Introduction
The ethical standards and the culture substantively set by the senior leaders are frequently used to define the ethical behavior in the business. Ethical leadership is the practice of normatively proper behavior through personal practices and relational interactions, and the advancement of such behavior to the junior staff through two-way communication, strengthening, and decision-making. Ethical leaders focus on long-term outcomes, weaknesses, and strengths of the decisions they set in a business forum. Ethical leaders are accountable, make progress toward reasonableness, think about business success, and demonstrate respect for every staff in the business (Mihelic, Lipicnik & Tekavcic, 2010). Ethical leaders develop high ethical guidelines and display them in practice. Ethical managers serve as models for their junior team and show them the conduct limits set within the business.
Background leadership
In my last occupation, I was accountable for overseeing a team of five, monitoring their schedules, training them, and mentoring them about the limits of the business conduct. I appreciate the leadership and am pleased to state that two of these five staff were promoted to better positions while I was mentoring them. In my occupation, before that, I managed a team of three technicians on specific projects. Though I did not operate with them as the direct manager, they reported to me for the jobs I managed. Therefore, I have some strong knowledge and experience in project management from that job and direct management skills from my most recent occupation, and I appreciate both experiences.
Interacting with others ethically
Every employee in a company needs to have a strong work ethic to help the business achieve long-term goals. As a leader, having ethics in mind helps me to be viewed as an all-round decisive leader by the co-leaders and other staff. Having business ethics helps me as a leader to differentiate myself from the conduct of a boss because, as a leader, my core responsibility is to motivate, guide, and support their staff to help them make progress. Still, a boss manages and orders the other teams without a close relationship in a friendly environment. I operate with the principle of being a leader who lives and ready to die for integrity by doing the right thing even when it hurts me or any other staff.
Training subordinates ethically
As a leader, practicing business ethics when training subordinates has helped in improving the ethical understanding of the business. Ethical leaders hire for ethics and standards as well as skills, involving ethical conduct in evaluations and not recruiting employees who are not ethically fit. Leaders in action help the employees to cope with what they practice and apply them in their activities. As an ethical leader, I am ready to make personal sacrifices for my subordinate staff and the entire business (Ofori, 2009). Therefore, every other staff is willing to follow my steps, which will lead to business growth and success. Ethical leaders are much sensitive to subordinate’s needs and challenges, which enables the staff to have a conducive working environment for better production and effective handling of any emerging workplace conflicts.
Ethical leaders are designated by an upgraded ability to feel ethically committed to a broad scope of subordinates, and this is not a skill, but knowledge and world perception. Ethical leaders bring ideal ramifications for employees and businesses that are seen in apparent leaders’ adequacy, employees’ job satisfaction, expanded commitment, and problem-solving. That is the reason it is the leader’s business to nurture an ethical environment that empowers genuine and open communication and culture that advances and recognizes ethical conduct. Excellent training programs and committees, and the code of ethics can strengthen staffs in nurturing concerns about moral practices as long as the leaders serve as models. It is significant that the leading practices and supports subordinates to express their values because if workers don’t see that they can show their qualities, they won’t try attempting.
Ethics in decision-making
Many businesses implement compliance and ethics schemes to support the decision making process and behavior of employees. Accordance with managerial necessities and the business’s own rules is crucial for the company in an effective risk management process. Observation and maintenance of agreement are not all about having the control attention, and it is a critical way of maintaining ethical practices for our businesses, support the long-term goals, and securing and improving business values and standards. Compliance and ethical training programs are used to reinforce the business objectives, defines the legal limits and expected ethical practices, and builds strategies for leaders to ensure the ethical and legal boundaries are not crossed. Leaders are always prepared to solve any form of problem that arises in the business or among the staff with a motive of declining the side effects.
The presence of compliance and ethics programs shows a business’s accountability to creating a diverse environment and business culture that focuses on making the best decision. Ethics in decision-making can be measured through physical evidence and conclusions from words and activities. Ethics is the foundation of each choice made on an individual level. The values we embrace we reveal to the world by settling on decisions that incorporate them. A decision that gives unplanned and bothersome outcomes is useless. Developing successful decisions is to value decisions whose ability to realize our most important purposes. This suggests that we must to know the difference between short-term and immediate goals and longer-run goals.
Ethical/unethical behavior effect on customer relations
Businesses have most likely never felt so constrained ever to be customer-oriented. Clients are more demanding, understanding, and know precisely how to acquire what they need. In the exceptionally competitive and testing business condition, businesses must choose the option to go along. The difficulties don’t end with getting focused on client demands only. Clients must have the choice to believe that businesses and their staffs are straightforward and moral. Among the most grounded mainstays of any business relationship currently, is trust, and clients value working with companies that have gained a reputation for demonstrating honesty and openness in their transactions. Research has indicated that the impacts of unethical conduct on the market are numerous and inconvenient to an organization, and a single behavior that negates a client’s faith in the business is regularly enough to decimate their trust.
Promoting ethical behavior to subordinates, peers, and superiors
Promoting ethics in the work environment makes a positive culture for leaders and staff and active business. Businesses with sound working environment ethics increase the value of the company and reinforce an environment where workers feel secure and esteemed. Leaders can help make an ethical working environment culture that profits investors, the company, and individuals in the organization. Workers observe at top leaders to figure out what conduct is appropriate. Senior management establishes the pace for ethics in the working environment. Management ought to understand that a code of ethics is useless if leaders neglect to demonstrate moral practices. The business needs to give formal systems that permit staffs to examine ethical predicaments and report unethical conduct unafraid of criticism. This could incorporate seeking advice from ethical advisors or moral officials. Like all ethics rules, these principles at work value what is best for all parties (Shin, 2012). That includes the business, the representative, collaborators, and general society. Representatives who have high moral benchmarks are proactive in helping take care of issues with collaborators or clients.
The more leaders reward workers for sound ethical choices, the more probable the majority will stick to this same pattern. When staff sees the board perceiving and remunerating moral activities, whether they expanded benefits concurrently or client relations, and disregarding or making light of achievements picked up unethically, they’ll get the message that ethical conduct is essential to the business. Challenge the management to have standard conversations with representatives to work through potential ethical issues that may come up and discover approaches to conceptualize through them as a group. If everybody agrees, the group overall will receive similar kinds of ethical practices. A close connection among the executives and workers assists with empowering ethical conduct in the entire business.
Ingredients that make a successful team
Personal values determine the conduct and, in this manner, should be consciously expressed. However, they likewise should be avowed by activities. Collaboration is fundamental for companies to deal with new difficulties and achieve critical responsibilities. Successful teams work together by combining minds and coming up with an unshakable decision that supports the immediate and future goals. Commitment to set targets and adherence to set policies is a tendency mostly seen in successful teams. Proper communication channels help teams make open talks that do not compromise any of the member’s ideas or suggestions. Diverse groups are encouraged as they have varied capabilities and skills to deal with any workplace difficulty. Successful teams should be built by expertise, experience, and abilities for better production. Successful teams need to be flexible and creative to accept any change in the business.
Successful ethical ideas I can share with prospective or current leaders
Ethics values all sectors of life: acting appropriately as a person, making accountable business and governments, and building a society more ethical. Ethical leadership requires an unmistakable and rational moral structure that the leader can draw on in settling on choices and making a move. What’s significant is that having a decent arrangement offers you a reason for deciding on difficult ethical decisions, instead of leaving you to battle with all different choices. Some ramifications for ethical leadership is that the vision and goals of the business must be highest in any decision made (Enderle, 2017). Ethical leaders work in efforts to avoid any incidences of compromising the vision and missions of the company.
Collaboration among staff and leaders brings more conceivable outcomes and more thoughts into whatever you do construct securities among businesses, and individuals within the business spread power and obligation with the goal that more opinions are heard. The pressure is decreased and builds opportunities for financing and inventive programming. Collaboration additionally makes you as somebody who will share power and assets, and who’s progressively focused in working superbly and providing the ideal services than with ensuring turf and control. Ethical leaders ensure appropriate communication channels with and among all subordinates and shareholders. If everybody realizes that you’ll tell them what you’re thinking about, just as any critical data you have that they don’t, it will expand their trust in you, and make talk, insinuation, doubt, and hatred far more likely. Ethical leaders don’t prolong their expediency. Good leaders perceive when they’ve done everything they can, or when the business just needs another person in charge if it’s to keep on progressing.
Leadership attention to social responsibility
All businesses in all sectors of all sizes have the social drive, but not every running business makes a progressive social change as it is recommended by business ethics that companies should be made to benefit the entire society. This is associated with the idea of corporate social responsibility, which permits top management to have a constructive outcome on society just as on business’s awareness. A culture of social responsibility and ethical leadership promotes and estimates the level of the profitability and causes the company to run smoothly with the honest uncertainties of its employees, customers, and different shareholders. As a leader, I ensure Corporate governance is maintained, which implies the business stays concerned not entirely to the profit generation process of the organization but also to its responsibility to take part in ethical practices, not misusing workers or polluting the environment for pointless achievements. Ethical leaders observe the risk management parts of corporate social responsibility as one of their essential needs. Management of risk promotion of the business reputation and maintenance of stable financial position within proper limits.
Importance of a sound code of ethics
Assuming a sound code of ethics for your business isn’t just a smart idea from an ethical perspective. Considering a sound code of ethics helps you gain trust and believability from your shareholders and shareholders, and improves your overall brand. By building up a code of ethics, a business clarifies that representatives and individuals cannot use ignorance as a defense for unethical behaviors. Companies that have put forth a genuine attempt to forestall unethical and unlawful conduct are probably going to get less extreme discipline should a worker be seen as blameworthy of violating the law (Marsh, 2013). The unethical behavior of only a couple of staff can influence the whole business.
Conclusion
Business ethics is the study of suitable business standards and practices considering possible uncertain matters such as corporate governance, insider trading, pay off, discrimination, and corporate social responsibility. The rule often dictates business ethics, but at various circumstances, ethics assumes an essential law that businesses can choose practices to follow to increase public awareness. Ethical leadership is realizing your fundamental beliefs and having the boldness to practice them in all parts of your life in service for the benefit of everyone. Therefore, leaders should serve as good examples by showing ethical behaviors in their practices and interpersonal relationships with subordinates, peers, and superiors.
References
- Enderle, G. (2017). Some perspectives of managerial ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 6(8), 657-663.
- Marsh, C. (2013). Business executives perceptions of ethical leadership and its development. Journal of business ethics, 114(3), 565-582.
- Mihelic, K. K., Lipicnik, B., & Tekavcic, M. (2010). Ethical leadership. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (IJMIS), 14(5).
- Ofori, G. (2009). Ethical leadership: Examining the relationships with full range leadership model, employee outcomes, and organizational culture. Journal of Business Ethics, 90(4), 533.
- Shin, Y. (2012). CEO ethical leadership, ethical climate, climate strength, and collective organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 108(3), 299-312