Leadership is more than a title it is a responsibility, a practice, a duty, and above all, a reflection of our core values. Over the past semester, I have learned that ethical leadership isn’t just a theoretical concept but rather a compass guiding every decision and interaction in our professional lives. As young professionals in the early stages of our careers, we often focus on climbing the corporate ladder, but what truly sets great leaders apart from others is their ability to stay grounded in values that inspire trust, respect, and growth.

One of the most impactful lessons that I have learned in this class is that leadership begins with self-awareness. A values driven leader must first identify their core beliefs and make sure their actions align with them and what they believe. This semester I have reflected on my own values and found: innovation, integrity, and the desire to make a meaningful impact on the world are my core leadership values. I realized that being an effective leader means applying these values for daily decisions even when it’s uncomfortable or not in my best interest.

Take Tyler McGrit, for example my coworker from Bosch Home Appliances someone I look up to because of his story. Tyler started on an assembly line and worked his way up to a data analyst role by leveraging his work ethic, perseverance, and commitment to continuous learning. His story shows that leadership isn’t tied to a position but to how you inspire those around you. His example taught me that leading ethically means showing humility, valuing growth, and maintaining authenticity no matter your role.

This course also highlighted that ethical leadership often involves making very tough choices. Whether navigating workplace conflicts or choosing between profit and principle, the most ethical path is always the least easiest option. We studied cases where leaders faced moral dilemmas, and the common thread among successful outcomes was their leaders unwavering commitment to transparency and fairness for all.

I faced a small but telling ethical decision in my internship at Bosch Home Appliances last summer. I was tasked with analyzing quality issues in our manufacturing process, and I uncovered a minor discrepancy that could have been overlooked to save time on the assembly line. There was a heating error where the dishwasher tubs get a very thin bitumen layer heated onto them, but multiple tubs where coming out with over melted bitumen that went unreported. Reporting it meant delaying the project slightly, but it was the right choice to ensure accuracy and quality of the tubs for our consumers. While it may not have been a groundbreaking decision, it reinforced the importance of doing what’s right over what’s easy a cornerstone of ethical leadership.

Leadership extends beyond personal decisions to, it’s about creating a culture where others feel empowered to act ethically too. This past summer, I was also inspired by Dr. Kytyr my boss during my internship in the Czech Republic this summer at the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Insitute. He is a leader who balances his roles as a researcher and educator and does so extremely well due to his ethical foundation and values. He does this by promoting innovation, accountability, and collaboration, resulting in a cultivated a culture where his team thrives. His leadership style reminded me that the best leaders amplify others strengths and encourage ethical behavior by modeling it themselves.

As we start on our careers, the pressure to perform and achieve can sometimes tempt us to cut corners or corupt our values and change our beliefs. But what I have learned is that success built on shaky ethical foundations is never sustainable and always has conflicts . The leaders who leave a lasting impact are those who remain true to their principles and prioritize people over profits no matter what.

To my fellow peers leadership is a journey, not a destination. Take the time to define your values, seek out mentors who embody ethical leadership, and never shy away from making the hard but right decisions. Whether you’re leading a team of one or one hundred, the principles you uphold today will shape the legacy you leave tomorrow.
Leadership is ultimately about more than achieving goals and not only that but also it’s about how we achieve them. So let’s strive to lead with purpose, integrity, and a commitment to making our workplaces, industries, and communities better for those who follow in our steps by always taking an ethical first step in everything we do.

For my final DEJ Post #15 I have decided to do a text analysis on the Module #8 reading article “What Are Your Values? Deciding What’s Most Important in Life” authored by Johnathan Hancock.

Text to self: This article dives into how to find your values, this relates to me as I have always tried to decide what my core values are. It is hard to way what you hold most important do to the ever changing nature of life. A person who is 10 years old values much different things then the same person 20 years later. These never ending changes into what we hold dear is the natural selection process of what we value due to our environment.

Text to Text: this text heavily relates to the CLE Yellow Company 2’s final project about the Compass of Leadership Ethics. The CLE five step decision making process makes you do all of the steps in the article as you have to define what is the most important values needed to consider when making an ethical decision. The only difference between CLE and this article is the scope of which it applies too and therefore the variables at play. Since you will look at your life’s values as a whole from the article process, but in CLE this process is applied to decide the core values needed to be considered when solving a Ethical problem.

Text to World: Having our core values defined in our lives is a crucial thing to any persons purpose, motivation, and well being. Knowing what core values you respect and define yourself as is crucial to every decision you make no matter how big and or how small. What you value most is what a decision will be made on, and establishing what you hold dear to yourself is the first crucial step in comparing anything. Everyone values different things because everyone is unique, these differences in values and our uniqueness as human beings is what creates conflicts but is also what you use to judge to solve conflicts.

For this Dual Journal Entry Post #14 I decided to do my DEJ Post on Yellow Company Two’s Ethical Framework we developed for our final Group Project. “The Compass of Leadership Ethics” by Ryan Magee, Abbey Gaines, and Grant Wilson:

Text to Self: Quote: “The design of the compass prioritizes accessibility and actionability for decision-makers”. This resonates with my personal experience in leading group projects where accessible and actionable frameworks help make complex decisions way easier. CLE’s focus on actionable steps aligns with my need for practical tools to improve leadership and ethical decision-making in my future career in technology, especially with the rise of AI Integration.

Text to Text: Quote: “The Compass of Leadership Ethics (CLE) guides leaders in making values-based decisions by balancing personal integrity, organizational accountability, societal impact, and empathy for stakeholders”. This framework aligns with the Value-Based Leadership Paradigm discussed by Shatalebi and Yarmohammadian, which emphasizes harmonizing diverse values within organizations to achieve ethical and cohesive leadership. Both frameworks prioritize empathy and shared values as central components of effective decision-making, showcasing their universal application to leadership challenges​.

Text to World: Quote: “Real-world cases of unethical decision making such as the Boeing Scandal inspired the specific cardinal directions”. CLE’s emphasis on real-world scandals reflects the increasing global demand for ethical accountability in leadership. The Boeing example underlines how neglecting societal and stakeholder impact leads to catastrophic outcomes, emphasizing the need for frameworks like CLE in industries worldwide.

For this Dual Entry Journal Post #13 I decided to take a look at the reading article from this week’s module. I do an analysis on the “Value Based Leadership Paradigm” article by Bdri Shatalebi, and Mohammad Hossien Yarmohammadian.

Text-to-Self: This article reminds me of multiple things that we have learned over the semester. It divulges into a method and adequate model for using this paradigm in real life scenarios such as at universities. The biggest aspect that I liked from this model is how broad and well rounded the paradigm is in relation to ethics. As it primarily discusses Value based Leadership, but in diving into this topic shows just how important ethics are in values leadership.

text-to-text: “Value Based Leadership Paradigm” reminds me of Yellow Company two’s ethical framework that we developed CLE (the compass of leadership ethics). This framework embodies everything the authors want from leaders when making decisions. The key four pillars of CLE, Integrity, Social Responsibility, Empathy, and Responsibility are the key factors in this article. This shows that CLE does have good foundations but could be more well rounded.

Text-to-world: The article reflects broader global trends of prioritizing ethical leadership in response to increasing cultural diversity and complex societal challenges. This mirrors contemporary calls for transparency and integrity in global organizations, highlighting the universal applicability of value-based leadership frameworks. The article’s emphasis on harmonizing diverse employee values resonates with personal challenges I face in group projects, where balancing individual perspectives and shared goals is crucial.

For my module #6 Dual Journal Entry post #12 I decided to do my reaction reflection discussing the “Academy of Management” article in module #6’s readings by Thomas M. Jones.

text to self: After reading this paper about Jones’ model I really focused on the concept of moral intensity throughout the reading. As it brought to mind how individuals usually react much much differently to ethical dilemmas in their own lives. This theory resonates in everyday situations where personal motivation to act ethically might be swayed to not depending on an individuals perception of the situation. Everyone goes through these situations on a day to day basis, for example every time I drive and get screwed over by someone else’s driving capabilities haha.

text to text: This article reminds me of multiple other readings we have had over these past few modules as Jones’ approach builds on existing models that we have previously learned about the last couple of weeks. He emphasizes the nature of the issue itself, which is a fact that a lot of previous models we have learned about typically tend to ignore. For example Rest’s model focuses on recognizing moral issues and acting on moral intent but does not address how different situations may affect the level of ethical concern that is brought to a situation and or a persons actions.

text to world: Jones’ model has broad implications on organizational ethics and societal structures as a whole seen globally today. It brings focus on issues like corporate responsibility, environmental impact, and the ethical actions of businesses and leaders. His emphasis on moral intensity underlines why companies need to establish structures that increase the importance of ethical considerations seen globally today. For example applying Jones’ model to college admissions highlights how moral intensity factors (such as social consensus on fairness and proximity to the affected students) could shape decision-making processes for administrators, potentially driving more equitable policies.

For module 6’s Dual Entry Journal Post #11 I decided to take a deeper look into the article we read for our Hot Topic discussion for this module “Parents’ Crossed a line’ in U.S. college scandal, prosecutor tells jury” by Nate Raymond.

text to self: As I am currently a Junior at NCSU I and all my peers have gone through the tedious college admissions process most likely in highschool for most of us. This process is not only tedious but nerve racking, costly, and not guaranteed. To think that some kids who did not take school seriously and lack the personal drive to have academic success had a free pass through their parents wealth, status, and or influence truly is a sad sight to see for ethics.

text to text: This story by Nate Raymond reminds me deeply of a news article on world news nightly with David Mur when he discussed the rising rates of scandalish college acceptances that have been consuming Americas college admissions nation wide throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic. David discussed the uniqueness of the Covid-19 pandemic laid a foundation for wealthy individuals to sway admissions to forge students into colleges’. This lack of integrity in the system undermines the entire process of getting into college as you must work to get into the college and this work is supposed to develop the needed skills that a tuff college curriculum instates.

text to world: This is not just a problem in the college admissions process but is practiced worldwide by other institutions in other areas. After establishing the effect of problems like this as they completely contradict the process of the institution. We can see that when ethics are not upheld situations get bad as the damage from one unethical decision is like a cancer for the institution it usually only grows and gets worse as time goes on. This is a shining example of why ethics and leadership are so intertwined, ethics need to be upheld at the forefront of anything. If a leader has unethical practices that negatively impact anyone or anything than they are not the best leader they can be.

For DEJ post #10 I decided to do my journal entry on the chapter in the readings section of module #5 called “Transparency And Authenticity, The Value of Open Communication” by Daniel Lubetzky.

Text to self: This chapter heavily related to multiple assignments we had to work on this week in module #5, as the whole week was dedicated to this very Transparency and Authenticity theme. As all of ethics is based on transparency and authenticity of data, actions, words, trust, and open communication. Companies who lack these key characteristics find themselves falling behind other companies naturally such as the landscaping company I used to work for which was family owned and run. The failure of transparency between the family members who ran the business was the eventual dagger that sunk the companies reputation and trust within the management which correlated to public trust as a company as a whole.

Text to text: This chapter reminds me of a historical documentary I watched called Chernobyl (HIGHLY RECOMMEND) as it goes over the lack of transparency of the Soviet Union and the lack of public trust that followed the Nuclear disaster caused by the concealment of the truth. In module #5 alone we have looked at a multitude of disasters and failures of companies all caused by concealment of information and the lack of transparency. Without open communications it creates an environment of false safety and untrust within employee’s, offical’s, management, and customers and has been the tragic downfall of hundreds of thousands companies along the short human history we have.

Text to world: This text relates to many things in the world as not only companies that lack transparency fail so do people that lack transparency. Holding truths or just not letting them be common open communitive knowledge is the back bone of losing trust and reputation for companies and people as individuals. Yet their is a person or company today that received information that would raise an ethical concern in a person, product, or service that would cost money to the company and or people accountable that was probably just covered up to save their own butt’s. It is simply human nature to choose the easier less safe, less sensible path in instances such as this but it is our job to try and change this trend together.

For this DEJ Post #9 I decided to do my post on the hot topic headline article we had for module #5 called “Engineering Ethics and The Boeing Scandal” by Robert Prentice.

Text to self: This article really hit me hard as I am currently a Junior studying Computer Engineering at State, the decisions made by the Engineer’s during the Boeing Scandal show the true ethical implications of Engineering. Engineers are trusted with more responsibility than most as they make the final decisions on all things used everyday by people all around the world and are in trusted in this profession to ensure the safety, and ethical implications of any design they work on. This article shows me the invaluable effect of not designing with an impenetrable ethical foundation from the start, as the things I build might have the lives of people depending on them. If my ethical values do not have the best intentions mind from money, professional pressure and or any other relating factors I should not choose this career path as there is no room for error when entrusted with the life of another.

Text to text: This article also heavily reminds me of an almost exact tragedy that I read many articles about and happened in very recent history being the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant explosion. With the Soviet Union in full control at the time of the disaster we can see the true cost of failing to apply impenetrable ethics into Engineering. As the Soviet Union was at the peak of secrecy during this period of time important information about potential flaws in the RBMK Nuclear reactors such as the plant at Chernobyl was covered up to “Protect” the reputation of the Soviet Union. On top of this core design flaw in the core of the nuclear reactor, the ethical design flaw of Soviet Communism was displayed for the world to see when the plant exploded as the lead engineer who is arguably the most responsible for the incident was heavily persuaded to conduct a safety test for the benefit of his own career within the nation under extremely unsafe conditions. RBMK reactors had been mathematically proven to be impossible to explode supposedly as the lead Engineer thought which is why he proceeded with this test which is still extremely unethical by him to do so. But also shows the ethical lacking of the Soviet Union as they only cared about their truth as a state not the real truth covering up a design flaw that was critical as there was at the time seven other identical reactors in the Soviet Union operating at the time of the incident and they didn’t want to spend the money to fix the issue. This hurricane of conditions set the perfect stage for the worlds worst disaster ever, following the plants explosion we have estimated that at least 200,000 people have died do to this incident alone. As well as the 1000 miles^2 around the plant will not be livable conditions for humans for 24,000 more years an amount of time we as humans cannot really fathom due to our life expectancy.

Text to World: This article shows the importance of ethical foundations in every design of any product or service we use around the whole world. It is the job of an Engineer to understand the long and short lasting ethical implications of the items and procedures they invent. As if every inventor and or Engineer had the same principles as the Boeing 747 MAX scandal management team and engineers, than we wouldn’t be able to safely do anything we do everyday. Such as drive our cars, rely on the stop lights to safely guide us through intersections, and even use our cell phones without fear of them catching fire or exploding. A world where greed and wealth outway and cast a shadow over ethics is a world human beings would not survive as a species. As such it is the ethical responsibility of every single human being to have ethical foundations in anything they do, without such values we wouldn’t be alive today and we would be unable to continue our societal advancement, more discussions need to be held on ethics in our designs to ensure our future. We must learn from our past and never let it repeat as it is the blue print for exactly what we need not do. So let us reflect on this article and learn to put ethics and safety at the forefront of our lives, not money as hard as it may be, and as inciting as short cuts feel.

For my DEJ Post #8, I decided to analyze the reading “Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop A Reputation For Ethical Leadership”, by Linda Klebe Trevino, Laura Pincus Hartman, and Michael Brown as the authors. This is from our readings list in Module #4.

text-to-self: This article resonates with my own experiences of observing leadership in the places that I have worked in my lifetime so far. The concept of being both a moral person and a moral manager made me reflect about the first managers I ever had as it was a small local gardening store and landscaping company called New Bern Farm and Garden. My managers failed to set clear examples for the team, especially for my coworker and good friend Mike who is one of the most hard working people I know. My managers took advantage of his advantageous work driven heart and managerial skills that Mike had and instead of making him a manager which he more than deserved continued to use him until the eventual collapse of the business.

text-to-text: This article’s focus on ethical leadership and the emphasis on both character traits and management practices reminds me of the discussions from another reading we had this week and the article I did my DEJ post #7 on “Ethical Role of the Manager”. Both texts look into how ethics are a central principle in leadership but this article goes a little deeper than the role of the manager article by showing how a leader’s reputation is hinged on not only personal morality but also on having good consistent ethical actions.

text-to-world: The points raised in the article about the importance of managers being explicit about ethical values are extremely important in today’s world of corporate transparency where we live in a age of public knowledge and technology. Companies like Patagonia have gained global recognition for their ethical based leadership in which the top executives of Patagonia model great moral behavior and set the bar for employees and other managers alike. But not only Patagonia but other companies such as Apple have set great examples of what companies new bar is in terms of ethics, for example Apple’s 2030 carbon neutral footprint promise.

For my DEJ Post #7 I decided to do a my reaction of reflection on the reading listed in our readings for Module #4, “Ethical Role of the Manager” authored by Sandra Waddock.

text-to-self: Reading about the ethical challenges faced by managers in their obligation to their duties to shareholders as well as their responsibility to employees, customers, and stake holders reminds me of times when I have been in very difficult situations at work and I am so thankful to not be my manager. Such as one time when I was working at Cyprus Hall a restaurant in my hometown of New Bern North Carolina. When a patron got to drunk in the upstairs seating of the restaurant and was running to get to the bathroom to vomit but only made it down three steps before emptying his guts all over a table that had just been served their food right below the staircase. Truly one of the worst days I had worked.

text-to-text: This article connects with what I have been reading Kohlberg’s moral development. It discusses how managers move from preconventional to conventional, highlighting the importance of moving beyond basic self interest and ignore social norms, but rather focus on ethical based leadership principles.

text-to-world: The concepts in this article are clearly visible all around the world in global business scandals, like the unethical practices of some companies such as Enron and Volkswagen. Our ethical frameworks of rights, justice, and utilitarianism are crucial for analyzing corporate behavior and seeing the ethics at play in managerial decision making across the globe.