SLC 300 (601) Fall 2024 Leading with an Ethical Perspective

In the guest column Needed: Leaders Who Inspire, Listen, the author of the article underlines that this is a time when leaders are needed who can inspire from the very core and authentically connect with their workforce. This article highlights characteristics of an inspirational leader, including that the inspirational leader “honors people,” listens attentively, gives a purpose, and builds an environment of psychological safety where employees feel valued and involved. These qualities of effective leaders are highly needed in today’s pressing and time-constrained work environment, where feelings of isolation or insignificance among an onslaught of demands are common.

I can truly attest to the fact that this article hit home because effective, authentic leadership goes a long way in the dynamic of a team environment. My current manager in the car detailing business has expressed several of these attributes. He keeps recognizing each member within the team at all times, listens to any concerns with interest and seriousness, and keeps everyone in the team informed about decisions involving the team. All these have fostered an open and supportive atmosphere, making me feel more vested in my work and reinforcing my belief in the transformational power of servant leadership based on authenticity and respect.

What was required for inspirational leadership not only in my personal work experience but part of the greater social demand was leadership that is relatable on a human basis. Strong worldly examples of this were provided by Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, in her approach to leadership at times of crises, such as the Christchurch shooting. Her response was empathetic and inclusive, thus reaching every corner of the world, proving that leaders who truly value and support people can unite and bring hope in the face of tragedy.

In the article “strong ethics provide guidance”, I learned how critical of a role ethics play in leadership and decision making. Ethical leadership sets the tone for organizations and can help create a healthy environment. Having a good leader can guide you through difficult times, even if it is something little. Ethics can provide frameworks for those and guide you to help. Having trust within another is important for success in an organization. When I worked with the Carolina Hurricanes as a community events staff member, we were led by a leader who exemplified the qualities of a good leader. If anyone ever had any questions about the job we were doing that day, he would be there and give us a detailed explanation of exactly what needed to be done to run a smooth and successful event. He trusted us with anything we needed to do and allowed us to try new things to test things out if it would benefit us for future events. Being surrounded by a workplace who wants you to be successful in the long-term brought me and all my co-workers joy. We knew if we needed anything in the future he would be there for us and give his honest opinions on what we need to do. Even though sometimes you want to hear something different, it is good to get coached and criticized nicely as you are owning up to your mistakes and fixing that for the future. Having strong ethics can take you a long way in the workplace as it can do all things talked about above. Having a strong team will bring success to you in the future, and it is good to get on good terms with co-workers as they could be hiring you for potential new jobs in the future.

https://moodle-courses2425.wolfware.ncsu.edu/pluginfile.php/654267/mod_resource/content/1/Strong_Ethics_Provide_Guidance.pdf

In the article “Needed: Leaders who inspire, listen”, I learned what the power of listening is and how effective leaders who inspire others are. While reading I learned the attributes of an authentic leader who can inspire others. Being an authentic leader means honoring those that are working under you. This means letting others know how important they are to the job that is being done, and how much they can bring to the team/organization. Just listening to those can go a long way as you are attentive to what they are discussing with you and are openly accepting their thoughts that are on their head. Building trust with your organization is a huge one as you all need to be honest and transparent with one another to be successful in the real world. I have been an authentic leader before as I had to take over for my boss at Finley Day Camp one day as she was not feeling well. I told all my co-workers that their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed and that if they need anything to tell me. I was being open and allowing them to feel comfortable with me, even though I am normally not the one in charge. I made sure to listen to all the thoughts and ideas other counselors gave me as it would help me come up with possible things we could do to keep the camp running smoothly. Trusting each other is the most important thing to allow Summer camp to run smoothly as if we aren’t trustworthy of each other, nothing will be done how it is supposed to and camp would crash and burn. Being a leader involves fundamentals that people may have never thought of. When leading a team you need to think of things that can make you an authentic leader and lead your team/organization to success in the future. 

https://moodle-courses2425.wolfware.ncsu.edu/pluginfile.php/654268/mod_resource/content/1/Needed_Leaders_Inspire_Listen.pdf

I wanted to make a text-to-self connection between the text “Ethics Awareness” and myself. As I was exploring this information, I found it relevant to some of my experiences I have had learning about the intentions of universities. It talks about cultivating an ethical institution and I am reassured thar NC State is cultivating an ethical institution. I remember when I was looking for schools and NC State stood out as a school that promoted their ethical environment. They did this by telling me what I should expect from the school, shared reliable resources and had employees/professors that set the example for the students to see. As NC State is known for their excellence, the university continues to be respected and supported by students, fans, staff, etc. Their integrity is also built because of this level of excellence.

As I have taken time to really learn more about my own values, I have explored the “why” behind the core values that I live by and make me who I am. According to the article, “Ethical decision-making is based on core character values like trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship. Ethical decisions generate ethical behaviors and provide a foundation for good business practices.” I think it is interesting that core values I have defined based on who I am translate into decision-making in the business world. This is reassuring that my personal career and professional career are very much tied together in a similar way. I think it also speaks to the fact that the work I put into myself is shown through my professional decisions.

Ethics Awareness

I thought that the article ” Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model” was interesting. I would like to make a text-to-world connection here. On page 374, it highlights the components of moral intensity. It shares how moral intensity involved the magnitude of consequences. It states, “The magnitude of consequences of the moral issue is defined as the sum of the harms (or benefits) done to victims (or beneficiaries) of the moral act in question. ” I think this is interesting because in our world there are a lot of terrible things that happen to people and the people who commit those things have to consider the consequences. I also think it is interesting that the weight and magnitude of a consequence to one person doesn’t necessarily hold the same magnitude or weight for another person. I think this is why a lot of the time one person’s rational thoughts are another person’s last choice.

In terms of within an organization, the text states, “Further, because moral issues are present in most organizational decisions, people concerned with minor issues would be morally agitated most of the time. Because people are not constantly agitated over moral issues, it is assumed that many moral issues fail to reach a threshold of magnitude of consequences.” I think this speaks to the common sense that most employees have within the organization. Most people naturally understand the appropriate way/ morally correct way to handle conflict, agitation, anger, etc. within the workplace.

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

Within the Principles of Management book, a few highlights from the Decision Making chapter caught my eye. The story of Bernard Ebbers is a good one to learn from because it speaks of rapid growth and of the temptation to settle when it comes to new issues. When WorldCom grew, they found themselves in a place where it was difficult for them to keep up with the new expectations and staff. This started from the top down however, as Ebbers was shying away from any issues and only wanted to hear of issues solved. This really isolated his employees and put a burden on them while he was not involved in the process at all. This led to many of the employees fraudulently putting out false financial reports along with other dishonest techniques when it came to their operations. This made me realize how important it is for a leader to get within a problem alongside his or her followers. Leaders should be servants in a sense where they would be the first to look at the problem and formulate a plan, rather than setting a bad precedence of ignorance. The employees at WorldCom were looking to a bad example which eventually bit their leader back for the worst. Instead, Ebbers should have welcomed the problems the new change saw put forth, to encourage and show employees that with more comes more ethical responsibilities, not permission to bend around ethical decisions.

One thing I appreciated in reading about UC San Diego’s ethical awareness article was the fact of being up front with what is ethical or not within a workplace. i think it can be dangerous for many companies or other organizations to go about their work assuming that everyone is on board with their ethical assumptions. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth. I think it can be quite dangerous for organizations to assume these things, and it is best to clarify what is expected, even if it seems mundane or obvious. I appreciated the article articulating a 7 step path needed for individual ethical choices, which include stopping and thinking, considering consequences, and looking over the options before making an ethical decision. I think this is important to equip people with personal tools to then build up the culture of the company. Finally, accountability is important as well. This is where UC San Diego highlighted good internal control that promotes competence of staff. There was me a well run internal control team to make sure that ethical subjects are not just promoted, but maintained.

In the article, Ethical Decision Making by Individuals In Organizations, talks mainly about how to introduce concepts not present in prior models and to offer a model that supplements, but does not replace, other models. I want to talk about the 3 definitions that were the main part of this article that pertains to real life situation which is moral issues means a moral issue is present where a person’s actions, when freely performed, may harm or benefit others. A moral agent is a person who makes a moral decision, even though he or she may not recognize that moral issues are at stake. We all know what ethical and unethical decisions mean. I want to mainly talk about how moral issues can be translated not only in business but in the world. For instance the election and Donald Trump becoming president and certain things on his agenda can hurt certain groups of people such as women and children and minorities, but certain things on his agenda can benefit others such as rich people with the tax cuts. Also, with having a lot of republicans in the senate and congress and by pushing his agenda, a lot of people can be harmed or benefitted by their decision on certain topics and it can affect our country.

In the Decision Making article, they talk about different decision making tactics that you can sure in your company, but these decision making tactics can help in real life situations. Making rational decisions whether that means in business and in life, for example, for me being able to make a decision on going to a college for basketball. College is supposed to be the best 4 years of your life and making that decision is a big part of your life, but it’s hard. The first step of that is that I know I want to go to college for basketball, but the next step is to the see what’s the important factors that I want in the school that I want to go to. Which is to go to a winning program, having a great relationship with coaches and team, family atmosphere and where I could get my degree. I ended up choosing Mississippi State University and based off of the factors that are important to me, I left to come to NC State and it’s been the most amazing 4 years here. So even if you make a decision there are always better options that benefit you.

Based on Thomas M. Jones’s “Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model,” the author suggests in this paper that ethical decision-making is influenced by moral intensity—that is, the traits of the ethical issue itself. Given my own background, I can relate to Jones’s thesis on moral proximity in light of a situation in which I had to make a difficult choice at employment. Whether or not to expose a close colleague for a minor policy infraction presented a dilemma. Though I knew the injustice was wrong, my relationship to this person affected my unwillingness to intervene. Jones names this phenomena as “proximity” changing moral assessments. The idea that moral closeness could influence ethical decisions emphasizes the reality that some interpersonal interactions can make objective assessment challenging to reach. Jones’s analysis of the pressures corporations confront and the reactions society has to ethics reminds me of the present corporate scandals including the Volkswagen emissions case. Jones’s theory holds that situational circumstances affect ethical behavior, so the executives of the company were under a lot of pressure to perform and hence engaged in immoral activities. The story shows how acts with great consequences in the actual world could be influenced by the moral intensity of employees of a corporation as well as by its culture. Finally, Jones’s approach provides insightful analysis of the difficulties in ethical decision-making. It implies that determining people’s moral behavior mostly depends on their personal relationships and the surroundings of the choice.