Ethical vs. Unethical Leadership: Exercising Power - Essay Sample

Power is the capability of conveying change within the immediate environment. It can be exercised by a group or individual over other organizations, or groups. The discussion focuses on how an ethical and an unethical leader may exercise power by us of both hypothetical and real examples.

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The majority of leaders would prefer their followers to uphold the utmost ethical standards. However, despite the good intentions they might be shocked that their leadership strategies have corrupted the choices of the people they lead. Ethical leadership is triggered by the respect of values, moral beliefs, rights of others, and dignity (Bennis, 2006). It is a paramount duty of an ethical leader to clearly understand the responsibilities that are driven by power. For instance, an example of an Ethical leader using power responsibly is a Human Resource manager who takes the responsibility of motivating, advising, and inspiring employees.

Consequently, the manager should encourage the employees towards achieving the overall organization goal especially when the company's activities are in line with the ethical and moral responsibilities of the employees and the entity. My previous CEO at VON limited, used to inspire employees during every employee meeting which were conducted weekly. His encouraging words and speeches motivated the employees to work hard and embrace integrity to be able to achieve their dream goals.

On the other hand, Unethical leaders turn political matters into personal issues hence lowering their trust in people. They mainly use their power and positions to manipulate others for their selfish interests ( Eisenbeiß, & Brodbeck, 2014). An example of an unethical leader is when an employer uses authority and power to bully and harass employees as a way of ensuring that a specific job has been done. For instance, about seven years ago, I used to work for an attorney and desk assistance. The attorney used severe bully tactics to intimidate his employees. She would throw files on the floor and use sarcasm when making her points. Most of the employees including myself felt demotivated and always worked in fear whenever the boss was around and this resulted in a high turnover.

Moreover, true leadership is mainly defined under either behavioral or skill categories. Skill refers to the delegation of duties, effective communication, staff appraisals, and time management (Bennis, 2006). While leadership behaviors involve, positive attitude, integrity, resilience, confidence, and self-motivation among others.

In conclusion, it is undoubted that true leaders should move their followers towards understanding the vision and the strategies that the leaders have embraced to achieve the goals and objectives of an organization. Leadership actions are vital in driving the company towards success or failure since they directly impact the values of the entity. Therefore, leaders should be careful when exercising power since both ethical and unethical decisions have a drastic impact on society and can affect the entire organization in either a negative or positive manner causing a noticeable change in the profit margin.

References

Bennis, W. (2006). Moral leadership: The theory and practice of power, judgment and policy (Vol. 139). John Wiley & Sons.

Eisenbeiß, S. A., & Brodbeck, F. (2014). Ethical and unethical leadership: A cross-cultural and cross-sectoral analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(2), 343-359.