Ethics and leadership
Leaders are expected to be people of high moral and abide with ethical ways of executing their leadership functions and in the exercise of their authorities. Plato and Aristotle in their books taught how political leaders should be ethical in their conduct of state tasks. Using the democracy of ancient Athens they argue on how ethics cannot be separated from politics, as political leaders should exhibit high level of ethical standard in all they do. It is believed that Aristotle taught Alexander the great about ethics and politics (Morgan, p. 253)
The level of ethical and morally disciplined a leader is will reflect how followers would cooperate with leader in maximizing the objectives of the organization or in politics, the country’s policies and targets. Followers take different opinion stand, regarding to how they relate and cooperate with the leader in the attainment of the organization set objectives. For some, they give full participation; others tend to be supportive by giving consent and accepting to act in ensuring their little support help the organization in meeting these objectives. The non-motivated follower is likely to put up an attitude that tend to be alienated from the tasks set by the leader in meeting the organization’s objectives. In addition, a morally bankrupt leader who does not follow expected laid down ethical standard will not effectively carry his followers along.
In Aristotle’s Nicomachean, which reflects his collection on books written on ethics, he argued that ethics should showcase with is just and beautiful. Hence, leaders in politics are expected to, on the average, have moral and display ethical values in their conducts. Aristotle is of the view that demand on precision concerning ethics should not be total as people have the inert intention to do good. However, it is known that some people naturally are not disposed to do what is right, except when they are coerced and forced. Leaders have the power to do what is good or bad, but when they put ethical values into what they these powers are then translated to legitimate authority which subjects and followers are bound to respect. The leader can be guided by “ethics of conviction or ethics of responsibility” (Morgan, p. 1354).
Kellerman offers a typology that shows how to determine and appreciate each follower. This typology explains how followers can range from someone “feeling and doing absolutely nothing” to “being passionately committed and deeply involved (Kellerman, 2007).
Activists and diehard followers would oppose a leader who is not morally or ethically grounded in enforcing laws.
Leaders need to acknowledge how important it is to understand their followers. Depending on what kind of follower there is, different things could motivate them, and they might be effective in a certain setting only. With isolates, the key would be to determine why they are alienated, and if they could be effective in a certain situation. Bystanders may increase their participation with intrinsic or extrinsic rewards (Kellerman, 2007). A leader needs to also pay special attention to a follower such as participant, activist or a diehard, and pay attention to their behaviors and actions and see if they demonstrate strong support or opposition to the leader.
Followers can act in their own self-interest, and while they may lack authority, followers do not lack power and influence (Kellerman, 2007). Because followers have so much power and influence, it is important to a leader to make sure the follower is supporting the leader, and not working against them, to be successful.
The different types of followers described by Kellerman need to be complimented with different types of leadership. In most cases one leader is in charge of motivating, organizing and monitoring a group of followers. It is important then for this leader to address each individual follower in a manner that they will respond to. For example, a leader must at times be both a transformational leader and transactional leader. With some followers extrinsic rewards may be more appealing than intrinsic rewards and vice versa. True leaders are able to effectively achieve the balance necessary to appeal to all types of followers. A good example of a leader who was able to accomplish this was Roosevelt during the Great Depression. The following article I found on the web discusses how Roosevelt was able to lead this country during some of its darkest days to success by having the unique ability to work with individual groups in a way that they would respond best.
Furthermore, a transformational leader, have the capability of motivating followers during period of changes resulting from alliances, merger, takeover or reformation in the management structure of the organization. During such period the followers are vulnerable or incapacitated in making a right decision. Some may truncated into making irrational decision from the fear of loosing their jobs or they can’t cope with the new structure in place. It then boils on the transformational leader to direct and motive these workers into adopting the right attitude in making the transformation in the organization become a success. According to Morgan (2011, p. 1352), “when anything is truly mean and base it is because of the consequence of using ethics to prove one is doing the right thing”. In this view, Lajara et al (2002), argue that leadership capacity is perhaps the one of the most necessary elements in this process of alliance. The participation of senior managers must go beyond the formulation of a strategy based on alliance, they must personally be engaged and show their commitment and enthusiasm in the alliance. This means that a way in which a leader behaves in situation of transformation or changes in the environment will make low ranked employees see reason why to continue by seeing the relevance of such transformation in the organization. To further buttress this, Mill in his Utilitarianism theory, argues that leaders should be able to provide for the benefits of all and not for a part in the expense of others. In this case, providing for all without being biased, a leader must be morally and ethically principled to effectively and consciously implement this.
How does ethic consideration matters to me as a leader
In the aspect of how extensively follower attributes serve to moderate the leader-behavior outcome (e.g. satisfaction, performance), we can concur with Daft (2008) where he posits that leadership and fellowship are closely intertwined. Looking form the angle of superior-subordinate setting in an organization every follower, and sub-leaders reports to a superior. Thus, we can say everyone in an organization is a follower since they have higher authority to whom they report to. Everyone has a boss; think about iteven the president or the United States has a boss, (In God We Trust). Furthermore, Daft points out that without followers there are no leaders. Daft mentions that when these followers’ attributes are studied it gives a glance at the support factor. The support factor engulfs the contingency theory; he explains how leaders adjust their behavior to fit situations, especially their followers (Daft 2008 p. 194) There seems to be an understanding in the text that followers can have a demanding influence upon a leader.
Since it is true that the characteristics of the follower will “moderate” the leader’s behavior, the leader must get to know the follower. Performance will increase when there is a high degree of compatibility between the followers and leaders. The leader and follower being well-suited for each other, depends on the follower’s satisfaction with the work environment and the relationship that the two share. In a sense the follower forces the leader to stop and think before he or she acts. Followers also need to motivation and worth in the leader’s eyes. As stated by Stephanie Chick, “If every leader and manager could embrace the fact that every employee, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, or educational background, is capable of greatness and possesses personal genius, can you imagine how that might change employee attitudes and actions on the job?” (Goldsmith, M., 2008. p.1) I agree with this statement because if leaders don’t realize the skills of their followers then they will not be able to utilize them. The follower might feel that they are not able to perform at their full potential and get bored and ultimately feel unappreciated. Again, the leader must realize that every employee possesses different traits and this should determine what approach is used to lead them.
References
Aristotle (2008). Nicomachean Ethics Cosimo, Inc.
Daft, Richard. (2008). The Leadership Experience. USA: Thomas-Western. Goldsmith.
Goldsmith, Marshall. (2008). “Unleashing the Genius in Your Workforce” BusinessWeek, October 14th, http://www.businessweek.com (14-10-2008)
Kellerman, Barbara. (2007). “What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers” http://hbr.org.com (12-10-2007).
Lajara, B. Marco, et al. (2002). “The Role of Human Resource Management in the cooperative Strategy Process” in Human Resource Planning. Vol. 25, No. 2
Mill, John Stuart (1870) Utilitarianism Longmans, Green
Morgan, Michael, L. (2011) Classics of Moral and Political Theory. Hackett Publishing.
