Ethical Leadership – Analysis
Reader also used the “waiter rule” to explain that a lot can be said about a person’s character by the way they treat the waiter, which is much like the golden rule, treat others as you wish to be treated. This piece of advice relates to the business world, because professionals should respect one another, tell the truth, and conduct themselves in an ethical manner. Furthermore, Reader discussed the leadership and ethical leadership. He described leadership as someone who inspires people to achieve a goal.
He elaborated on this concept by stating that ethical leadership is when a person leads y Influencing their followers and use Input from the followers to shape goals and purposes. Moreover, an ethical leader should be consistent In both words and actions, lead by example, and can be referred to as a role model. These ethical leaders are extremely Important to employees. Reader shared some astounding statistics as to why employees need role models: 56% of employees personally observed misconduct and out of those who observed it, 42% did not report it.
This shows that the tone at the top is extremely important in firms. If the management is more likely to behave unethically, then this attitude trickles down and negatively effects the ethical values of everyone in the company. In addition, he discussed how peer commitment is important. For example, most times, an employee will look to see what colleagues are doing in order to make a decision. This information relates to me professionally because I will be starting my career as an auditor soon and the attitudes and ethical culture of the company and my colleagues will definitely affect how I perform my Job.
Reader also discussed how a leader can promote and ethical culture. These ten pieces of advice would definitely help me in a professional setting because at one mint I will be leading a group of people on an audit engagement. The first piece of advice is to walk the walk, which means that the leader needs to lead by example. Next, he states that the leader should keep people in the loop. This means that the leader needs to involve the employees and inform them on various changes and adjustments happening in the organization.
Reader suggests that the leader should also encourage thoughtful dissent and show the employees that he/she truly cares. Furthermore, Reader states that in order to promote and ethical culture, the leader would not sweep problems under the rug, but should deal with each problem In an ethical manner. In Dalton, the leader should celebrate the successes In the organization and be fair to all employees. Also, the leader should make ethics a priority.
Often times In the professional world, leaders behave ethically but do not truly make ethics a priority. Although sometimes difficult, leaders need to make tough the leader should “get the right people eon the bus and keep them,” which means that the leader should find employees that share the same ethical values and do whatever is possible to keep them on board. Overall, I think Reader provided some great examples and advice on ethics and ethical leadership.
All of the examples and advice he discussed relate to a professional environment and especially auditing. Auditors do not have the best reputation because of unethical behaviors by professionals, like Arthur Andersen, in the past. Often times the auditing profession can really challenge and test an individual’s ethical and moral compass. However, Reader’s speech reminded me what I need do to make sure I maintain ethical relationships and become an ethical leader in my audit career.
