Management Case Study
In an organizational setting, it is important to ensure that all employees experience the same treatment at all levels. Integrity and honesty represent the ethical tone that is required for the top most leaders in the organization. However, numerous interns have reported abuse from the high level leaders who exploit their naivety and pursuit for knowledge in exchange for sexual favors and less than professional working conditions. These leaders and executives lack the value based leadership that should be evident in an organization. This paper focuses on the management team performance that enforces a value based system identified as ethical leadership. The paper takes on a case study based on the article ‘Devil’s Den’ by Susan.
The main problems at the Devil’s Den were unbiased threat resulting from fragrant misconduct. This problem was identified by Susan who operated under the night shift as a part time worker while undertaking a business degree. As a moral and ethical person, she was faced with the uncomfortable situation at her work place that operated under an ‘anything goes’ work environment (Scribed n.d.). Susan was infuriated at the state of dealings and desired to correct the wide of the mark happenings but she was hesitant whether the administration would do something about it. Conversation with other personnel was unworkable as they take advantage of the rules themselves or undoubtedly conscious of what was going on but pay no attention to it. Aside from the distasteful aspects of the work environment, Susan identified that the company administration is also having distress holding on to valuable employees due to the poor training, high gross revenue, little remunerations, dwindled morale, nonexistent controls, shady company philosophy, unreliable punishment, and lack of written policies and procedure (Scribd n.d.)
It was very tough for Susan, because she wanted to come to be an apprentice administrator next semester and did not want to generate any undesirable impressions that might inhibit from doing so (Knapp, 2011). In totality, the moral dimension of leadership includes spiritual, authentic and transformational leadership (Brown et al 2006). The implication of individual choice of leadership presents an abnormal criterion on the classification of proper practice as well as their implications in an organizational setting. According to Yuki (2003), whether or whether not the leaders will use power gained by the position, ethical leadership calls on them to use it wisely and well. Thus, proper governance encourages ethical conduct as well as initiating efforts to stop dishonorable practices.
Secondly, under the competence building, the management’s stance is the adoption of the responsibility. Failure to do so calls on the retrenchment of the worker. This was as oppose to the working of the night shift in the Devil’s Den. The student management took a blind eye to the theft problem. Instead they took the unconcerned or non-issue approach in regards to unethical conduct. Moreover, the managers do some damage control where by most of the time they looked the other way (Knapp, 2011). According to Hartman et al (2003), proper ethical leadership includes an overlooked transactional component that involves using communication and the reward system to guide ethical behavior. The ability of the leader to display interest and communicate with the employees is an important element of management. Through communication, the management can attend to grievances offered by the company employees. Dealing with discipline requires hands on approach involving disciplinary action through suspension and possible sacking.
Also, the management retaliation to the theft problem involved having the store kept locked more than often instead of taking up discussion of the problem with the employees. As a method of control, it failed to get the attention of the workers. Moreover, the management confrontation methods involving stare downs to show disapproval indicated the managers’ lack of competence in handling employee behavior. The student managers were immoral and were out to achieve their own selfish pursuits. This indicated the failure of the company in the apprentice program that involves the training of young executives. According to Yukl (2003), work-based developmental activities are considered important, and the presence of a strong learning culture in an organization goes a long way to supporting leadership development.
Consequently, the challenge to personal moral implication and ethics creates a dead lock between the right pursuit and the popular ideal. Susan as an employee was left in a dilemma about work. The corporate culture at the Devil’s Den seems to condone unethical behavior (Scribd). Yukl (2003) observes that much of the research over the last 50 years has involved two way street (one individual to another specific individual) relationships between a leader and a follower. This establishes the basis of the relationship between the leader and the workers under him thus explaining why poor leadership creates room for poor performance by the employees as well as immoral pursuits. Within the organizational contest context, he (the leader) goes on to look at a number of follower-based theories including: leader-member exchange (communication), leader attributions about subordinates (competence identification), follower attributes (value systems) and implicit theories, follower contributions to effective leadership, and social learning theory (self-management) (Yukl 2003). The above offers adequate highlighting about the importance of the adherent role to a frontrunner. The perceptions and behavior of the other Devil’s Den employees is pegged on the permissiveness of the student manager leadership.
What's more, character qualities are deliberated particularly pertinent to effective management, and those emphasized as the most pertinent include energy levels and stress tolerance, self-confidence, internal control orientation, emotional maturity and integrity (Yukl 2003). Personal choice offers the basis of the internal value system within which individual make choices. In the case of a dilemma, the choice should be based on the right choice despite problems that may be faced. In the case of Devil’s Den, Susan‘s dilemma involved reporting thus resulting in management retaliation or taking part in the dreadful dealings of theft and ‘anything goes’ policy. As a morally upright and ethical person, her position was to report the dealings without fear or favor. The choice would offer a control measure to the poor performance that sought to damage the company reputation and image. This dealing will ensure there is no dealing with fragrant misconduct once more in the company. As an employee, Susan should have filed an employee complaint of the unethical standards of the night management staff. Moreover, a letter, to the company administrative management, should be written reporting the shady pursuits taking place without the leadership’s knowledge.
In conclusion, there are mediating variables necessary to explain leadership influence on individuals, group processes and organizational effectiveness (Yukl 2003). The ability to handle high position of management involves the pursuit of integrity and worthy inspirational leadership. Correspondences and variances between moral principles of the officers’ and senior executives’ observations also led to comprehensions about the significance of vantage point and social salience in the views of executive ethical leadership (Hartman et al. 2003). The management effects influence over the office environment and culture. Positive policies must be implemented in order to offer the employees a competitive advantage that can lead to improved efficiencies and higher profit margins. Furthermore, the investment in a solid management team is crucial in order to build a strong workforce. Identifiably, it is the management team performance that enforces a value based system identified as ethical leadership within an organizational setting.
References
Brown M. & Trevino L. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly Yearly Review of Leadership (17-6): 595-616
Knapp, K. (2011). Devil's Den. Prezi Inc. Retrieved on 16th Feb 2014.
Scribd. (n.d).Dilemma at Devil’s Den. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/21176051/Devils-Den
Trevino L.; Brown M. & Hartman L. (2003). A Qualitative Investigation of Perceived Executive
Ethical Leadership: Perceptions from Inside and Outside the Executive Suite. Human
Relations (56-1):5-37
Yukl, G. (2001). Leadership in Organizations. National College for School Leadership: 1-4
