Ethical leadership in an organization is viewed as a source of intrinsic motivation. It influences the leaders’ decisions in areas such as job design. The employees in most cases are influenced by the values of their leaders. The values that the leaders hold can be passed down to their subordinates or followers through various means (Piccolo, 2010). The methods or systems that successful leaders use to communicate their values should be able to motivate their employees or subordinates.
Organizational leaders should create an ethical climate within the organization. Ethical environment and climate will give rise to moral climate on which the organizational decisions will be made (Pickett, 2005). The leadership must be able to maintain an ethical environment that promotes a moral behavior among the employees and leadership. In most cases employees depend on their leaders to help them handle different ethical situations. The positions that are held by the leaders or managers make them to be the center of focus by their followers or subordinates. Their followers are able to observe their ethical behaviors and learn from the leaders conducts (Ciulla, 2004). Therefore, the leaders have to portray good conducts so that their subordinates may also acquire the ethical values that they are able to learn from them. They have to treat the employees with utmost respect that they deserve to be accorded. This will make the employees to respect their leaders too. Some of the common traits that make someone an ethical leader are trustworthiness, approachability, fairness, and transparency and accountability among others (Ciulla, 2004). Ethical leader have to show high sense of morality and professionalism when dealing with their employees.
Role of Ethics in Building Relationship
Ethics plays a very critical role in establishing the relationships between the leaders and their teams. Leader who behave ethical are able to develop trust among their teams (Lumsden, Lumsden & Wiethoff, 2010). The leaders are able to promote the virtues that enable them to connect with their teams such as fairness, power sharing and clarification of every individual’s roles. Every individual including the leaders are able to act responsibly towards one another and towards their jobs or tasks. Leaders who share power are able to empower the employees so that they are able to make decisions and become productive (Lumsden, Lumsden & Wiethoff, 2010). Members of the team are also able to conduct their affairs in an open and transparent manner. Ethical leadership encourages the emotional support and exchange of valued resources between the leaders and their subordinates (Walumbwa et al, 2011). It also promotes social identity that is; members of the team have a feeling of oneness and belongingness to the team. The employees will view leaders who behave ethically as honest and trustworthy. This makes them to open up with their leaders and share ideas.
Role of Ethical Leadership in Enhancing Performance
Ethical leaders perform a very important role in enhancing employees’ performance. Ethical leaders who are transformational leaders and support the organizational culture to contribute to the employees’ increased performance (Bellingham, 2003). They have components such as idealized behavior, idealized attributes, inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation that promote the employee performance. The positive behavior that leaders show is able to inspire, motivate, mentor and coach the employees to become good performers (Sheraz et al, 2012). The charismatic nature of such leaders makes them support their teams to increase the employee performance.
REFERENCES
Bellingham, R. (2003) “Ethical Leadership: Rebuilding Trust in Corporations,” 2nd Edition, HRD Press, Amherst, Mass.
Ciulla, JB. (2004) “Ethics, the Heart of Leadership,” 2nd Edition. Praeger, Westport, Conn.
Clark, KE&Clark, MB. (1996) “Choosing to Lead,” 2nd Edition. Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, N.C.
Lumsden, G, Lumsden, DL & Wiethoff, C. (2010) “Communicating In Groups and Teams: Sharing Leadership,” 5th Edition, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston, MA.
Piccolo, RF. (2010) “The Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Core Job Characteristics,” Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31, 259–278. Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://ron-piccolo.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/2010-JOB-EL-JCT-Piccolo-et-al1.pdf>
Pickett, MC. (2005) “Understanding Ethical Leadership,” ASBBS E-Journal, Vol.1 No.1 Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www.asbbs.org/files/2005/PDF/Pickett.pdf>
Sheraz, A et al. (2012) “Enhancing employee performance through ethical leadership, transformational leadership and organizational culture in development sector of Pakistan,” African Journal of Business Management Vol.6 (4), pp. 1244-1251. Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM/PDF/pdf2012/1Feb/Sheraz%20et%20al.pdf>
Walumbwa, FO et al. (2011) “Linking ethical leadership to employee performance: The roles of leader–member exchange, self-efficacy, and organizational identification,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 115 (2011) 204–213. Viewed on September 20, 2012 <http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/dmmayer/Published%20Articles/Walumbwa%20et%20al.pdf>
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