The Ethical Leader
Transformational Leadership is a concept used in describing leaders who adopt insightful strategic plans in motivating their juniors or followers to improve performance. Transformational leaders connect one’s identity with the collective identity of a business or a project. In most instances, transformational leaders apply ethical leadership principles in facilitating effective management in an organisation. In definition, ethical leadership is the leader’s ability of leading by understanding and abiding by what is right and appropriate for an organisation and employees. To be effective in modern business entities, ethical leaders should make ethical decisions that aim at benefiting both the organisation and other actors.
Ethical leaders also understand and act in accordance to the existing rules and regulations without compromising attitudes and perceptions of other people. Ethical leaders also engage in unpopular, inconvenient, and temporary unprofitable activities with an aim of meeting organisation’s long-term objective. Ethical leaders view the world as an interconnected entity. In this context, they create multidisciplinary solutions in dealing with intricate problems in an organisation (McQueeny, 2006). Furthermore, successful ethical leaders consider suppliers’ financial stability without compromising the success and profitability of the organisation in their policy formulation. Ethical leaders extend their confidence and trust to their employees by developing working condition that improves employees’ professional skills. In most cases, they adopt solutions that aim at creating game-changing inventions in an organisation.
Leadership Challenges in Business
In profit making organisations, leaders encounter the challenge of making informed and popular decisions that would benefit all actors in the business. Successful leaders should make decisions that would enhance both the organisation employees and the organisation development. Decisions that do not favour the interests of employees often encounter resistance from employees, which reduces the organisation’s profitability. Adopting policies that account for the interest of all actors in a business prompts serious challenges that check the development of a business. Furthermore, implementing a desired leadership approach is a major challenge that faces leadership in the modern business entities. A leadership style that would meet the needs and demands for the organisation culture is relatively useful in the modern complicated and competitive business environment (Stansbury, 2009).
Modern business leadership also faces a challenge of hiring appropriate and productive professionals. It is apparent that hiring the right people for the right job is a complicated undertaking due to volatility in the corporate world. The act of selecting a professional who is ideal for the job and who can fit in the existing work force has emerged as major a challenge that undermine the success of modern business leaders.
Ethical Leadership Social Responsibility
Understanding ethical leadership social responsibility plays a critical role in facilitating the success of modern ethical leaders. Leaders should be sensitive to their social responsibility in local and international markets to succeed in the modern economy. Leaders should also understand the impact of their decision and actions to the society (Pride, Hughes, & Kickapoo, 2008). The idea of social entrepreneurship should form the basis of the organisations’ strategies, direction, and communication policies. Essentially, ethical leaders should inspire organisational changes through their action and policies while being cautious of their actions.
As opposed to acting on rhetoric arguments, leaders should move the entire world into an ethical and socially responsible future. Ethical leaders have the specific role of ensuring that all activities in an organisation are conducted in accordance to the set plans and within a specific timeline. Furthermore, leaders should ensure that the organisation’s initiatives aim at improving the welfare of a society. Engaging in social responsibility initiative does not only improve the organisation’s reputation, but also fosters organisation’s profitability.
References
McQueeny, E. (2006). Making Ethics Come Alive. Business Communication, Quarterly, 69(2), 158-170
Pride, W., Hughes, R., & Kickapoo, J. (2008). Business (9th ed.) Boston, MA: Hough-ton McFarland Company.
Stansbury, J. (2009). Reasoned Moral Agreement: Applying discourse ethics within organizations, Business Ethics Quarterly, 19(1), 33-56
