done to compare and contrast the effectiveness of a rules-and-punishment approach with a values-and-integrity approach to compliance. They found that “values-based programs had fewer reports of unethical conduct, higher levels of ethical awareness, more employees seeking advice about ethical issues, and a higher likelihood of employees reporting violations.” These ethics are instilled from the leadership down to the employees. There is clear empirical evidence that a leader and culture built on ethics will benefit the organization through the integrity of its employees. The article goes on to say that leaders of an organization can greatly improve the overall quality and integrity of the organization by focusing on the executive leader’s policies and the actions of the supervisors to lead with procedural fairness. This shows that ethical leadership can be proven by the equality of the processes that are implemented. The article concludes that the “role for the ethics and compliance officer [is] a values-based approach, in which organizations seek to motivate employees to develop and act on ethical values” and that it “is a more effective approach to managing rule adherence.” The value-based approached discussed in the article is instilled from the top down. It is important that the leadership of the organization establish this ethical standard. Once the employees
Ethical leadership is the foundation to successful leadership. There is no substitute for honesty and integrity inside and outside of the workplace. It is something that is extremely difficult to earn back. Once someone’s ethical persona has been jeopardized that person may not ever be able to regain it, especially if that person continues to work among the same peers.
Ethical leadership sets the tone for the culture of the organization. In the article The Ethical Commitment to Compliance: Building Value-Based Cultures, it mentions that a study was done to compare and contrast the effectiveness of a rules-and-punishment approach with a values-and-integrity approach to compliance. They found that “values-based programs had fewer reports of unethical conduct, higher levels of ethical awareness, more employees seeking advice about ethical issues, and a higher likelihood of employees reporting violations.” These ethics are instilled from the leadership down to the employees. There is clear empirical evidence that a leader and culture built on ethics will benefit the organization through the integrity of its employees. The article goes on to say that leaders of an organization can greatly improve the overall quality and integrity of the organization by focusing on the executive leader’s policies and the actions of the supervisors to lead with procedural fairness. This shows that ethical leadership can be proven by the equality of the processes that are implemented. The article concludes that the “role for the ethics and compliance officer [is] a values-based approach, in which organizations seek to motivate employees to develop and act on ethical values” and that it “is a more effective approach to managing rule adherence.” The value-based approached discussed in the article is instilled from the top down. It is important that the leadership of the organization establish this ethical standard. Once the employees