For my final DEJ post, I chose to pull from the supplemental material from this module about examples of core values. Many of these core values I often think about daily, however, there were a few which I have not considered before or have not considered in quite some time. One core value that I have not considered before is bravery. Bravery is a value that pushes leaders to reach their highest potential and achieve their goals. Bravery is something that great leaders embody as they are challenged and pushed out of their comfort zone. One leader from my personal life that comes to mind when considering bravery is my current boss My current boss overcame many challenges to get where they are in their career today and worked from the ground up to become successful and a strong leader of many. This was fueled by bravery as well as other values featured on the lists such as commitment, determination, and passion. It has been a great experience to work under this management and leadership thus far and I have been able to grow and learn from my boss’s style of leadership. I hope to continue reflecting upon my own individual leadership styles and values as well as those of others and gain more core values such as the ones mentioned on this list to become the best leader I can be. One of the greatest gifts we can give others is showing our ways of leadership and passion for what we do such as the example of my boss. I look forward to learning more about myself and my ethical values.

Core Values List with 500 Examples — Threads Culture

My Final DEJ Post comes from the article in Module 7 from Triangle Business Journal; Needed: Leaders Who Inspire, Listen. The article provides a unique perspective on the type of leadership that is vital, needed, and often lacking. Within the article, American Express CEO, Ken Chenault, and his leadership during 9/11 are mentioned. The article details that although his leadership was powerful and what was needed at the time, we often forget about some of the most powerful leadership and the most needed. This stems from leading with our values. Along with leading with our values, good leaders are also listeners, are vulnerable, provide meaning, and build trust. These aspects of leadership are often ones neglected or looked over. However, when considering the type of leader I would like to follow or work under, this describes them perfectly. We are often in a world/environment where leadership is helpful on such a coveted platform that is admired for strength, toughness, and even competitiveness to get there. However, this article provided the perspective that a value based approach to leadership is what is desired and crucial for effective leadership. One leader I have seen embody the attributes listed above is one of my current coworkers who helps to manage our team. She consistently leads with her values and always has a listening ear, builds trust, and honors everyone on the team for their contributions and hard work. It has been a great opportunity to work alongside her, learn from her leadership skills, and see her value based leadership in action.

Source:

Triangle Business Journal – Needed: Leaders Who Inspire, Listen

For Module 7, the readings shared with us were very insightful in various ways. This module has brought to light the depths of leadership within organizations and the different scenarios that leaders encounter. The reading I chose to look at for this post comes from Science Direct and is the article titled Value based leadership paradigm. This article provides a look into the challenges leaders face especially in leadership in organizations of large groups of people. The article especially highlights the diverse backgrounds individuals come from and how this affects work in teams and overall cohesiveness. Given diverse backgrounds of culture, academics, work styles, and even personalities this can often pose a challenge for leaders to maintain an efficient and effective working environment. The article details that value based leadership is often the best way to overcome these challenges. One of the key points made is the value of adaptability. Adaptability is a value that I have seen many of my peers in college grow to take on in their set of leadership values. The time in my undergraduate career thus far has posed exciting challenges in leadership settings. These challenges typically consist of the difficulties discussed in the article of effectively and efficiently leading diverse groups of people. With the value of adaptability, I have been able to learn how to overcome this challenge and have seen growth in my leadership because of this value. I look forward to continuing growing in my adaptability and what is to come in my leadership journey as I embark on my professional career shortly.

Source:

Value Based Leadership Paradigm – Badri shatalebia , Mohammad Hossien Yarmohammadian – Science Direct

Module one was a great introduction to ethical leadership and leading with values. One of the readings that sparked my interest comes from Ted Myers and his Forbes feature on Top 10 Qualities That Make A Great Leader. One quality that I wanted to focus on is the quality of delegation. This is a quality that I think stems greatly from the ethical values of individuals. With delegation, it is crucial that leaders embody a sense of integrity, responsibility, and overall regard for the common good of their team. This results in the proper delegation of tasks and minimizes too much power residing in one leader of top executives. Delegation, as mentioned in Myer’s article, is a powerful tool for creating organization and efficiency. Delegation implements a unique sense of collaboration and cohesiveness which is vital to have a proper team and leader. One example of this that I have seen in my life has been within one of my leadership positions at NC State. In my junior year, I held the position of recruitment chair for the Textile Student Advisory Board. With this position, I have to learn the art and importance of delegation. As someone who often likes to work collaboratively, yet ensure proper completion of tasks, this was a new challenge I had to take on. Once I learned the importance of delegation, especially within a group of my peers, we had an efficient and effective recruitment process and gained the most new members of SAB to date.

Source:

(4) Forbes – Top 10 Qualities That Make A Great Leader | LinkedIn

For my 12th DEJ post, I chose reference and analyze Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model by Thomas M. Jones. This article highlights three various definitions related to ethics and ethical decision making. The first is surrounding moral issues which are present when an individuals choices affects others in either a positive or negative way. The second is a moral agent which is defined as a personal who makes the moral decisions but often doesn’t realize moral issues are at hand. Finally, the third definition discussed surrounds ethical decisions which are decisions that are ethically and morally acceptable to the larger community/group of individuals affected. These three definitions align with the ethical frameworks and value based leadership which we have discussed in this course. When considering ethical decisions made by individuals in organizations, these three definitions are helpful in guiding that through process especially at the organizational level. One experience that I have seen these definitions put into practice was with my internship experience. Within this experience, I saw the CEO lead the team through a trying time of layoffs and down turn in business. The CEO used these ethical principles and definitions to guide the company through a difficult time while making the most ethical decisions about the future of the company and employees livelihood. The CEO had to make moral decisions that were affecting various groups of people in either positive or negative ways and he would be considered the moral agent in this ethical decision making. He overall did a great job and was a great example of proper ethical leadership.

Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model

Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model on JSTOR

For my 11th DEJ post, I chose to look at the article from Emerald Insight; It’s how leaders behave that matters, not where they are from by Barry Posner. This article discusses the depth of leadership and how many leaders or individuals working to become leaders often believe there is a need to adapt to your leadership environment to become an effective leader. The article, however, shares that it is truly the leaders ethical behaviors and values that determine their leadership effectiveness. A quote from IBM leader, Caroline Wang, shares her experience working in various companies internationally; “when it comes to leadership it is not about the leader’s personality, it is all about how that individual behaves as a leader”. This statement truly encompasses much of what we have learned in this course. It is clear from Wang’s international experiences that she gained much perspective from her various roles internationally and realized that to be an effective and ethical leader she had to focus on her ethical values and behaviors from within rather than putting her focus into adapting to her environment/country she was leading in. This is similar to my experiences studying abroad. I interact with various leaders, many of which were in a classroom/educational setting. These professors and leaders who I interacted with had strong ethical values which made them effective leaders in their environments to diverse groups of students. As someone who hopes to work internationally at some point in my career, the advice from the article and Wang gives me guidance in hopefully developing strong ethical leadership qualities one day.

It’s how leaders behave that matters, not where they are from

Leadership & Organization Development Journal- Emerald Insight
It’s how leaders behave that matters, not where they are from
Barry Z. Posner

For my tenth DEJ post I chose to reference the reading from Do the Kind Thing. The chapter is on transparency and authenticity in professional settings. This chapter made me consider my experience as an intern and the company I was working with. The company I worked with highly valued transparency within all business units especially the one I was working in, Trivantage, with the marketing team. As a team, we highly valued transparency and held ourselves responsible for quality and ethical marketing to our customers. Out transparency in marketing was a key aspect of doing the job thoroughly as most of our customer were dealing with our product and their projects that heavily affected other individuals lives. This showed me the importance of transparency and why we as a company held this at such a pivotal value. The article gave an example of how fruit and nut granola bars were packaged and the importance of how foods are packaged to showcase their contents and transparency of what customers are purchasing. this made me also think back to my interest of working in marketing and what I can do in my potential career to aid in adding more transparency and authenticity to the marketing world. As a customer, I also value transparency and seeing companies who take this into consideration are strong onces and it is clear that ethics and strong leadership are the foundation. I hope to continue growing in my ethical leadership and it is useful to consider reading such as this one to improve upon this and learn.

For my ninth DEJ post, I chose to look at the Article regarding Uber’s CEO candidate stepping down. The article discusses the turmoil Uber is exeperiencing from the stepping down of Immlet the fromer CEO of GE. This has caused Uber some panic as a company as the company has recived backlash for their poor company culture. This company culture has stemmed from current CEO Kalanick’s leadership style. This made me consider what we have discussed in class regarding the ethics and values in the leadership at Uber. It is clear from the article that there is a lack of value based leadership and ethical consideration in the leadership at Uber. The employees have low morale and the company culture could signifigantly improve with work done to further implment ethical leaderhip. This relates to our ethical frameworks. One ethical framework that relates to company culture is the common good framework. If this framework had used, the common good of people would be considered and how to improve employee moral and company culture would be stronger and better. Leaders must consider ethics in their leadership and how they make decisions as it can quickly affect the company as a whole imilar to the Uber example. This article also details Uber’s process in searching for the next CEO candidate and the considerations that were taken to find the right pick. This is another are where ethical frameworks are neccessary as candidiate selection also much be led and executed ethically. Values such as integrity, accountbility tranparency, and responsibility should all be considerd and the pivotal foundation for decison making and selection.

Uber’s key CEO candidate backs out at the last minute (updated)

For my 8th DEJ post, I chose to reference the reading Ethical Role of Managers from Sage Reference. This reading provided me with further knowledge regarding the important of managers in companies and how their leadership shapes a team. Not only does their leadership shape a team but it also represents the company. This leadership is ideally built on strong ethical values. With strong ethical values as the backbone of good managerial leadership, a team will perform, well stay motivated, and individuals will be fulfilled. The article puts an emphasis on each decision a manager makes as it is representative of so much more than just the task that is being completed at the time. It impacts the viewpoint team members have of the manager and the company and if the manager is moral manager. This is highlighted by ethicist Linda Trevino in the article. She says ethical management “is a combination of being a moral person and being a moral manager” and that this relies heavily on integrity and honesty in leadership. This is something I have seen hold true in my experiences with various different managers. I have had managers who lead with strong ethics and morals and those who did not. It was clear at the time and is even clearer now that with strong ethics as the foundation of leadership the team I was on was stronger, I valued my work more, and was more dedicated to the job while trusting my manager. Without strong leadership ethics, there is a lack of trust leading to oftentimes turmoil in team work and collaboration which leads to inefficient work styles and a lack of drive from the team. This reading helped me to better undrstand why ethics are so important in leadership and I am excited to continue learnign more about this topic and experiencing it in my daily life.

Reference:

Waddock, Sandra. “Ethical Role of the Manager.” Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society. Ed. . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE,

2007. 786-91. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 30 Jan. 2012

Untitled (ncsu.edu)

For my 7th DEJ Post, I chose to reference our reading about CEO’s placing value in company ethics and shifting their focus to social responsibility. This is a topic that is often discussed in many of my classes as a fashion and textile management major. Many apparel companies have experienced a shift in leadership and leaders are now taking a stance of driving motivation with the emphasis of corporate ethics and social responsibility. This gives employees and the company as a whole a genuine purpose and drive to make an impact through the work they are doing. This then trickles down to the customers of those Companys and everyone the company interacts with. It is a great thing to see companies and leaders have this shifted mindset as it will overall improve our world and society. This goes back to many of our ethical frameworks, especially virtue ethics. I think that many leaders have realized that there is more value in considering the ethical values they embody and lead by and focusing on the overall good of people. It has been clear that many companies have taken this on and are continuing to grow and improve in their corporate ethics and social responsibility. I am excited to see the strides that companies continue to make and the values and ethical qualities that grow in the leaders as well. This is also something I will be considering in the coming years as I embark on my professional career and want to work for a company who values these things and motivates their employees with the good of people and leads with strong virtue ethics.

Resource:

Top CEOs Place High Value On Corporate Ethics And Social Responsibility To Drive Business (forbes.com)