My Favorite Ethical Leader
Introduction
In every business, the goal of leadership is to implement progress while showing ethics, virtue, and good character. As moral values have are considered as substantial aspects of management, leaders use their authority proactively to promote ethical behaviors and prevent any unethical conducts in the organizations. Köse and Serap state that the behavior of leaders in an enterprise is important more than the allocation of resources, monitoring, or guiding the employees to carry out the routine activities that are established by an organization (368). Therefore, for a leader to have the right and developmental behaviors he or she need to be ethical under all circumstances. An ethical leader is expected to consider the needs of each employee and makes the staffs get a sense of belonging when assigned to the different position in the workplace. Importantly, leaders become ethical through their normative behavior, interpersonal relations, communicating with the junior staffs, and making decisions that will influence the value of the enterprise (368). Therefore, in this study, the main purpose is to discuss why it is essential for leaders to demonstrate ethical conduct and the impacts that moral leaders have in the organization. For a detailed discussion, Richard Branson is chosen for this research, as one of the leaders who is recognized for being ethical through his behaviors that make him represent an ideal leader.
Important For Leaders to Demonstrate Ethical Conducts
The behaviors of leaders are more influencing than what they say to employees through direction responsibilities. When leaders behave ethically, they create an ethical culture. This is critical to an organization because employees carry out their duty by reflecting the values and norms that evolve from the aspect of leaders being ethical (Ferrell and John 313). In agreement with this point, Shriberg and David argues that a moral leader has an extensive impact on the development of the organization’s culture because when a leader is ethical, it is likely for the company to have high moral standards that will influence the workforce to practice justly (26). This implies that if leaders are unethical, they will affect the development of the immoral culture that will impact the success and growth of an organization.
Copeland suggests that ethical leaders have important underlying values that they can use to make an organization achieve its objective (60). In essence, an ethical leader is someone who is honest, fair, shows empathy to the workers, and a person who makes justifiable decisions. Apparently, these behaviors or values are fundamental in various ways such that they increase the confidence of the leader and allowing employees to become more integrity and loyal to their employer. Brown et al. argue that when the leader of a firm exercises fairness he or she gains the subordinate’s trust (120). Employees view an ethical leader as a person who act according to the interest of the business and an individual who is worthy following his or her commands. Arguably, from the scholarly evidence, it can be said that when a leader conduct things ethically, he or she become someone who is legitimate and a credible role model for the junior subordinates. Hassan et al. expand on the issue of ethical leaders to say that leaders who behave morally make principled decisions that help their followers and the organization (134). In this context, moral leaders transform the employees by communicating to them ethical standards, displaying ethical behaviors, and making sure that employees who behave unethically are held accountable for their actions (134). Evidently, when workers change their behavior they adapt to the organizational culture and carry out their tasks in an ethical manner. From this argument, one can note that when leaders use ethical standards to change the employees’ conduct, this is essential because it creates a relationship between the leaders and staffs working in different departments in an organization.
Based on extensive review of literature Mihelic, Lipicnik, and Metka propose that it is vital for leaders to conduct ethically because this will enhance them become effective (33). Being ethical means being trustworthy and the aspect of trust makes leaders effective. Outstandingly, leaders who are ethical tend to work reasonably and appropriately, which is makes them deliver their responsibilities in an efficacy way. Ciulla points out that when leaders are morally right; they emulate the aspect of being effectiveness (310). Although it can be argued that being ethical is being effective, the two has an influence on each other because leaders cannot be effective if they not reliable and behaving in a way that they does not shows their integrity. For example, when leaders are ethical they serve the needs of their organizations (310). Hence, despite some argument showing that a leader can be both practical and ethical at the same time, being ethical is more important because it will show how a leader is using moral actions to make the enterprise effective as well as other people working in an organization.
Richard Branson and Important of Being an Ethical Leader
Branson is one of the world’s successful leader, and he is recognized due to his leadership styles that he uses to make himself an ethical leader. Branson is a participative leader, as he the kind of leader who is usually appreciated in a corporate setting (Dems and Edwards 1). Consequently, this can make one view Branson as a leader who performs his work more as a facilitator rather than a leader who is authoritative. What makes Branson ethical from this context is that as a leader he focuses on sharing his goal with the employees aimed at arriving at a decision that will change the behavior of the entire team working for Virgin Group. On the other hand, through participative leadership style, Branson makes decisions in a collaborative manner, as the leader involves collective of a group working in the company (Dems and Edwards 2). This means that Branson is a trustworthy and ethical leader who allows employees participate in leadership activities including implementing the crucial organizational decision.
The other thing that makes Branson an ethical leader is the fact that as the creator of Virgin Group, Branson is a transformational leader who focuses on encouraging employees working at the company and transforming their behavior. This makes employees yield positive and ethical actions to show that they are following the behavior of their leader. As a leader who values transformation leadership style, Branson uses his transformational abilities to build and sustain change and innovation in the workplace (De Vries 8). For this reason, Branson has become a charismatic leader and a person who is changing the cultural values of the Virgin Group. The character of the charismatic leader and the use of transformation leadership style is a clear indication of a person who is ethical with his behaviors at work and actions that he is implementing to change the behaviors of the employees working at Virgin Group. Branson is also known for being a leader who likes empowering employees in order to move the change process forward (De Vries 8). This makes Branson to be viewed as a crucial player in the development of the Virgin Group and a person who is using ethical standards to inspire staffs to act freely and stretch themselves in making remarkable efforts that will benefit the organization achieve its goal. Clearly, through moral leadership concept, Branson is playing an important role in the development of his company and the people hired to carry out different development tasks. As such, because Branson is an ethical leader, this makes the staffs at the company enthusiastic about their job and develops their skills in the different field in an ethical manner.
Impacts that Ethical Leaders have on the Organizational Culture
In the current organizations, organizational culture is influenced by the leader’s ethical behavior. Broadly speaking, when organizations allow the unethical practice to manifest in the corporate business, this will affect the organizational culture in a negative way. However, it has been argued that when leaders act ethically, they will play a mediating role in the making of the relationship between the organizational culture and employees’ performance (Bello 231). Here, ethical leaders create an organizational culture that supports employees’ performance and one that brings willingness of employees to put more effort so that the organization can achieve its goal. On another argument by Styron and Jennifer, it is noted that organizational leaders can change the development of the existing culture by making it more active and a culture that interest both the employees and leaders (120). Ethical leaders in most of the organizations establish ethical codes, provide training to recognize ethical issues, and inform employees’ ethical behaviors that suitable for an enterprise (120). When leaders cultivate these ethical tasks, the existing organizational culture changes and keeps the company competitive and well organized for different purposes.
Bachmann asserts that the role of ethical leaders is to ensure that there is an aspect of culture changing so that culture can bring a different in the organization (33). Typically, moral leaders create a culture that is unitary and the culture that is based on the values and instruments that will prevail and ensures that the employees institute their roles in a formative way. According to Bachmann, ethical leadership without moral dimension is unthinkable, and the leader will influence the corporate culture adversely (34). Hence, when leaders become ethical and transform the leadership aspect according to the moral dimension of leadership, this will develop a dedicated leadership culture, where the leader will perform his or her duties honestly, truthfulness, and in a way that will make leaders respect for other people working in the organizations. Similarly, Ferrell and John posit that ethical leaders are an essential component of corporate culture, especially the culture that involves the values and rules prescribing the conduct of organizational members (127). At the same time, ethical leaders in the organizations reflect the culture of a company and the firm’s ethical conscience. Therefore, moral leaders influence the corporate culture through the implementation of many factors such as policies on ethics, senior management’s ethical issues, and regulations concerning unethical behavior relating to the subordinates. Remarkably, when leaders work ethically, they sublimate ethical conducts to the employees, which will strengthen the overall culture of an organization, as well as the functioning of organizational departments and stakeholders.
Branson Impact on the Organizational Culture
Branson understands that corporate culture is substantially about the value and can be effective if it is developed by the application of embedded codes of ethics. Smollan and Janet have documented that the Virgin Group is constructed upon Branson’s core philosophy that is part of the organizational culture (347). Branson philosophy is based on ethical values in that through these values the leader builds a culture that is influencing the employees to work with the aim of delivering services that will make the customers happy. Through the aspect of being ethics, Branson ensures that the organizational culture of Virgin Group is positive to the workforce, which in turn influences their work to sustain the customers and keeping the shareholders happy with the way things are done in the company.
Richard Branson as an Ideal Ethical Leader
Branson is the founder of Virgin Group an organization that focuses on the assorted mix of businesses (Sadq 78). Moreover, Branson is the leader of the company and through his leadership conducts; the success of Virgin Group has increased tremendously. The reasons that have made Branson to be selected as the favorite ethical leader for this research are many, but his ethical conduct were the obvious factors that made him taken as an example of a leader who portrays a set of standards that are influencing the culture of the entire company (Sadq 78). Additionally, through the understanding of leadership techniques that Branson uses to run his business, it is evident he is a leader who set his expectation early and addresses ethics as a major component for the success of Virgin Group. Branson is also a leader who works with the people freely; as he allows employees to express themselves in cases, they notice an issue that might affect the company undesirably. In a report by Affinity Consulting & Training Inc., it is quoted that Branson is a key driver of the company’s brand, and with the use of his leadership styles that are ethically in nature, Branson has made Virgin Group one world best company (n.p.). Thus, it is through Branson leadership style, conduct, and development in which the content of this research is developed aimed at providing the effect of ethical leaders and the significance of leaders behaving ethically.
Conclusion
This study presents the essential aspect of ethics and the way it relates to the organizational culture. From the research, it is apparent that leadership and ethics are always intertwined. A leader can have technical skills or be highly talented, but this might not justify the capability to lead others, especially when the leader does not encourage or motivate employees to become ethical. From the discussion, it is noted that a person can be genuinely become an effective leader if he or she follows ethical approaches, influence the organizational culture positively, and support employees to become morally right through the action that they will be taking in the company. Fundamentally, leaders who value ethical concept plays a significant role in changing employee’s behavior and bringing ideas that will ensure that the staff’s actions strengthens the corporate culture for the success of the organization.
Works Cited
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