Analysis of leadership role in influencing employees’ ethical and unethical behavior, A Case study of Bernard Ebbers (Ex - CEO WorldCom) Written By Oluwakemi Annafi Kidus G. Mehalu and Addis Ababa (2011) defined ethics as concerning itself with human conduct or activity that is done knowingly or consciously and does have applicability to organizational life. Organizations as entities do not make decisions; individuals acting in the interests of the organizations do, this fact is buttress by Erondu et al (2004), he pointed out that ethics focuses on the standards by which a human action can be judged good or bad. Further explanations on ethical behavior, impact and implications shall be discussed in the analysis of the case study questions …show more content…
11) worried that charismatic leadership of self-serving leaders could result in deception and exploitation of followers but argued that most leaders pursued both personal and organizational interests. This was clearly evident in the irregularity discovered after his dismissal and financial manipulations to inflate the growth rate of WorldCom from 5% to 15% (Trevino and Brown 2005), this was done to hype his personality and that of the …show more content…
He could have used his influence and leadership to curb deviant behavior among subordinates by maintaining a high moral and ethical standard. Question 3: Identify some theoretical linkages between Ebbers’s leadership style as practiced and the behavior that occurred within WorldCom. Answer: Ebbers”s leadership style is indicative of a charismatic style of leadership. Charismatic leadership has the distinct ability to dissect and decipher any inefficiency within an organization. This was evident in his constant cost cutting messages. These visionary traits attributed to this leadership style often result from critical thinking, the compilation of facts and finding ways to solve a variety of problems (teamwork) 4. The law firm report identified Ebbers as the source of a culture that resulted in the company’s accounting fraud. How did Ebbers’s leadership style contribute to the values and actions of key managers? How could key managers perform their jobs effectively and ethically in the WorldCom culture?
Paradise Hill Medical Center – Case analysis 1. Recognize the background: the key of this step is to understand the medical issues involved. The medical issue in the Paradise Hill Medical Center (PHMC) was that 22 oncology patients received excessive doses of radiation therapy. The patients have not been informed yet that they received and overdose of radiation. The CEO alleged that it was the responsibility of the medical staff to inform the affected patients, and the medical team decided not to inform them about the error.
Leadership’s influence on Organizational Culture: A Rupert Murdoch mess When you read about the scandal involving Rupert Murdoch, phone hacking, and his media empire including News Of The World and News Corporation, it’s hard not to wonder, “What the heck were they thinking?” The point is that the thought processes behind these acts were ingrained in the culture of the organisation and the way the employees were being led. Keith Rupert Murdoch, global media magnate, billionaire businessman and a ruthless competitor took a small Australian daily at the age of 21 to a massive multinational company raking in upwards of $30 billion in revenues and employing 50,000 people.
The Big Short Management and Leadership Theoretical Component Management – The process of dealing with or controlling things or people. Leadership - The action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this. Management and Leadership are two very different things. “A manager is appointed in a position of authority which enables him to insist on people doing as he/she instructs.
Employees were motivated to participate in unethical activities because of this culture, which created millions of bogus accounts (Jordan, 2016). Behaviors Leaders Can Model to Encourage Ethical Behavior Leaders may set an example of ethical behavior in their businesses via their behaviors and judgments. They can emphasize ethical concerns over financial achievement and create realistic goals that do not encourage unethical activity (Jordan, 2016). Leaders can also create mechanisms that support ethical behavior rather than unethical behavior, such as a hotline for reporting unethical
It is essential for individuals and those representing an organization to understand what is an ethical dilemma. Wells Fargo financial corporation was involved in a dramatic ethical issue due to millions of unauthorized bank account openings. As explained in The PLUS Ethical Decision-Making Model, “many organizations battle to develop a simple set of guidelines that make it easier for individual employees, regardless of position or level, to be confident that his/her decisions meet all of the competing standards for effective and ethical decision-making” (n.d). The Wells Fargo scandal is evident prove that employees lacked ethical judgment and management supervision. The seven ethical decision-making steps foster straightforward thinking that
The definitions of leadership appearing in the first three decades of the 20th century emphasized control and centralization of power (Northouse, 2016, p.2). In the early 1900s research began to see if leaders possessed certain traits or characteristics that would distinguish
WorldCom upper-level management and individuals in the position of leadership could have taken an ethical stance and collectively formed an opposition against Ebber unethical leadership. This action would have resulted in maintaining an ethical culture within WorldCom. Because of management failure to take ethical stance resulted in several individuals found guilty of accounting
In this Enron Scandal ,several moral issues and values are being discussed .The moral issues is the misconduct of code of ethics by management level of a corporation , violation of code of professional ,ethical dilemma that faced by a management level when involved own interest . The first moral issues that discussed in Enron Scandal is misconduct code of ethics by management level of a corporation .In this case ,the mastermind of this scandal is the company CEO , Mr .
According to research by Mayer, Aquino, Greenbaum, and Kuenzi (2012), moral leaders will often practice appropriate business ethics. In turn, the leader establishes similar positive ethical attribute in all fronts of their organization, since the employees and stakeholders are prompted to follow suit. This is in line with Terris’ (2005) opinion in the book Ethics at Work. Terris commends the Lockheed-Martin program for institutionalizing functioning work ethics at the administrative level (Terris, 2005, p. 47). Furthermore, according LRN research conducted in the United States, most of the full-time workers preferred working in an ethical company, suggesting the importance of leaders and stakeholders’ ethical behavior in the organization (Dubrin, 2010).
This model states that in this 21st century, it is impossible to rely on one management style to fit all situations (Educational-business-articles.com, 2016). In other words managers and leaders must be flexible, in order to get the best result out of their teams and individuals. In addition, this theory allows management and leadership to be able to identify and accurately diagnose the situation and vary employees’ behavior accordingly to the situation (Yukl and Mahsud, 2010). This will enable management and leadership at CIBCFCIB to select appropriate types of leadership behavior for each type of situation. Moreover, another impact that this theory has on organizational strategy whereby Charismatic leaders at CIBCFCIB can minimize various types of behaviour by increasing competent employees.
Must employees will notice, criticized, or even emulated the moral failures of their leaders. If we look at our world history, it is filled with examples of how competent leaders have failed from ancient times to modern times. Periodically, we read about unethical behavior in some type of media outlet. Which often corrupts the public’s trust in the leader’s company or agency, then it brings the individual leader into question.
This paper will examine the three leadership theories, identify how they apply to my practice, and explore how these theories interact with each other. The Trait Leadership Theory is based on the belief that a person is born with special traits contributing to natural leadership abilities. Studies of famous historical leaders have been used to identify various traits for this theory. Although the list of traits differs from study to study, there are five major traits that are consistent throughout most studies.
This statement is supported by Bennett (2014) wherein ethics clearly defines what is the right and wrong things and shapes what kind of behavior the business should act on. For the sense of business according to Joseph (2013), ethics are constructed and decided by each business and underpins decision that an employee makes. When it comes to the business’ environment, a well-constructed ethics is a key for a considerate and responsible decision making in a business (Bennett, 2014). Business Ethics is very important inside the company, it will show the moral standards that a company or business have whether it is right or wrong and good or bad.
There is need to pay more attention to an analysis of unethical behavior in leadership and its relation to corporate culture. Ethical leadership is a growing concept and many large companies are promoting business ethics as their corporate social responsibility. The behavior and the individual values of the leader provide the direction to the business. Leader’s actions in term of ethical behavior and unethical behavior gives ideas to the employee and other stakeholders that what need to follow and what values are aspired in an organization. The position of the leader with moral and ethical values is most important to provide the solutions to ethical issues in a workplace.
Review of Literature Unethical behavior can tarnish a company’s image and reputation. If a company is unethical, they may have to spend additional money to improve their public image, as well as gain back as many customers as possible. The reason I have chosen to use articles that are quite a few years old and that are not so recent is because I feel that they are very good examples of what I am trying to prove in the terms of ethical behaviour within companies and these specific articles relate well to my chosen topic.