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Leadership Ethics Influencing and persuading are central parts of a leader’s job. Leaders routinely attempt to influence employees to perform at a high level. Leadership can have a dark side, however. Address the following questions in your paper: ? What kinds of actions by a leader would you regard as being clearly unethical in an attempt to influence employees? ? Do you think some kinds of leadership approaches are more ethical than others? ? At what point does transformational leadership become unethical in an organizational setting?
Playing favorites is the first kind if unethical action that comes to mind. When a leader chooses to look at who they like better rather then who is working the hardest or producing the best they are being unethical. Personal likes and dislikes should not come into play when a leader is deciding which team member should be getting a raise, bonus or promotion. Also if a leader chooses who will get bonuses, raises and so on based on race, gender, sexual orientation etc. Again the rewards should be based on the merits of the employee not the prejudices of the leader.
Many leaders have difficultly looking beyond who they like and dislike when it comes to rewards. In the workplace no boss or leader has the right to choose who they hire based on prejudices and they don’t have the right to lead based on them either. Also if a leader tells the employees that they can become a “favorite” by doing favors, like getting the boss lunch or picking up their dry cleaning, that is also very unethical. I think any leader who employees a fear-mongering tactic is unethical. All employees are aware that they need to perform to a certain level to get raises or bonuses and even to maintain their positions.
A leader that threatens employees with termination or undesirable hours is creating a hostile work environment and that is not only unethical it is also illegal. Also taking transactional leadership to the extreme would be unethical. If a leader makes a big deal about reprimanding and insulting or harassing poorer performers (especially in front of the other team members) that could be unethical. No leader should go out of their way to harass or embarrass their subordinate. Transformational leadership becomes unethical if the leader uses their eadership and charisma to convince their subordinates to do something that they would not normally do or even doesn’t want to do. A simple example would be if an employee was out to a client dinner with their boss and the boss convinced the employee that it they should bring their spouses out to dinner as well. Even if the employee knows that is against company policy they will follow their boss’ example. An extreme example of that would be if the leader convinced their team members to hide theft or embezzlement. [pic][pic][pic]