How Will Ethical Issues Affect Leadership in a Business
Contemporary and Pervasive Issues
“How will ethical issues affect leadership in a business?”
Word Count: 5671
In this essay I am going to discuss how ethical issues can affect leadership in a business. In order to answer this question the essay will start by giving a brief introduction into the two topics; leadership and business ethics. I will then aim to successfully link them by considering the argument of whether leaders should concern themselves with ethical issues or whether making as much money as possible should be their main consideration.
Leadership has many different meanings and there have been numerous different classification systems used to define the dimensions of leadership. Infact as Stogdill (1974) pointed out, “there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it.”
One popular definition used for this subject is that “leadership may be considered as the process (act) of influencing the activities of an organized group in its efforts toward goal setting and goal achievement”(Stogdill, 1974). This definition suggests that it is not a characteristic but is an event that takes place between a leader and his or her followers and that there are three aspects to leadership. Firstly, it involves influence in that leaders induce their followers to behave in a certain way. The second aspect is that leadership occurs in a group context and finally that leadership includes attention to goals, which a leader must direct their followers to achieve.
Over the years there have been many studies and theories formed on leadership. The first, which dominated until the late 1940’s, was the Trait Approach, which focused on leaders and not followers. It assumed that leaders had certain traits, such as intelligence and integrity and that they are born and not made. However, this approach failed to take situations into account and recent research has proven that traits alone cannot account for
“How will ethical issues affect leadership in a business?”
Word Count: 5671
In this essay I am going to discuss how ethical issues can affect leadership in a business. In order to answer this question the essay will start by giving a brief introduction into the two topics; leadership and business ethics. I will then aim to successfully link them by considering the argument of whether leaders should concern themselves with ethical issues or whether making as much money as possible should be their main consideration.
Leadership has many different meanings and there have been numerous different classification systems used to define the dimensions of leadership. Infact as Stogdill (1974) pointed out, “there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it.”
One popular definition used for this subject is that “leadership may be considered as the process (act) of influencing the activities of an organized group in its efforts toward goal setting and goal achievement”(Stogdill, 1974). This definition suggests that it is not a characteristic but is an event that takes place between a leader and his or her followers and that there are three aspects to leadership. Firstly, it involves influence in that leaders induce their followers to behave in a certain way. The second aspect is that leadership occurs in a group context and finally that leadership includes attention to goals, which a leader must direct their followers to achieve.
Over the years there have been many studies and theories formed on leadership. The first, which dominated until the late 1940’s, was the Trait Approach, which focused on leaders and not followers. It assumed that leaders had certain traits, such as intelligence and integrity and that they are born and not made. However, this approach failed to take situations into account and recent research has proven that traits alone cannot account for
References: • K. R. Andrews, 1989, Ethics in Practice: Managing the Moral Corporation, Harvard Business School Publishing Division, pg 7, 71, 72, 260 • R Gill, 2006, Theory and practice of Leadership, SAGE Publications Ltd, pg • P. F. Drucker, 2007, The Practise of Management, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd; 2Rev Ed edition: quoted in M. Paliwal, 2006, Business Ethics; New Age International Ltd, pg 4 • Kotter J.P (1990) A force for change: How leadership differs from management • Bennis, W.G & Nanus, B (1985) Leaders: The strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper & Row: quoted in P.G Northouse, 2004, Leadership Theory and Practice, SAGE Publications Ltd, pg 8 • Burke, W.W (1986) Leadership as empowering others • P. Singer, 1993, A Companion to Ethics, Blackwell, p, v. • N. Preston, 2007, Understanding Ethics, Federation Press; 3rd Revised edition, pg 36, 40, 41, 42 • E • Milton Freidman (1970) ‘The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits’ quoted in T. Beauchamp and N. Bowie, 2004, Ethical Theory and Business, 7th ed., London, Pearson, p.51. • M. Paliwal, 2006, Business Ethics; New Age International Ltd, pg 7, 9, 10 • McNamara, 2006: quoted in M • B. Andersen, ASQ Mission, Bringing Business Ethics to Life: Achieving Corporate Social Responsibility, Pg 7, 9, 12, 13, 19, 22,24 • Maignin, 1987: quoted in B • K. R. Andrews, 1989, Ethics in Practice: Managing the Moral Corporation, Harvard Business School Publishing Division • Simon Blackburn, 2001, Ethics: a very short introduction, Oxford press Inc New York • R Gill, 2006, Theory and practice of Leadership, SAGE Publications Ltd • P.G Northouse, 2004, Leadership Theory and Practice, SAGE Publications Ltd, • Conger, J.A (2004) Developing leadership capability: What’s inside the black box. Academy of management executive, 18 (3) • E • M Paliwal, 2006, Business Ethics; New Age International Ltd • P • B. Andersen, 2004, Bringing Business Ethics to Life: Achieving Corporate Social Responsibility, ASQ Mission • J • K Grint, 2005, Leadership: Limits and Possibilities, Palgrave Macmillan • R • B. Harvey, 1994, Business Ethics: A European Approach, Prentice Hall International UK Ltd • P • J. N. Behrman, 1988, Essays on Ethics in Business and the Professions, Prentice Hall • V