Understanding Personal and Group Ethics – Nu Leadership Series
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations. Sin is limitations. As soon as you get to the limitations of a man, it is all over for him.
Emerson
In today’s society, personal and group ethics shape the formation of values in organizations. Ethics and organizational culture can impact the success of an organization in the following ways: (a) group cultures influence ethical behavior more than the sum of their individual ethics, (b) ethical reasoning is a logical sequence where policies are the latter, making policies the result of ethical reasoning, not a substitute for it, and (c) ethical and cultural gaps can only be narrowed by avoiding their root causes early in the process. Ethics in organizations is more influenced by the group ethics system (culture) than by the sum of individual personal ethics systems.
Ethics play a fundamental role in leadership. Ethics is defined as the code of moral principles that governs the behavior of a person / group towards what is correct. People will not respect a leader of low integrity. A leader cannot cheat them with promotions or take them away with money. Ultimately, character counts in an effective organization. Draft, an expert in organization administration, explains that leaders at the highest management levels develop internal moral standards that can often allow them to break laws if necessary.
The unethical conduct of a leader causes his own demise and the shame of his organization. Thus, it can be shown that effective leaders must have accountability mechanisms in place so that they do not hit any ethical minefields. Can you imagine what happens in an organization without accountability?
Each individual brings their own personal beliefs to the workplace. Leaders are no exception. An individual’s family background, traditions, spiritual values, and experiences influence the way they make moral decisions. At the mid-point of development, individuals learn to conform to the expectations of moral behavior defined by their peers and society. Most of the leaders at this junction are willing to follow the laws and expectations of society.
However, the highest levels of value training are individuals who develop their own internal set of standards. Therefore, these individuals develop their own ethical principles that become more important in their decision-making than any external expectations. This high arc principle allows them to make unethical decisions, such as breaking laws or compromised organizational values, because it allows them to uphold their moral principles internally. Obviously, values will continue to play a critical role in organizational development in the future.
References:
CNN (2005). Reid: The White House owes an explanation. Received October 31, 2005 from http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/30/leak.probe/index.html.
Ciulla, JB (1998). Ethics: the heart of leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger.
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Harris, J. (April 12, 2005). In recent scandals, a rethinking of the conventional wisdom of capital. Washington Post.
Heuser, B. (2005). The ethics of social cohesion. Peabody Journal of Education. 80 (4), pp. 8-15.
Kern, C. (2003). Creating and maintaining an ethical work culture, Pepperdine University.
King, S. (2006). The moral administrator. Public integrity. 8 (2), pp. 113-133.
Lester, W. (2005). Associated Press. Congress scores low on ethics and honesty.
Nelson, M. (1994). Why Americans hate politics and politicians. Virginia Quarterly Review. 70 (4), p. 636, 18 p.
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© 2006 by Daryl D. Green
