Chapter Seven - Ethics and Leadership.pdf

Chapter Seven - Ethics and Leadership 15 August 2024 20:07 7.1 Understanding Ethics Ethics is a moral philosophy that determines right from wrong, bad from good, and moral from immoral. Ethics derives its definition from the Greek word 'ethos' which means 'character' and from the...

Chapter Seven - Ethics and Leadership 15 August 2024 20:07 7.1 Understanding Ethics Ethics is a moral philosophy that determines right from wrong, bad from good, and moral from immoral. Ethics derives its definition from the Greek word 'ethos' which means 'character' and from the Latin word 'mores' meaning 'custom'. It is a code of conduct that guides the behaviour of an individual group of people concerning what is defined as moral character. Categories of Ethics According to Abia, 2004, the following are the various ethics. These include: 1. Individual Ethics: This has to do with individual personal principles, morals, and consciences, which guide his conduct. 2. Expert Ethics: This relates to moral rules that members of a particular discipline subscribe to in their professional practice. 3. Commercial Ethics: These are principles that guide an individual in an organization in their customer relation with people within and outside the organization. 4. Organization Ethics: These are moral principles and regulations governing administrative processes and practices. 7.2 Ethical Issues in Leadership De George (1994), Abiodun & Oyeniyi identify the main methodologies for ethical issues. These approaches are essential to every leader: 1. Utilitarian Approach: The utilitarian approach focuses on acts and their consequences. It believes actions should produce greater results for a greater number of people even though some people might be adversely affected. Utilitarian managers see action as inevitable. 2. Deontology Approach: This approach put to test moral standard action and independence of its consequence. A deontology manager asks questions on whether the actions to be taken are right or immoral and not whether it is beneficial. It makes the fundamental rights and privileges of people its main focus 3. Social Justice Approach: This approach is based on two principles: Liberty rights principles and the difference principles. The liberty rights principles hold that actions should not infringe on other people's rights while the difference principle is based on distributive justice, fairness, and natural duty principles. The difference principles have to do with race, sex, religion, etc., and should not be treated based on these and other differences. 7.3 Ethical and moral dilemmas in leadership The ethical dilemma has to do with subjective decisions based on individual character with specific rules and actions, to choose between right and incorrect. Moral dilemmas are codes of conduct in the workplace that can attract fines but not litigation except where it is an ethical matter. Kidder, (2005) categorized these ethical problems or dilemmas into four: 1. Good for the unit versus good for the whole 2. Good for the short term versus good for the long term 3. Truth versus loyalty 4. Justice over mercy 7.4 Facing Moral dilemmas in leadership There are five steps to be considered when faced with ethical and moral dilemmas of decision-making. Critical thinking should be adapted to help a leader overcome challenges by selecting the most preferred choice. The steps to follow include: 1. Recognizing the problems 2. Recognizing the optimal solution that presents a balance of action 3. Gathering pertinent information and recognizing assumption 4. Interpreting and evaluating information 5. Drawing conclusions and evaluating consequences of a choice made or decision taken Notes Page 1