Leadership and Ethics
As some organizations suffer the consequences of ethical crises
that put them out of business or damage their reputations, the role
of leadership as a driver of ethical behavior is receiving a lot of
scholarly attention as well as acknowledgement in the popular
press. Ethical decisions are complex and, even to people who are
motivated to do the right thing, the moral component of a decision
may not be obvious. Therefore, employees often look to role models,
influential people, and their managers for guidance in how to
behave. Unfortunately, research shows that people tend to follow
leaders or other authority figures even when doing so can put
others at risk. The famous Milgram experiments support this point.
Milgram conducted experiments in which experimental subjects were
greeted by someone in a lab coat and asked to administer electric
shocks to other people who gave the wrong answer in a learning
task. In fact, the shocks were not real and the learners were
actors who expressed pain when shocks were administered. Around
two-thirds of the experimental subjects went along with the
requests and administered the shocks even after they reached what
the subjects thought were dangerous levels. In other words, people
in positions of authority are influential in driving others to
ethical or unethical behaviors (Milgram, 1974; Trevino & Brown,
2004).
It seems that when evaluating whether someone is an effective
leader, subordinates pay attention to the level of ethical
behaviors the leader demonstrates. In fact, one study indicated
that the perception of being ethical explained 10% of the variance
in whether an individual was also perceived as a leader. The level
of ethical leadership was related to job satisfaction, dedication
to the leader, and a willingness to report job-related problems to
the leader (Brown, Trevino, & Harrison, 2005; Morgan,
1993).
Leaders influence the level of ethical behaviors demonstrated in
a company by setting the tone of the organizational climate.
Leaders who have high levels of moral development create a more
ethical organizational climate (Schminke, Ambrose, & Neubaum,
2005). By acting as a role model for ethical behavior, rewarding
ethical behaviors, publicly punishing unethical behaviors, and
setting high expectations for the level of ethics, leaders play a
key role in encouraging ethical behaviors in the workplace.
The more contemporary leadership approaches are more explicit in
their recognition that ethics is an important part of effective
leadership. Servant leadership emphasizes the importance of a large
group of stakeholders, including the external community surrounding
a business. On the other hand, authentic leaders have a moral
compass, they know what is right and what is wrong, and they have
the courage to follow their convictions. Research shows that
transformational leaders tend to have higher levels of moral
reasoning, even though it is not part of the transformational
leadership theory (Turner et al., 2002). It seems that ethical
behavior is more likely to happen when (a) leaders are ethical
themselves, and (b) they create an organizational climate in which
employees understand that ethical behaviors are desired, valued,
and expected.
Leadership Around the Globe
Is leadership universal? This is a critical question given the
amount of international activity in the world. Companies that have
branches in different countries often send expatriates to manage
the operations. These expatriates are people who have demonstrated
leadership skills at home, but will these same skills work in the
host country? Unfortunately, this question has not yet been fully
answered. All the leadership theories that we describe in this
chapter are U.S.-based. Moreover, around 98% of all leadership
research has been conducted in the United States and other western
nations. Thus, these leadership theories may have underlying
cultural assumptions. The United States is an individualistic,
performance-oriented culture, and the leadership theories suitable
for this culture may not necessarily be suitable to other
cultures.
People who are perceived as leaders in one society may have
different traits compared to people perceived as leaders in a
different culture, because each society has a concept of ideal
leader prototypes. When we see certain characteristics in a person,
we make the attribution that this person is a leader. For example,
someone who is confident, caring, and charismatic may be viewed as
a leader because we feel that these characteristics are related to
being a leader. These leadership prototypes are societally driven
and may have a lot to do with a country’s history and its
heroes.
Recently, a large group of researchers from 62 countries came
together to form a project group called Global Leadership and
Organizational Behavior Effectiveness or GLOBE (House et al.,
2004). This group is one of the first to examine leadership
differences around the world. Their results are encouraging,
because, in addition to identifying differences, they found
similarities in leadership styles as well. Specifically, certain
leader traits seem to be universal. Around the world, people feel
that honesty, decisiveness, being trustworthy, and being fair are
related to leadership effectiveness. There is also universal
agreement in characteristics viewed as undesirable in leaders:
being irritable, egocentric, and a loner (Den Hartog et al., 1999;
Javidan et al., 2006). Visionary and charismatic leaders were found
to be the most influential leaders around the world, followed by
team-oriented and participative leaders. In other words, there
seems to be a substantial generalizability in some leadership
styles.
Even though certain leader behaviors such as charismatic or
supportive leadership appear to be universal, what makes someone
charismatic or supportive may vary across nations. For example,
when leaders fit the leadership prototype, they tend to be viewed
as charismatic, but in Turkey, if they are successful but did not
fit the prototype, they were still viewed as charismatic (Ensari
& Murphy, 2003). In Western and Latin cultures, people who
speak in an emotional and excited manner may be viewed as
charismatic. In Asian cultures such as China and Japan, speaking in
a monotonous voice may be more impressive because it shows that the
leader can control emotions. Similarly, how leaders build
relationships or act supportively is culturally determined. In
collectivist cultures such as Turkey or Mexico, a manager is
expected to show personal interest in employees’ lives. Visiting an
employee’s sick mother at the hospital may be a good way of showing
concern. Such behavior would be viewed as intrusive or strange in
the United States or the Netherlands. Instead, managers may show
concern verbally or by lightening the workload of the employee
(Brodbeck et al., 2000; Den Hartog et al., 1999).
There were also many leader characteristics that vary across
cultures (Dorfman et al., 1997; Gerstner & Day, 1994). Traits
such as being autonomous, conflict avoidant, status conscious, and
ambitious were culturally dependent. For example, in France,
employees do not expect their leaders to demonstrate empathy.
Leaders demonstrating self-sacrifice are also viewed negatively,
suggesting that servant leadership would be an improper style
there. In Middle Eastern cultures such as Egypt, leaders are
expected to be superior to lay people. They are supposed to have
all the answers, be confident, and authoritarian. In fact, leading
like a benevolent autocrat (someone who cares about people but acts
alone) may be an appropriate style (Javidan et al., 2006). Even
within the same geography, researchers identified substantial
cultural differences. For example, in Europe, there were five
clusters of cultures. Directness in interpersonal relationships was
viewed positively in Nordic cultures such as Finland, but
negatively in Near Eastern cultures such as Turkey. Similarly,
leaders who are autonomous were viewed positively in Germanic
cultures such as Austria, but negatively in Latin European cultures
such as Portugal (Brodbeck et al., 2000). Finally, in some
cultures, good leaders are paternalistic. These leaders act like a
parent to employees, give advice, care for them, and get obedience
and loyalty in return (Aycan et al., 2000; Pellegrini &
Scandura, 2008).
Given all these differences, effective leaders should develop a
sensitivity to cultural differences and adapt their style when they
work in different societies or with people from different cultural
backgrounds. It seems that flexibility is an important trait for
global leaders.
Key Takeaways
People get their cues for ethical behaviors from leaders.
Therefore, leadership characteristics and style will influence the
level of ethical behaviors employees demonstrate. Being ethical is
related to being perceived as a leader, and ethical leaders create
a more satisfied workforce. More contemporary approaches such as
servant leadership and authentic leadership explicitly recognize
the importance of ethics for leadership effectiveness. Some
leadership traits seem to be universal. Visionary, team-oriented,
and to a lesser extent participative leadership seem to be the
preferred styles around the world. However, traits such as how
confident leaders should be and whether they should sacrifice
themselves for the good of employees and many others are culturally
dependent. Even for universal styles such as charismatic and
supportive leadership, how leaders achieve charisma and
supportiveness seems to be culturally dependent.
Exercises
- What is the connection between leadership and ethical
behaviors?
- Do you believe that ethical leaders are more successful in
organizations?
- Which of the leadership theories seem to be most applicable to
other cultures? Which ones are culturally dependent?
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