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Week 2 Discussion

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176 views

Week 2 Discussion

Uploaded by

Dakia Manning
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Week 2 Discussion

What is an ethical climate, and how does the quality of an ethical climate impact upward ethical
leadership?

How would leaders develop and maintain an ethical climate? (NOTE: analyze using 2 of the 5
components listed in the article by Johnson (2007), Best Practices in Ethical Leadership, in this
week’s readings).

An ethical climate is substantive to any organization as it characterizes the values determining


correct or wrong behaviors and the outcome of ethical situations. Regardless of the hierarchy of
authority, everyone makes up the ethical climate by following a set of values communicated
throughout the organization. It is the responsibility of titled leaders to behave morally, shape the
social norms, and actions that support ethical decision-making.

The quality of an ethical climate can majorly impact upward ethical leadership. To have a
positive impact, leaders must impose a set of ethical responsibilities. Leaders are viewed with the
most power, more significant benefits, and access to information, and deal with the complexity
of reliability and loyalty. This platform invites the climate/ employees to follow in the leaders
footsteps. According to the Best Practices in Ethical Leadership, actions of unethical leaders
stem from fear, ego, and greed. Leaders can develop and maintain an ethical climate by ensuring
five elements are in place. The five elements are Formal Ethics policies and Procedures, Core
Ideology, Integrity, structural reinforcement, and process focus.

Structural reinforcement: Training, performance evaluations, and reward systems allow an


organization to develop or strengthen desirable behaviors with a presentation. In previous
organizations, I’ve completed monthly and annual training. Training is focused on ethics,
leadership, compliance, onboarding, technical, sales, and diversity. Revisiting the training
frequently reminds employees of the organization goals, policies, and overall structure.
Providing performance evaluations can tailor individual growth and leadership capabilities. This
also helps front-line leaders to detect dark-side behaviors such as aggression, incivility, sexual
harassment, and discrimination. Lastly, “Reward systems promote honesty, fair treatment of
customers, courtesy, excellent service, and other moral behaviors” (Johnson, 2007, p.158).

Integrity: “Integrity refers to Soundness, wholeness, inconsistency, which come from


incorporating core ideology throughout every organizational unit and level and living out ethical
commitments and codes” (Johnson, 2007, p.158). Leaders set the tone for integrity. It is easy to
post or recite the vision and values. Unfortunately, patent lies have become the norm. One day
my Boss and I were having an informal meeting. His assistant came in, and before she could
speak, my boss said, “tell them I’m not here". Therefore, I questioned his integrity by stating that
it’s not an honest response. He was shaping the ethical climate by letting his staff know it's okay
to lie when it suits personal interests. Integrity is a valued trait since leaders set expectations on
acceptable behavior.

Johnson, C. E. (2007). Best practices in ethical leadership. In The practice of leadership (Chapter
7). Faculty Publications – School of Business.
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1099&context=gfsb

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