VALUES, ETHICS, AND CHARACTER

Leaders can use power for good or ill.

- Leader’s personal values/ethical code may be the most important determinants of how
that leader exercises
Leaders face dilemmas that require choices between competing sets of values and priorities
- Best leaders recognize dilemmas and face them with a commitment to doing what is
right, not just what is expedient.
- Leaders set a moral example that becomes the model for an entire group or organization
Qualities of leadership that engender trus
- Vision
- Empathy
- Consistency
- Integrity
McGregor’s styles of managerial behavior based on people’s implicit attitudes about human
nature
- THEORY X asserts most people need extrinsic motivation (pessimistic view of others)
- THEORY Y asserts most people are intrinsically motivation
Values
- Constructs representing behaviors or states of affairs that are considered important by the
individual
- It plays a central role in ones overall psychological makeup and can affect behavior in
different situations
People in an organization vary in the relative importance they place on values
- Instrumental values: Modes of behavior, such as being helpful or being responsible
- Terminal values: Desired end states, such as family security or social recognition
Pervasive influences of broad forces at a particular time tend to create common value systems
- May contribute to misunderstandings and tension in the interactions between older
leaders and younger followers
Generations are molded by experiences at their critical development periods
- The Veterans, 1922 to 1943
- Baby Boomers, 1942 to 1960
- Gen Xers, 1961 to 1981
- Millennials, 1982 to 2005
Gen Xers have a different view of authority than previous generations
 - They define leading as removing obstacles and giving followers what they need to work
well and comfortable
- Expect managers to earn their promotions and not be rewarded with leadership
responsibilities because of seniority
MORAL REASONING AND CHARACTER BASED LEADERSHIP
Values play a key role in the moral reasoning process
- Not everyone fully develops their moral judgement
- Value differences among individuals often result in different judgements regarding
ethical and unethical behavior
Unconscious biases may affect one’s moral judgements, which is why many organizations are
developing programs to develop moral decision-making competence aong leaders
- Effectiveness of such programs depends on the understanding the moral decision making
process
DUAL PROCESS THEORY of moral judgement
- Moral judgements dealing primarily with rights and duties are made by automatic
emotional responses while those made on a more utilitarian basis are made more
cognitively.
Common but challenging ethical dilemmas involve choosing between two rights.
Kidder identified the following common ethical dilemmas:
- Truth vs Loyalty: Honestly answering a question that may compromise real or implied
promise of confidentiality to others
- Individual vs Community: Protecting the confidentiality of someone’s medical
condition
- Short-term vs Long-term: Balancing spending time with family against making career
investments for future benefits
- Justice vs Mercy: Deciding whether to excuse a person’s misbehaviour because of
extenuating circumstances or a conviction that he or she has learned a lesson
Kidder offers the following principles for resolving ethical dilemmas
- Ends-based thinking: Doing what’s best for the greatest number of people
(Utilitarianism in philosophy)
- Rule-based thinking: Following the highest principle (Kantian philosophy)
- Care based thinking: Doing what one wants others to do to him or her (Golden Rule of
conduct in religion)
Research has identified biases that affect our moral decision-making
- Implicit prejudice: Subconscious prejudices that affect one’s decisions without her/him
being aware
 - Ingroup favoritism: Doing acts of kindness and favors for those who are like us
- Overclaiming credit: Overrating the quality of one’s work
ASPECTS ASSOCIATED WITH MORAL DISENGAGEMENT
- Disregard or distortion of consequences: Minimizing actual harm caused by one’s
behavior
- Dehumanization: Avoiding consequences by dehumanizing those affected
- Attribution of blame
AVOLIO AND ASSOCIATES: COMPONENTS OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
- Moral Person: Decision maker who cares about people and the broader society
- Moral Manager: Makes ethics an explicit part of the leadership agenda by
communicating messages of ethics and values, by visibly and intentionally modeling
ethical behavior
CHARACTER-BASED APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP
Authentic Leadership
- Exhibit consistency among their values, their beliefs, and their actions
- Are self-aware
- Self consciously align their actions with their inner values
Study of authentic leadership has gained momentum because of the following beliefs
- Enhancing self-awareness can help people in organizations find more meaning at work
- Promoting transparency and openness in relationships builds trust and commitment
- Fostering more inclusive structures and practices can help build more positive ethical
climates
Servant Leadership – serving others as being the leader’s role
Characteristics of servant leaders
- Listening – listening effectively to others
- Empathy – understanding others feelings and perspective
- Healing – help foster each person’s emotional/spiritual health and wholeness
- Awareness – understanding their own values, feelings, strengths/weaknesses
- Persuasion – influencing others through their persuasiveness
- Conceptualization – integrating present realities and future possibilities
- Foresight -
- Stewardship
- Commitment to other’s growth
- Building community
ROLES OF ETHICS AND VALUES IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Organizations have dominant values just as individuals do.
- Values represent the principles by which employees are to get work done and treat other
employees, customers, and vendors
- Leaders in an organization fail because of a misalignment between personal and
organizational values
Top leadership’s collective values play a significant role in determining the dominant values
throughout the organization
- Many of the most difficult decisions made by leaders are choices between opposing
values
- Leaders must set a personal example of values-based leadership and ensure that clear
values guide everyone’s behavior in an organization.
One of the most quoted principles of good leadership is “leadership is by example.”
- Research shows that role models can be characterized using the following categories of
attitudes and behaviors
- Interpersonal behaviors – they show concern, care, and compassion for others
- Basic fairness – show fairness to others
- Ethical actions and self-expectations – holding themselves to high ethical standards and
behave consistently in both their public and private lives
- Articulating ethical standards – articulating a consistent ethical vision and are
uncompromising towards it
LEADING BY EXAMPLE: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
Upward ethical leadership – behavior enacted by individuals who take action to maintain ethical
standards in the face of questionable moral behaviors by higher-ups
- General quality of an organization’s ethical climate affects whether or not employees
raise ethical concerns
- In ethical climates, ethical standards or norms are consistently and clearly communicated
and enforced by organizational leaders
- In unethical climates, unethical behavior exists with little corrective action, and
misbehavior may even be condoned
CREATING AND SUSTAINING AN ETHICAL CLIMATE
“Fronts” of leadership action that are required to create an ethical climate
- Formal ethics policies and procedures
- Core ideology
- Integrity
- Structural reinforcement
- Process focus
Principle-centered leadership – asserts a fundamental interdependence between personal,
interpersonal, managerial, and organizational levels of leadership
- Interdependence between the levels posited in principle-centered leadership is quite
similar to the conceptualizations of authentic leadership, which also views it as a
multilevel phenomenon