Interview with an Ethical Leader
Interview with an Ethical Leader
Introduction
In order to successfully manage a modern organization it is important to be a good leader and to choose the right leadership style that is most suitable for the given situation. There are several leadership styles. Some of them are considered to better for the current conditions, some of them worth. But there is no single recipe how to manage the company in the best way. Therefore good leaders should be able to analyze the situation in the company, internal and external factors influencing it, and identify the correct approach to leading it. What is most important for every leader is ethics. It is impossible to create a positive organizational culture in case there is no ethics. It is required also for the establishing of good and mutually beneficial relationships and collaboration with the customers and partners.
In order to better clarify what ethical leadership is, it is appropriate to interview one of the successful ethical leaders that has a profound leadership experience and can explain how ethics is applied in his daily practice in the workplace. Mr. Smith has a significant leadership experience in the IT companies. Now he works in the international organization headquartered in the Netherlands that provide IT development services for corporate clients all around the world. As in most of the IT companies, he applies a democratic leadership style for interaction with the employees. Employees’ knowledge and skills are the most important factors that contribute to the company’s success. Therefore Mr. Smith puts a significant emphasis on the development on these characteristics. This essay is devoted to summarizing the information from the interview with Mr. Smith and analyzing his leadership style.
Interview Information
This section represents the questions that were asked and summaries of Mr. Smith’s answers to them.
The leader is currently managing the office of 120 employees that are divided into 10 teams. He is doing this job for 6 years already. Before it he worked at the same industry for 8 years and was promoted from the junior developer to the team leader. Mr. Smith is good in managing and organizing teams; he has rich experience in IT development, knows all the companies’ processes perfectly and speaks four languages that are particularly useful in the conditions of workplace diversity in his organization. He is working on the development of his knowledge and skills either on the basis of company facilities or on his own. As such, he participates in different trainings, conferences, and etc.
Do you have ethics present in your mind while interacting with other in the workplace?
Ethics is important for Mr. Smith. Due to his rich experience in the industry (and in general), he knows the high significance of the ethical behavior. It is important for the company itself as it obliges employees and management to act and communicate in compliance with the high corporate standards that contributes to the positive climate in the organization and reaching good results. Mr. Smith does not make any decisions regarding personnel, partners and customers without ethical considerations. Making unethical decision leads to the poor results as sound relationships cannot be created without ethics.
Do you practice business ethics when training subordinates?
Besides the professional trainings, the company organizes also trainings aimed in the development of personal qualities. All these trainings are based on the principles of ethics. Also they are elaborated and confirmed by the company’s compliance committee on the corporate level. Information in the trainings also corresponds to the internal documents establishing the rules of the company, e.g. Code of Conduct, Instruction for Trainings Conduct, and etc. Regardless of their content, such trainings also represent a possibility to remind people of the ethical behavior in the workplace.
What impact do ethics have in your daily/weekly/monthly/yearly decision-making?
As mentioned above, Mr. Smith applies ethics to all his decisions and actions. The company for that he works is a large international enterprise and focuses on building relationships with large corporate customers as well as on attracting and retaining talent to meet the needs of these customers. Therefore it is very important to build positive working relationships with all the parties involved. In case of some dilemma or conflict, Mr. Smith is trying to find the most suitable ethical solution. If he has any doubts, he consults with the colleagues and senior management. There are also compliance specialists in the company that can be contacted by e-mail or phone any time. Their contacts are mentioned in the latest version of the Code of Ethics. They will provide a professional advice that fully corresponds to all the corporate ethical requirements. Mr. Smith knows many examples from his experience, when correct decisions (from the ethical point of view) appeared to be helpful in maintaining and improving the relationships and collaboration with the clients, partners, and employees.
Do you promote ethical behavior to subordinates, peers and superiors?
How much time do you spend dealing with ethical issues in your position?
According to Mr. Smith, it depends on the situation. Due to the extensive working experience and the fact that all people in the company are high level professionals with good education, small issues usually do not take much time and agreement can be reached rather quickly. In case of more complex situations the process can take more time. For example, communication with the senior management on the topic may take several days as it can be necessary to wait until they have free time for discussing. There are also rare cases, when the situations are extremely complicated, and it is required to address the issue to the Corporate Compliance Department that is located in the UK. In this case, Mr. Smith provides the Department with all the available information on the issue (either by himself or upon their requests), waits for their decision and recommendations. According to Mr. Smith, this is a typical process for many multinational companies.
Does ethical/unethical behavior affect customer relations? If so, in what way? If not, please explain?
The process of establishing positive customer relationships requires much time and work. In order to build an effective and mutually beneficial collaboration, client-facing individuals should always think how to communicate, what to do next, etc. Nowadays clients are demanding and have a large choice of vendors that are willing to work with them. Especially it is true for the service industry. Unethical behavior will definitely lead to the problems with customer relationships and later to the stop of collaboration. To the contrary, ethical behavior often leads to success and establishing good relationships for many years. It is recommended to always refer to the Code of Conduct while deciding how to behave with the clients. If no answer is found there, it is better to consult with colleagues and senior management.
Do you select teams based on their personal ethical code? What ingredients do you believe make a successful team in regards to performing in an exemplary ethical manner?
Sometimes it is difficult to judge about the person if the one does not know her or him well. In any case, all the employees in the company are familiarized with the ethical principles of behavior and company Code of Conduct. Of course, it is better to deal with people that show ethical behavior in their actions. Every team should include at least 1-3 persons that proved that their behavior is always ethical. First of all, this will improve the efficiency of team’s work and overall company results. Second, it will enhance customer satisfaction and, thus, sales and cross-selling. Individuals that expose highly ethical behavior will show an example to the other people and this will strengthen the organizational culture. Ingredients that make a successful team include: overall intelligence of the team members, strict following to the Code of Conduct and constant supervision from the managers’ side.
What successful ethical ideas can you share to guide prospective or current leaders in developing solid and sound decisions with the goal of overall success within the organization?
Leaders should develop ethical behavior by means of following ethical standards in their daily actions and decisions. The leader should never consider using unethical behavior in any situation even if it may seem to be insignificant and suitable for the certain case. One more important factor is that the leader should work on his knowledge and skills in order to constantly improve them. The extent of knowledge is not limited and there is always something new to learn or to share with the other leaders inside or outside the organization. The leader should research and learn not only the leadership practices of his or her country, but also the foreign ones. Theoretical knowledge should be applied in practice.
How much attention does your guidance project when it comes to social responsibility?
Nowadays social responsibility is important to any organization. Some professionals even consider that it is no less important than the quality of company’s products or services. Here the ethical behavior should apply not only to the employees and their actions but also to all the processes in the company. Thus, leaders should ensure that the products of the company do not cause any harm to consumers, society, or environment and that their function brings benefits to everybody. In case of services, they should comply with all the applicable rules and regulations, not to contradict to the legislation and provide added value for the consumers. Any organization should create its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policy that has to be based on the ethical principles and take into account the latest experience of the leading companies.
Is having a sound ethical code of ethics important in competitive environments? How do you present and verify if the code of ethics is being followed in your organization?
As mentioned above, the Code of Ethics is required by any large company now. It should include all the rules and standards that have to be followed by the company employees. It should establish and explain in details how to deal with customers, partners and colleagues in all the situations, from conflicts to corporate events, include all the aspects of such behavior (negotiations, conflict management, appropriate gifts, etc.), and be able to guide employees in a simple and efficient way. It is possible to identify whether the Code of Ethics is followed by the employees in many ways: assessing company performance and financial results, conducting internal audits (for example, assessing oral and written communication), organizing on-line surveys among the customers and partners, conducting personal meeting with employees, customers and partners, and etc.
If you were to summarize in one sentence on what ethics is, what would it be?
Ethics is the way of thinking, acting and making decisions in accordance with the high moral principles so that it is beneficial for the company, society and environment.
Analysis of Interviewee’s Leadership Style
As mentioned above, Mr. Smith, as most of the leaders in the IT companies, utilizes democratic leadership style to manage his subordinates. This leadership style is usually applied in the organizations that employ highly-professional individuals with good level of education and skills. Democratic leaders allow employees to express thoughts and ideas, to participate in the decision making process, create company’s culture and thus contribute to creativity and innovation in the organization.
Democratic Leadership Style
A democratic leader is concentrated on performance and people. Such person is truly interested in the employees, but expects also a high performance level with regards to either quantity or quality. They consider management to be professional activity and spend time and effort to clear objectives’ establishing, organizing, planning, communicating and controlling, developing, and motivating in order to achieve high level of satisfaction and productivity (Warrick, 1981, p. 164).
Ethics means principles, beliefs and values that identify when the behavior is wrong or right. Leadership means the influencing activity of others with the purpose to reach organizational goals. Thus, it is possible to define ethical leadership as the people influencing process involving values, principles and beliefs that embrace the things that are proclaimed as right behavior (Van Buren, n.d., p. 1).
The question that is usually faced by the professionals is what should be the leaders’ actions in order to establish an ethical culture within the organization. A positive company’s culture that complies with high standards of ethics may significantly influence either the community or behavior of the employee. Even thought there is no single guidance, managers can consider some actions to establish a strong company’s ethical culture:
Become a visible example. Workers make their decisions about an appropriate behavior from their managers.
Make people aware of ethical expectations within the company. Some organizations create an Ethics Code. This identifies the ethical rules and the primary values of the organization that employees should follow in the workplace.
Create effective management of company’s finance. It is recommended for the managers to utilize resources in a way that is socially responsible and try to be cost-effective. Leaders should help the company in using practices of the accounting that are generally established and are transparent with grantors and donors.
Offer employees ethical trainings; during these sessions of training reinforce the standards of conduct in the organization, explain the meaning of practices and which of them are and are not accepted, and discuss possible dilemmas of ethics.
Promote an ethical culture by means of employee and organizational performance’s evaluating against the company’s Ethics Code. Ensure that the company respects what you are trying to do, as this is the point of where the company ends up.
Create mechanisms of protection. The company has to provide appropriate mechanisms so that workers may report unethical behavior and discuss ethical dilemmas without a reprimand fear. It can include counselors, ethical officers, or ombudsmen creation (Van Buren, n.d., p. 4).
Ethical leaders are usually caring, principled, and honest individuals who make balanced and fair decisions. These leaders also communicate frequently with their colleagues regarding ethics; establish clear standards of ethical behavior and use punishments and rewards to ensure the following to such standards. Also, these leaders do not only speak, they realize what they preach on practice and are ethical conduct proactive role models (Brown & Treviño, 2006, p. 597).
Ethical behavior can be ensured in the company by several ways. The most important factor is that the leaders should demonstrate ethical behavior themselves in all their actions, decisions, and communications. Ethics can be promoted in the company by means of trainings. Training can be focused on either personal development or professional growth, but in all cases they should be based on the ethical principles of the company. There can be also specialized trainings focused on the promotion of ethical behavior among the employees. It is typical for many large and international companies nowadays to elaborate the Code of Ethics and make it an official document establishing and explaining all aspects of the appropriate behavior in the workplace, providing instruction of how to deal with customers and partners in various situations (negotiations, conflicts, etc.).
Conclusions
Having conducted and analyzed the above interview with the ethical leader, it is now possible to conclude that ethics and leadership style play a very important role in any organization. Nowadays almost all the large and international organizations pay a significant attention to the ethical principles of working and Corporate Social Responsibility that helps company to maintain its brand image as well as to attract and retain customers. Leaders should work on their personal knowledge and skills in order to develop and ensure ethical behavior in all their activities. According to the opinion of Mr. Smith, ethics helps to build positive relationships with customers and clients, to attract and retain the best talent, and reach overall success in the organization.
References
Brown, M., & Treviño, L. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 597. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.10.004
Van Buren, J. Ethical Leadership. UVM, 1-5. Retrieved from https://www.uvm.edu/extension/community/buildingcapacity/pdfs/ethical_leadership_factsheet.pdf
Warrick, D. (1981). Leadership Styles and Their Consequences. Journal Of Experiential Learning And Simulation, 3(4), 164. Retrieved from http://fys.utk.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/108/files/2014/01/Warrick_Leadership.pdf
