In the current society today, the roles that leaders play in an organisation are much more significant and are studied in greater depth. The importance of ethically managing an organization and leading the entire organization towards a similar purpose and message requires great leadership. With this, we would look further into the practice of ethical leadership; how it’s defined and attempt to provide a more comprehensive understanding of ethical leadership and it’s relation with integrity.
What is Ethical Leadership?
Firstly, Ethics is a philosophical term that is related to the prescription and description of moral principles that guides people’s behaviours, suggesting that there are “acceptable” and “unacceptable,” as well as “right” and “wrong” way of behaving (Stapledon 2009).
Whereas, leadership is an art to persuade and direct followers and subordinates to act perform and behave in ways that would eventually help the leader achieve the desired goal (Drucker 1995).
When both Ethics and Leadership are placed together it gives us an ethical leader, one who is known to be a combination of a “Moral Person” and “Moral Manager.” As mentioned by Brown & Trevino (2006), Ethical Leadership is the demonstration of a normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement and decision making.
What is leadership Integrity?
Integrity, is to have a high moral principle and adhering to this set of ethical principles. Leadership Integrity, also known as Moral Identity, is also described as a self regulatory mechanism that motivates one to act morally and is concerned with the degree to which a person’s morality is important to their self identity (Mayer, Aquino, Greenbaum & Kuenzi 2012).
Different perspectives of ethical leadership
This topic has been studied over many years, and this has resulted in many differing perspectives