Module 2 Essay

Gideon Tyree

MGMT-6740

9/8/2024

Do good guys finish last? We are often inundated from the media and

interactions with others with the idea that the only way to get ahead in life is

through unethical practices and that only fools play by the rules. This is not even

always, or in fact often, presented as something desirable or as an attempt to

convince others to become more ruthless, but rather as a bitterly cynical musing

that the villains in the real world will never be punished for their actions while “no

good deed goes unpunished.” While it is true that there are high-profile examples of

bad actors avoiding punishment for their misdeeds, and there is a certain

philosophical truth in accepting that, to quote Harper Lee on courage, “It’s when

you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it

through no matter what,” the truth is that morality is not outdated, and in fact once

you look under the surface you will begin to see that ethical leadership simply leads

to better results, while organizations run unethically tend to go down in flames

sooner or later.

Examples of the disastrous results of unethical leadership are more dramatic

and obvious, so that is where we shall begin. The truth is that a leader who is

known to be unethical tends to attract sycophantic minions who will approve of the

leader’s every whim even if they are ill-though out, while useful ideas and criticisms

are silenced due to fear of reprisals or plagiarism. Famously, Nazi Germany’s

response to D Day was so uncoordinated because Adolf Hitler’s aides were afraid he
would have them executed if they woke him from his nap to inform him of the

invasion. A similar situation explains Vladimir Putin’s disastrous performance in his

invasion of Ukraine; Putin had been led to believe that the Russian military was

better equipped than it really was because that was what his generals thought he

wanted to hear, and so Putin planned for a speedy victory in Ukraine which turned

out to be impossible. To quote the Bible, Proverbs 29:12 says, “If a ruler hearken to

lies, all his servants are wicked.”

This is not the only way that this principle can manifest itself, however. One

of the most striking examples of blatant political corruption in America is the recent

example of Tiffany A. Henyard, the self-proclaimed “super mayor” of the Village of

Dolton, Illinois. Given the unflattering nickname of the “Dictator of Dolton” by her

critics, this petty thief turned politician – the cynical may ask if there is a difference

– has had a mayoral reign characterized by blatant corruption and gross negligence

of her duties. She has spent billions of taxpayer dollars on her own lavish vacations

while the village’s traffic lights and police cars are on the verge of being

repossessed, has used the police – whom she has bribed into unquestioning

obedience through unlimited overtime pay – to intimidate and allegedly assassinate

critics, has used a phony cancer charity to extract even more money from her

constituents, has revoked the business licenses of those who refused to donate to

her reelection fund, and even on one occasion locked her critics in the basement of

the village hall to keep them from speaking at a public meeting. This only a short

list of her many crimes, the totality of which sound like something from a work of

fiction, but the point is that this is a person who does not care that her actions have

caused the total breakdown of her village, so the negative effects mentioned

previously would not concern her. Why should she care if her underlings report to
her that the village’s finances are perfect when they are not? Her only use for the

village is to extort money from its citizens for her personal use and to stroke her

own ego through vanity projects and propaganda pieces. Despite this, her actions

did catch up to her in the end. It turns out that fostering an organizational culture

of self-centered grifting creates employees who will just as easily turn on their

leader when the opportunity presents itself. Indeed, once Henyard fell under federal

investigation, many of her most ardent defenders suddenly turned state’s witness in

an effort to save their own skins, including Henyard’s right hand man and alleged

boyfriend. Faced with this sudden betrayal and with the noose tightening around

her throat, Henyard fled the state but it is only a matter of time before she is

caught, her disappearance likely to be used as evidence of her guilt in court.

Perhaps these seem extreme examples, but the same things routinely happen on a

smaller scale to the tinpot dictators of the business world and the same lessons

apply there just as in the world of politics.

Ethical leadership, on the other hand, is not only morally right but leads to

more efficient, and thus more lucrative, organizations. As Bowen H. “Buzz” McCoy

explains in his article Stand Up for Your Values, the qualities of an ethically

responsible company are the very same that allow a company to adapt quickly to

disruption. Allowing open communication and criticism not only prevents unethical

plots from being concocted in shadowy little cliques, but also empowers employees

to voice their ideas without fear of being quashed by political infighting. Certainly,

some of these ideas will not be worth the paper they are printed on (even if sent via

email!) but statistically it is a certainty that at least one of them will be the very

idea the organization needs to solve a problem it is facing, or even identify a

problem no one else realized existed. By the same token, surrounding oneself with
trustworthy individuals not only means one can rest easy knowing that they are

running the company ethically, but also allows the leader to receive honest

feedback on his or her ideas where the Hitlers and Putins of the world would receive

only canned praise. Another aspect which McCoy does not raise but which has been

noted by other researchers is that employees who feel valued by their company and

take pride in the goals of their work are more motivated than those who see

themselves as mere cogs in a machine which is working towards at best amoral

ends. Simply put, good leadership is one and the same as capital “G” Good

leadership.

Make no mistake, the world is full of jerks who don’t always get the

punishments we think they deserve in what we consider to be a timely manner. But

those who lead by fear and greed and who exploit those whose interests it is their

responsibility to protect, while they may profit in the short term, live a life of

constantly running from their own actions, hoping they can jump ship to another

organization before the current one collapses beneath the weight of their own

incompetence. This is not a sustainable business model. What is sustainable, on

the other hand, is building an organization that cares about its workers and its

clients and is motivated to achieve good ends by good means. It may not rocket to

the Fortune 500 overnight – though it just might – but it will have the stability and

the trustworthy connections to stay around and continue growing long after the ugly

truth of those companies which rapidly grew through dishonest means is exposed

and they go down in flames.