A leader is someone who guides and shows as to others by example. First to be an effective leader, he or she must cancan others. If one is capable of persuading others, then it is clear that there are no leadership qualities in that particular individual. For one to be able to persuade others to take a certain course, the leader should possess personal integrity. If a leader cannot be trusted, then automatically, most people are likely not to be guided by the same person.
Moral leadership is considered to be a very distinct leadership style from others. Whereas aspiring to be followed, moral leaders, within organizations, mainly strive to be servants of the people. This is the main concept behind a good moral leader. This paper tries to prove that without moral leadership, it will be clear that standards of ethics, and organizational life within a particular business, are likely not to occur and be sustained. Moral leadership in an organization is not about ranks or position that an individual holds; however, anybody at any level in the organization can qualify to be a moral leader. People with these characteristics always do possess a deep ethical sense which is driven by certain ideals (like justice) and their motivation is likewise driven by the pursuit of a higher purpose.
Research indicates that moral leaders are concerned by particular capacities and skills. Firstly, Moral leaders understand how they should manage themselves, how they should handle or temper their egos, and how they should act when dealing with ideological differences, they always act with a particular amount of nobility and rectitude. Such leaders have a highly developed emotional intelligence and master key social skills which are key to organizational success. For instance, former chairman at Johnson & Johnson’s, one of the major health care production manufacturers in the United State, Mr. Ralph Larsen, has a belief that individuals with good character are capable of giving an organization a significant competitive advantage.
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Such ideas have been the bottom line when companies are recruiting new employees, and they always lean on everybody with exceptional characteristics. The company, Johnson and Johnson’s, is built on the idea that suggests that in leadership, good behaviors portray’s a lot for the success of the company. According to Frances Hesselbein, the chairman of Drucker Foundation, leadership which is capable of achieving big things for the company always goes beyond how to be, and becomes how to do; such a kinda kind of leadership is built on individuals. Therefore, for one to have things done, either personally or organizationally, it is mandatory that one must get in touch with his or her character (Cianci et al., 2014).
From the illustrations above, it is a veryvery clear that morality is paramount in leadership. That moment one accepts the leadership role in one has to be prepared to be part of the public gaze. The way in which one conducts themselves, it must portray the need to be impeccable since whatever one says or does have to be measured and gaged. Leaders with good characters are the one who achieve results that transcend imperatives and outcomes of the organization. The research on leaders across the globe over the last 150 years indicates those management teams that possess strong characters have created a better world for everyone. Conversely, leadership generally is vital to the social, moral, economic and political fabrics within the societies today. A good example comes from Mrs. Theresa Gattung, the CEO of Telecom NZ, a telecommunications company in New Zealand, whose candor and her philosophy, in leadership, has won her admiration of her colleagues.
She believes that an effective and good leader is laid in the hands of the character of an individual as opposed to their personality. However, many people take leadership characteristics for granted. Many believe that good leaders are those with strong characteristics, for example many expect them to have moral imperatives underwrite their actions. Those leaders who possess good characteristics are considered to be authentic leaders. They have belief in and show consistency in their values and ethical reasoning and actions. Then, they develop positive psychological states such as optimism, confidence, hope as well as resilience in themselves, and their associates; this makes them widely known and respected for their integrity within the society (Cianci Et Al., 2014).
Moral leadership, as it has been illustrated above, is a leadership approach that causes a change in the thinking patterns of individuals. For instance, in the military, moral leadership creates powerful and positive changes within the psyche of soldiers with the goal of developing soldiers into military leaders. These are exactly the principles that people try to achieve with the new recruits in our military forces. Many scholars believe the moral leader would expect their followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the group, organization, or society.
In its true form, moral leadership improves the morale, motivation, and performance of the students on the leadership course, through extensive training methods. These include connecting the soldiers sense of identity and self to the selected mission and the collective identity of the team; being a role model for soldiers, Moral leaders within the military should use these techniques to inspire soldiers, challenge them to take greater ownership for their responsibilities, and understand the strengths and weaknesses of their soldiers, so that the leader can align with his team with tasks that deliver the best out of their leadership development. (Gu et Al., 2015).
There is always scope for improvement in any type of training facility, and to further develop individuals and improve performance, there has to be a constant evolving plan. This could mean, concerning my team, attempting to be the first to achieve a benchmark while, in effect, set new standards in leadership. Leadership, over management, has been identified as a key enabler to any high performing organization. In any organization individuals will stand out from their peers.
This is usually measured by their performance when compared against similar everyone or groups within the same organization. Performance is the standard by which organizations are measured (Gu et Al., 2015). A successful organization will perform to a higher standard, whereas an unsuccessful organization will produce poor performance. There are certain factors that have a positive effect on performance such as commitment, empowerment, leadership, culture, flexibility, and learning. Commitment can be classified as an individual’s loyalty and support for an organization and a belief in its value. The culture of the organization can have a military link to its performance by establishing ethos in the organization.
Organizational performance can be aided by flexibility, whereas employees are ready to undertake work that is not what they are employed to do. It is widely accepted that management and leadership development in an organization can be linked to its performance; this is both individual and organizational development. A successful organization will encourage its employees to learn, so it can cope with future trends and factors as they occur. This can be applied in either an economic social or strategic context (Cianci Et al., 2014).
Nowadays, within the public sectors where managers and leaders are to be expected to uphold many ethical responsibility, it is compulsory for leaders in the public sector to meet many of the idealized expectations of how a leader in a public sector should behave. Unfortunately, the common culture among leaders, in the public sector, makes it quite challenging to implement the ethical leadership approach. This is due to the leaders’ egotistical nature in decision making; namely, the possession of power in the public sector makes the leaders feel that they can be excused from the requirements of moral dispensation and practicing ethical management.
Possession of power in a public sector can lead to selfishness and ignorance and aiming for personal gain instead of aiming for the benefit for the entire organization. Environment factor can also be a tough challenge in implementing ethical leadership in the public sector. The definition and understanding of what is fair and just varies from one to another; for example, a certain ethics or moral value might be acceptable to a group of people but it is not accepted in other cultures within the same country. Finding the balance of what is good, right, and fair and what can be accepted in society will be a challenging task for both leaders and followers in the public sector.
Cases like these prove that without ethical leadership, the tendency of negative influences to appear in the employees of the organization will generate trust issues among peers and thus lack of faith in the leadership of the organization will result in unproductive and inefficiency in the organization. The practice of ethical leadership is increasingly popular in every modern organization nowadays even though it’s started gaining momentum in the early 20th century when leaders realized the relation of ethical practices and decision making contributes to efficiency and business profitability. Currently there is a 4-V model that alludes to internal factors like values and beliefs of the company coupled with external ones (behaviors and action) as the determinant of organizational success, in the effort of achieving the common good.(Gu et Al., 2015).
The topic of moral and ethical leadership is not a debatable issue, but rather involves leaders into doing what is right by others. Moral and ethical leadership is when a leader chooses to commit to doing what is right and acceptable to social and cultural beliefs and values. A good leader, therefore, will set themselves apart by making decisions when considered in short-term as not favorable but over time will benefit and bring change to the organization. Apart from having to stand for that, which is culturally and societal right, great leaders will have a clear understanding of their own values and are held accountable for being easily trusted. Moreover, ethical and moral leadership calls for a leader to be able to use their power to motivate others to do what is right and encourage decision making in which every individual is accountable for their decision and that each decision is valued and respected.
Moore (2018), on the issue of ethics and leadership, listed three requirements that leaders need in order for them to influence ethical behavior: “the leader needs to achieve an understanding of ethics; serve as a role model in making ethical decisions, and develop and implement a plan of action for promoting ethical conducts on the part of their staff.’ By when a leader decides not to act according to what is considered ethically and morally right- this can be considered as an ethical dilemma. Moore (2018) has stated that “The morality and ethics of the modern workplace are a product of the (mind of the) leaders of the organization (the policies they establish and the behavior they model). There seems to be an increasing sense of distrust of leaders’ motives as they are seen to serve the owners and themselves, rather than the employees, the community, the environment, or even the customers! They are seen as not telling the truth, and doing whatever it takes to increase shareholder value.”
Moore (2018) is pointing out which competition and position contribute to unethical behavior in organization. Today people tend to cheat or bring others down to reach a position of desire with personal gain; while in an organization position- those in lower ranking tend to compromise ‘their’ values to achieve company goals due to pressure. Moore more outlines that “when the corporate culture is undermined by a distrust, the original excitement and enthusiasm about a job and commitment to an employer turns to cynicism, alienation, and disengagement. When this happens, work suffers and the organization is a turnturn into a place of low morale.
Ethical and Moral Dilemma Illustration from a Cleaning company, a case study of Kenya Nepotism is one of the major problems facing organizations in Kenya and Africa. President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania in 1977 referred to Kenya as man eat man society because of the power hunger that had been in Kenya pertinent in which a person was willing to kill another for power evidence that was seen in the Kenyan election of 2008. In an organization where the manager, director, or person in authority shows favoritism over an individual or group not because of their ethical abilities or the success they bring to the organization but rather in blood-lineage or friendship- there is a tendency that certain areas of development will fail.
Therefore, the leader loses trust and respect with other members in the organization and the member who is favored tends to also influence others to go against the set rules of the organization. In such a case, philosophers have proposed two approaches in dealing with a dilemma. One is to focus on the practical consequence in which they argue if there is no harm or damage then there is no foul.
The second focuses on the actions themselves in which they argue some actions in themselves are wrong. Moore (2018) proposed three steps in dealing with the situation: step 1: analyze the consequences and see who will be affected and how? -Taking into consideration the positive and negative outcomes. Step 2: analyze the actions- how do they go against the principles of the parties involved and how do they measure against the moral principles; and look for one less problematic. Step 3: solution- considers all the parts in your analysis and come up with a sound and only decision (Cianci et al., 2014).
Conclusion
Ethical and moral leadership requires that a leader articulates what is important for the employees so that they can understand. Further, the leader must simply be a good listener, and fair. The leader needs to be able to use wisdom to judge what is right and wrong; considering that within the organization there is a culture that is dominant in other cultures among people. The issue of right and wrong is articulated in every organization; therefore the understanding regarding ethical decisions within the organization is a key factor in organization success and development. However, uncertainty may lead to an ethical dilemma. In case of a dilemma, a leader should be able to outline the proper procedures to follow so as to solve issues which arise within the organization. The decisions that managers or leaders make, and the actions that they take during a dilemma do have a great effect on the employees, organization as a community, consumers, and the wealth of the organization.
One of the greatest challenges facing many organizations is the ethical and moral considerations that employees must follow. Daily, managers and other leaders are faced with ethical challenges on how to deal with different issues at their workplace. Moral and ethical leaders are committed to doing what is good for society and cultural values. Then, they adhere to the rules and regulation governing their professional conduct. In such case, an Ethical and a Moral Leader can be known based on as they make their decisions. Most of the decisions regard the societal norms and have a long-term benefits to society and the organization at large.
