Vision of Leadership.

My vision of leadership is a leader who is able to bring the best out of each of his or her team member by motivating them, coaching them and inspiring them. I believe that every employee has their own skill set and talents and the best of leaders are able to adapt their leadership style according to the existing circumstances. This ensures every employee is able to contribute towards the organisation. Every worker would feel appreciated and valuable when their capabilities contribute towards the wellbeing of their organisation. It is almost important for leaders to have be ethical  and treat everyone without any prejudice.

Based on my vision of leadership, I feel that the best model of leadership would be the situational leadership model from Paul Hershey and Ken Blanchard. In situational leadership, leaders often look assess the situation and the competence level of their worker to determine which is the best approach to handle the problem (Cherry 2019). By using this model leaders can recognises that workers react differently when doing different tasks and they may react differently during different stages of the same task. One limitation of the model is that it does not take into account how demographic aspects such as education, age and gender of the workers influence the leader (Shonhiwa 2016). If I am given a choice to lead in the future I would definitely apply situational leadership approach to best utilize the unique and different capabilities that workers have in handling any given situations.

Inspirational leader

My inspirational leader would be Colin Luther Powell, an American army general and also American Secretary of State. Not only he was a well decorated Army general, Powell also found great success in political affairs as secretary of state under President George W. Bush .Powell managed in succeeding both as a general and a statesmen due to his ability to adapt and use of situational leadership to lead in both military bureaucracy political reality (Resourcefulmanager 2019). Powell also relate his success in leadership to his principle of embracing cultural difference (Mendler 2018). It allowed him to learn from the differences in perspectives that culturally different people have (Mendler 2018). I find Powell to be a truly situational leader because he was able to apply his great leadership tactics in political arena and influenced the life of many Americans.     

Feedback and Analysis

Based on the 16 personality tests, I found myself to be a Mediator which translates to someone who plays a diplomatic role based on principles in a group of people or workplace (16 Personalities 2019). The tests shows that I have an introvert mind and I think this is in line with nature of being reserved. I was also mentioned to be intuitive and this relates to my current role as a marketer which requires creative thinking to develop marketing plans. The test also mentions that I am look for constant improvement and I have to agree with this as I am always motivated to look for ways to improvise action plans and strategies at my workplace. I was also found to be turbulent and this is definitely a setback for me as I am vulnerable to stress (16 Personalities 2019). In future I would look into improvising on ways of handling stress so that my decision making process is not affected by it.

Model the way Unit 5	Inspire Unit 4	Challenge Unit 3	Enable Unit 2	Encourage Unit 1
7.91	7.47	7.80	8.49	7.88

Figure 6:  Peer’s Review Table

My peer’s review result shows that I scored highest for Unit 2: Enable. Through this I understand that, I am able to cooperate well with my team members, always open to suggestions, supportive of their decisions and treat them with respect. My lowest score is for Unit 4: Inspire and this shows that I am need to improve on speaking with more conviction about work and show other how dreams can be realised. Also I need to improvise on my knowledge of future trends and always have a forward looking view.

In conclusion, I feel that this MBA program has given me a big exposure on leadership as a whole. What I look to develop through this MBA course is the ability to lead better, be an effective communicator and have the ability to solve problems. I can work on my leadership ability by taking more leadership oriented roles in group works and be open to criticism from my group mates. To be able to communicate effectively, I would want to participate actively in open discussions in class room. In terms of ability to solve problem, I would depend on the theoretical knowledge acquired in class such as Kurt Lewin change management model which apply it practically to handle resistance to change at workplace. By acquiring the skills mentioned above, I hope to be a good and effective leader whom gives a great importance in nurturing individual talent.

753 words (excluding in text citations)

References

16 Personalities (2018) ‘INFP-Personality’ [online] available from < https://www.16personalities.com/infp-personality&gt; [21 March 2018]

Cherry, K. (2019) ‘Situational Theory of Leadership’, Verywellmind [online] available from < https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-situational-theory-of-leadership-2795321&gt; [21 March 2018]

CNN Library  (2018) ‘Colin Powell Fast Facts’, CNN [online] available from < https://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/20/us/colin-powell-fast-facts/index.html&gt; [21 March 2018]

Gonzalez, N. (2017) ‘BUILD A LEADERSHIP VISION’, SFMagazine [online] available from < https://sfmagazine.com/post-entry/november-2017-build-a-leadership-vision/&gt; [21 March 2018]

Mendler, A. (2018) ‘What Leaders Can Learn From Colin Powell’, Forbes [online] available from < https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2018/08/13/what-leaders-can-learn-from-colin-powell/#b2f3668317ed&gt; [21 March 2019]

Shonhiwa, C. (2016) ‘An Examination of the Situational Leadership Approach: Strengths and Weaknesses’,  An International Peer-Reviewed Journal on Humanities & Social Sciences [online] 2(2), 35-40. available from <http://crosscurrentpublisher.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/CC2235-40.pdf&gt; [21 March 2019]

Resourceful Manager (2019) ‘11 Great Leaders: How They Achieved Success’,Resourcefulmanager [online] available from < https://www.resourcefulmanager.com/guides/successful-leaders/&gt; [21 March 2019]

Todorov, A. (2017) ‘4 Situational Leadership Styles to help develop your teams’, Atodorov.org available from < http://atodorov.org/blog/2017/11/11/4-situational-leadership-styles/&gt; [21 March 2019]

“Change is nothing new and a simple fact of life. Some people actively thrive on new challenges and constant change, while others prefer the comfort of the status quo and strongly resist any change. It is all down to the personality of the individual and there is little management can do about resistance to change” (Mullins 2013: 712).

Change is a critical part of life and is present is almost everything we do or see. Mullins (2013) argues that there is little management can do about resistance to changes. Organisational changes are very common and they happen due to the ever changing nature of business. According to Kotter and Schlesinger (1979), resistance to change occurs due to parochial self-interest, misunderstanding, low tolerance to changes and different assessment of the situation. However, resistance to changes shown by employees can be overcome by using facilitation and support which is a form of management as well (Kotter and Schlesinger 1979). By using this understanding, leaders should be able to overcome resistance to change by using proper techniques, methods and models for managing resistance.

Managers play a very crucial part in managing changes since they are the ones who always implement changes. Managers can often take up initiatives such as actively engaging with employees to understand the resistance to change and use the feedbacks to make the changes more acceptable for them (Paycor 2016). Another simple yet effective role would be to communicate the change effectively because changes are often resisted because employees do not understand the benefits of the changes and may see it as detrimental instead of beneficial (Paycor 2016).Resistance, however can be treated as a resource as well since resistance can be viewed as a feedback which can be used to refine change effort (Ford & Ford 2009). Employees who are outspoken about their resistance to changes are most likely the people who genuinely cares and recognizes the structure of the organisation. Their resistance could shed light on the disadvantage of the change or failures that may cause (Ford & Ford 2009).

Change method Model

Managers can use certain methods in managing resistance to changes such as Kurt Lewin change model. The model is based on a 3 step process which is unfreeze, change and freeze and acts as a framework for managers to move the organisation from present state to a preferred future state (Morisson 2014).

Unfreeze basically relates to workers reflecting on their day to day activities and opening up to new methods of reaching their objectives. The next step would be to go implement the change process which is a dynamic and involves a transition period. The last phase would be freeze where the changes are made to be made permanent in order to be effective (Morisson 2014). By using this model, managers can ensure that the change implemented has a minimal disruption on the organisation’s operation and also that the change implemented is permanent (Morisson 2014). One limitation of this model would be that the model is too simplistic and mechanistic. Therefore, the model fails when applied in a continuous and open-ended organisational changes (Burnes 2004). The model also fails to take into account the role of politics, power and conflicts in the workplace (Burnes 2004).

In 2014, the oil giant Shell was facing decline in share prices due to oil reserve crisis. Shell had overstated its proven reserves by 2.7 billion barrels (Orton-Jones 2014). Jeroen van der Veer, the group chairman understood that the organisation had to change to survive the crisis. A new series of standardised processes were developed and proposed but was resisted by some countries operating units as the change may cause loss of market share. Shell’s management pushed forward with the change despite the resistance and the company recovered from the crisis (Orton-Jones 2014).

Blockbuster, an American company providing movie and video game rental was one of the organisation that failed to adapt to changes. Blockbuster during its peak was approached by Netflix for a partnership in which Netflix would promote Blockbuster online and Blockbuster promoting Netflix at its outlets (Lepsinger 2017). Blockbuster declined the offer and failed to understand that consumers were changing their preferred way of watching movie and instead invested more on physical stores. The failure to recognise the need for change resulted in Blockbuster running into major loss (Lepsinger 2017).

In conclusion, I can say that Mullins statement on management have little impact on resisting changes is not accurate. Resistance should be seen as a positive feedback when applying changes because it allows the management to make necessary improvisation on the changes and make it better. The best way to manage changes would be to communicate the change effectively to the employees and at the same time employing proven change models such as Lewin’s model.

813 words (excluding citations).

References

Burnes, B. (2004).  Kurt Lewin and the planned approach to change: A re-appraisal. Journal of Management Studies, 41(6), 977-1002.

Ciaopages (n.d.) ‘Kurt-Lewin-Change-Management-Model’, Ciaopages [Online] Available at: https://www.ciopages.com/change-management-models/kurt-lewin-change-management-model/ [Accessed:20 March 2019]

EuropeanCeo, (2009) ‘Jeroen Van der Veer’, EuropeanCeo [Online] Available at: https://www.europeanceo.com/profiles/jeroen-van-der-veer-shell/ [Accessed:20 March 2019]

Ford, J.D., and Ford, L.W. (2009) ‘Decoding Resistance to Change’ 2009 Issue Harvard Business Review. Available at: <https://hbr.org/2009/04/decoding-resistance-to-change&gt; [20 March 2019]

Kotter, J.P., Schlesinger, L.A. (1979) ‘Choosing Strategies for Change’ Harvard Business Review [online] 57(2), 106 – 114. Available from <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.inti.edu.my:2048/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=37a608d1-9a7e-4c18-a12f-8c4e73c6877b%40pdc-v-sessmgr06&gt; [Accessed: 20 March 2019]

Lepsinger. R, (2017) ‘3 Companies That Failed to Adapt, And Where They Went Wrong’, OnpointConsulting [Online] Available at: https://www.onpointconsultingllc.com/blog/companies-that-failed  [Accessed:20 March 2019]

Morrison, M. (2014 ) ‘Kurt Lewin change theory three step model – unfreeze, change, freeze, RapidBi [Online] Available at: https://rapidbi.com/kurt-lewin-three-step-change-theory/ [Accessed:20 March 2019]

Nguyen, S. (2017) ‘REASONS WHY PEOPLE RESIST OR SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE’, The Guardian [Online] Available at: Reasons Why People Resist or Support Organizational Change [Accessed:20 March 2019]

Orton-Jones, C. (2014) ‘Shell finance chief resigns in reserves crisis’, The Guardian [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2004/apr/19/oilandpetrol.news1 [Accessed:20 March 2019]

Paycor  (2016) ‘Overcoming Employee Resistance To Change In The Workplace’, PayCor [Online] Available at: https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/change-management-in-the-workplace-why-do-employees-resist-it [Accessed:20 March 2019]

Taylor. K, (2013) ‘The Fall of a Franchise: Blockbuster and 5 Other Chains That Went Bust’, Entrepreneur [Online] Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/229944 [Accessed:20 March 2019]

Statement: “Which personal style should managers adopt to ensure success? What is the most effective approach to managing the work of subordinates? These questions have been extensively researched and debated over the last century, and while the general consensus has moved away from ‘command and control’ to management and leadership towards more consultative and participative approaches, there is no single ideal, as the best approach may vary according to circumstances and individual characteristics” (CMI 2013).Similarities and differences between leadership and management

Leadership and management are two integral components in running any organisation but they both have different definition and intended purpose. According to Yukl (2010), leadership is defined as a process of influencing their subordinates to understand the objective and how to achieve it, and facilitating the team to achieve the goal. Whereas, management according to Mullins (2010) is associated with people who play specific roles in structured organisations to achieved predetermined organisational goals.

According to Young & Dulewicz (2008), leadership and management share some commonness among them which are conceptualizing actions that needs to be done, aligning people and resources, taking an active role and lastly creating success. In addition, it is also emphasized that leadership and management involve influencing others, working with people, and working to achieve mutual goals (The Guardian 2013).

Zaleknik (2014), highlighted that the differences between leadership and management can be traced to attitude towards work, relation with others and conception of work. It is said that managers connect with people based on the role they play in the decision making process whereas leaders usually take a more intuitive and empathetic approach in connecting with people (Zaleknik 2014). As for conceptions in work, managers are seen to limit choices and continuously balance opposing view. But, leaders look at new solutions for lengthy problems and provide many new options in tackling problems.

Leadership Theories

Leadership styles can be classified into 3 types which are autocratic leadership, democratic leadership and the laissez-faire style. According to Leonard (2018), autocratic leadership style is defined as total compliance with all work duties and assigned tasks by the boss. In democratic leadership, leaders involve their employees in the decision making process and share responsibility with them (Surbhi 2017). Whereas, in Laissez-Faire leadership employees are to set their own goals, deadlines and process and make own decisions with minimum supervision from their managers (Harness 2018).

Another popular leadership style is the situational leadership which states that leadership is not relying on the skills of a leader, instead the leader modifies their management style to best fit the requirement of the organisations (St. Thomas University 2018).

Figure 1:The Situational Leadership Model (Meier 2016).

Situational leadership is divided into four parts which is selling, participating, telling and delegating. For example, if the subordinate is having low skill and the task difficulty is high then the leader needs to have a telling/directive role (Hershey and Blanchard 1996). By doing so, the leader can clearly establish the role and task that is required to be done.

In my opinion, I feel that situational leadership would be the ideal way in managing work subordinates. The clear advantage of this model is that it recognises the need for flexibility in leading and would be very helpful in managing a diverse team. However, it is not easy of identify the maturity of subordinates as maturity can be related to emotional maturity and job maturity and some subordinates might have one but not the other (Gaille 2018). I also agree with the opinion of CMI (2013) that there is no single ideal, as the best approach may vary according to circumstances and individual characteristics”. This is because a team of subordinate would have difference in characteristics and they role that they play in a team could differ according to the situation requirement and skill sets.

Example of Situational Leaderships

Figure 2: Phil Jackson Q&A (Amick 2014).

NBA Coach Phil Jackson was considered to be a great example of situational leader in the sports industry. Prior to Jackson’s arrival as the Coach of the Bulls and Coach of the Lakers none of the NBA superstars Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neil had won championship titles.  Although all 2 of them had great talent levels their different personalities and qualm with teammates made it difficult for them to be coached. Jackson, after joining a coach was able to meet the needs of his individual players Jordan, Bryant and O’Neil and made the team to be the youngest team in NFL to win Superbowl back to back. For example, he understood that Jordan was the hardest worker in the team, had high level of competence and commitment and therefore he entrusted Jordan with a great amount of responsibility in the team (Wade 2016). 

Figure 3: Former Coca-Cola CEO Jack Stahl shares leadership tips with EMBA students (Brooks 2018)

Another example of situational leader would be Jack Stahl, ex ceo of Coca-Cola. Stahl believed that the best leaders are situational because they are able to engage in any situation by adapting to need of the situation (Prewitt 2007). He learned this approach when he ran into a trouble with a project of preparing prospectus for public offering assigned by the then CEO, Doug Ivester. Stahl had mostly delegated the tasks to team mates without understanding their competence level and later found that the tasks were mostly undone during deadline. Stahl understood the importance of analysing staff readiness and competence before assigning tasks (Prewitt 2007).

Conclusion

Personally, I would like to be led by a situational leadership approach. I believe situational theory would be the best approach in managing subordinates as it addresses the need for taking different actions in managing individuals with different characteristics. Managers should design their actions based on individual competence and capability so that their subordinates can deliver their best outcome for the benefit of the organisation.  

840 words (excluding in text citation)

Reference

Amick, S. (2014) ‘Phil Jackson Q&A: ‘Jesus could probably coach’ Lakers’, USA Today [Online] Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2014/03/02/phil-jackson-qa-coaching-returning-los-angeles-lakers-jeanie-buss/5945745/ [Accessed:7 March 2019]

Blanchard, K. & Hershey, P. (1996) ‘The Situational Leadership Model’ Management of Organizational Behavior [online] Available from: http://greeks.cofc.edu/documents/The%20Situational%20Leadership%20Model.pdf [Accessed: 7 March 2019]

Brooks, B. (2018) ‘Former Coca-Cola CEO Jack Stahl shares leadership tips with EMBA students’, Emory Business  [Online] Available at: https://www.emorybusiness.com/2018/03/14/former-coca-cola-ceo-jack-stahl-shares-leadership-tips-with-emba-students/ [Accessed:7 March 2019]

Gaille, B. (2018) ‘13 Situational Leadership Advantages and Disadvantages’, St. Brandongaille [Online] Available at: https://brandongaille.com/13-situational-leadership-advantages-and-disadvantages/ [Accessed:7 March 2019]

Harness, J. (2018) ‘Characteristics of Laissez-Faire Management’, bizfluent [Online] Available at: https://bizfluent.com/info-8399492-characteristics-laissezfaire-management.html [Accessed:7 March 2019]

Investopedia (2018) ‘What is Tim Cook’s Managerial Style?’ [online] Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032515/what-tim-cooks-managerial-style.asp [Accessed: 7 March 2019]

Leonard, K. (2019) ‘Difference Between Autocratic and Democratic Leadership’, Chron [Online] Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-autocratic-leadership-style-2980.html [Accessed:7 March 2019]

Meier, D. (2016) ‘Situational Leadership Theory as a Foundation for a Blended Learning Framework’ Journal of Education and Practice, Vol.7, No.10, pp 25-30. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301824928_Situational_Leadership_Theory_as_a_Foundation_for_a_Blended_Learning_Framework [Accessed: 7 March 2019]

Prewitt, M. (2007) ‘The Situational Leader’, Strategy Business  [Online] Available at: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/li00042?gko=f3702 [Accessed:7 March 2019]

St. Thomas University, (2018) ‘What is Situational Leadership? How Flexibility Leads to Success’, St. Thomas University [Online] Available at: https://online.stu.edu/articles/education/what-is-situational-leadership.aspx

Surbhi, S. (2017) ‘Advantages of an Autocratic Leadership Style’, Key Differences [Online] Available at: https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-autocratic-and-democratic-leadership.html [Accessed:7 March 2019]

The Guardian. (2013). What’s the difference between leadership and management?. Available at http://careers.theguardian.com/difference-between-leadership-management [Accessed: 7 March 2019]

Young, M. & Dulewicz, V., 2008. Similarities and Differences between Leadership and Management: High-Performance Competencies in the British Royal Navy. British Journal of Management, 19(1), pp. 17-32.

Zaleznik, A.(2004) ‘Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?”, Harvard Business Review [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2004/01/managers-and-leaders-are-they-different [Accessed: 7 March 2019]

Statement: “Research has consistently shown that diverse teams produce better results, provided they are well led. The ability to bring together people from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures, and generations and leverage all they have to offer, therefore, is a must-have for leaders” (Ibarra and Hansen 2011: 71).

Theory and Model

Figure 1: Diverse Team (Hire Immigrants Ottawa 2018).

A team does not have to be only culturally different to be described as diverse, it could be due to the generation gap between them, level of experience in the industry they work in, the education qualification they possess and many other factors beyond culture.

Of course managing a diverse team is not an easy task as there are difference in convictions, cultural values and operating norms within the team and the leader or manager should be able to lead the team past all these obstacles (Ibarra & Hansen 2011). Tuckman’s theory of team building could help managers lead team for efficiently especially a diverse team.

Figure 2:Tuckman Theory ( Jensen & Tuckman 2019)

Initially developed by Bruce Tuckman, the Tuckman theory consisted of four stages of group building which are forming, storming, norming and performing. These are the stages that a team has to go through to grow as a successful team. A fifth stage called adjourning was added later. In the forming stage it is important to have guidance and direction as the team struggles with little agreement and unclear purpose (Jensen & Tuckman 1977).Agreement and consensus only appear in the third stage and that facilitates clear roles and responsibility. Managers could employ this model to manage a diverse team however, the Tuckman’s model does have its own shortcoming which is the model lacks a complete explanation of how groups change over time (Rickards and Moger 2000). This could be important as a diverse team is expected to change over time with their adaption and absorption of other influences from the team itself.

Another model which could be used in managing a diverse team would the Belbin’s theory which looks at managing a team from individual’s personalities and behaviours.

Figure 3: Belbin Team Roles (Expert program management 2017).

 Belbin concludes that a group of people who share similar personalities are likely to display lack of creativity and produce negative results whereas a group which members undertake a variety of roles are more likely to be successful (Mullins 2016). There are nine team roles according to Belbin, and they include Shaper, Plant, Resource investigators and Coordinator. These team roles are behavioural patterns which indicate how one team members interact with another whose performance aids in the growth of the whole team (Mullins 2016). The strength of a role often is related to an allowable weakness, for example coordinators lead the team but can be seen as manipulative. Limitation of Belbin team roles include lack of clear distinction between different roles and it can lead to team members have their roles mislabelled (Mullins 2016).

Advantages of a diverse team

By having a diverse team, the organisation can look at an increase of productivity and competitive advantage. The unique blend of the team can bring forward new and creative ideas and process which helps the organisation perform better than other organisations that do not (Johnson 2019). Another advantage would be boosting the organisation’s reputation because hiring a diverse team is looked highly upon by the business world. Even jobseekers would be more inclined towards an organisation that hires without discrimination (Johnson 2019).

Disadvantages of a diverse team

One main challenge of a diverse team is communication issues as the key to a successful diverse team would be open and transparent communication (DuPont 1999). Team members are not able to communicate effectively when they fail to recognise individual difference and therefore ideas can’t be communicated effectively across a team. A diverse team also could lead to an increase in cost of training because a diverse team would need more guidance to blend and adapt well into the team. Employers see training as a development programme to increase work performance and add value to employee and this is one tool that employers would continuously use to make a diverse team better (Elnaga & Imran 2013).

Example of an Organisation with a Diverse Team

Reckitt Benckiser, a UK based multinational consumer good company which sells health, hygiene and home products realise that having a diverse team is an added advantage for them as, a diverse workforce is able to produce better solutions and bring in a lot of creativity into the management of the company (Ibarra & Hansen 2011).The organisation aims at increasing the number of female leadership in the organisation and currently has 24% female leader as of 2017.

Figure 4: Female in Senior Management (Reckitt Benckiser 2018)

On top of that, 77% of their top 40 managers are non UK nationals as the organisation believes that in order to manage a global business you need a diverse workforce as the organisations exists in many different countries (Reckitt Benckiser 2018). Due to this, the skill of managing a diverse workforce is paramount for an organisation with a global presence since international assignments require ideas beyond conventional thinking.

Conclusion

In conclusion, an organisation should invest in a diverse team because they not only boost the company’s reputation but also increase productivity of the organisation. In order to manage a diverse team, managers can rely on the Tuckman’s model and Belbin theory to build the team in stages by using the knowledge they have about the nature and character of each individual members in the team. Managers can use the team’s mixture of creativity, productivity and wider understanding of real world to develop profitable business plans and strategies that other companies lack in order to achieve greater success.

(842 words)

References

duPont, K. (1999). Handling Diversity in the Workplace. [online] Ars.usda.gov. Available at:

Click to access Handling%20Diversity%20in%20the%20Workplace.pdf

[Accessed 19 Feb. 2019].

Elnaga, A & Imran, A 2013, The Effect of Training on Employee Performance, European Journal of Business and Management, vol.5, no.4,pp 137-147.

Expert Program Management (2018) ‘Belbin Team Roles’ Expert Program Management [online] available from https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2017/06/belbin-team-roles/ [Accessed on 16 February 2019]

Hire Immigrants Ottawa (2018) ‘Make the most of your diverse team’ Hire Immigrants Ottawa [online] available from: http://www.hireimmigrantsottawa.ca/make-the-most-of-your-diverse-team/ [Accessed on 16 February 2019

Ibarra, H. & Hansen, M. T., 2011. [Online]
Available at: https://hbr.org/2011/07/are-you-a-collaborative-leader
[Accessed 16 February 2019].

Jensen & Tuckman, (1977). Wageningen. [Online]
Available at: http://www.mspguide.org/tool/tuckman-forming-norming-storming-performing
[Accessed 16 February 2019].

Johnson, R. (2019) ‘What Are the Advantages of a Diverse Workforce?’ Chron
available from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-diverse-workforce-18780.html [Accessed on 16 February 2019]

Mullins, L. (2016). Management & Org Behaviour. 11th ed. Pearson Australia Pty Ltd, pp.291-295.

Reckitt Benckiser (2018) ‘A diverse and global workforce’ Reckitt Benckiser [online] available from: https://www.rb.com/responsibility/workplace/diversity/ [Accessed on 16 February 2019]

Rickards, T. and Moger, S. (2000) ‘Creative Leadership Processes in Project Team Development: An Alternative to Tuckman’s Stage Model’ British Journal of Management [online] 11(4), 273-283. Available from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.inti.edu.my:2048/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=4f41fe97-f316-4488-8d6d-112b9df073bf%40sessionmgr4010&gt [Accessed on 16 February 2019]

Rock, D. Grant, H. (2016). Why diverse teams are smarter. Harvard Business Review [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter [Accessed 16 February 2019].

Statement: “Ethical Leadership is defined as “the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement and decision-making”… [and] the evidence suggests that ethical leader behavior can have important positive effects on both individual and organizational effectiveness” (Rubin et al 2010: 216-17).

Figure 1: Road To Leadership (Rankin 2012)

Theories behind Ethical Leadership

Leadership can be expressed in many ways in today’s world. It can be defined as an act of motivating others to achieve a common goal or inspiring others around them to follow their exemplary footsteps. In today’s world, ethical leadership is highly looked upon and has been made a standard for many of the business corporations, political arena and religious societies too. According to Mullins, ethical leadership relates to being “good and bad, or right and wrong”. Its about understanding what makes some things good and others bad (Mullins 2013). In the business world, ethical leadership helps to establish positive brand identity and gives a positive impression to customers on the management of the company.

Principle of ethics are divided into deontological and teleological theory. Deontological theory states that morality of decisions and actions taken should come first regardless of the outcome of those decision and actions (McCartney & Parent 2015). The theory also highlights that performing an assigned duty or responsibility is imperative and the consequence resulting from it can be disregarded. A profound setback of this theory is that decisions taken will not necessarily reflect a positive outcome and it does not allow any leniency in bending rules (BBC 2014). Whereas, the teleological school of thought states that a decision is determined to be morally right or wrong based on the outcome of the decision. If the outcome of the action is positive or correct then any form of action or decision can be taken (Clements 2019).  Teleological theory might be more suitable to be applied in the business world as corporations operate in a complex environment whereby decisions are to be made in favor of stakeholders and customers. However, there is a risk of corporations abusing the teleological theory by justifying morally wrong decisions with positive outcomes such as profit generation.

Ethical Leadership through The 4V-Model

Figure 2: The 4V-Model of Ethical Leadership (The Center for Ethical Leadership n.d)

The 4V-model developed by Dr. Bill Grace serves as the foundation of ethical leadership in which the 4 V stands for value, vision, voice and virtue. Dr. Bill believes value and vision are the most important components of ethical leadership as they establish a purpose and direction for the group (Center for Ethical Leadership 2016). Voice brings to life the values and vision of the group and makes the leadership effective. Virtue is defined as a commitment to the common good and therefore plays a very important role in deciding the impact that the leadership will be delivering to the society.

Example of Ethical Leadership

Figure 3: Starbucks CEO apologizing amid arrest (Isaac 2018)

In May 2018, a Starbucks store manager called the police to arrest two black men who were waiting at the restaurant without ordering anything while waiting for their business associate (Tangdall 2018). The manager called up the police after the men refused to leave the premise. This incident was immediately identified as racial discrimination by the general public. Kevin Johnson, the CEO of Starbucks showcased moral values when he stepped up and issued a public apology for the incident and claimed that the isolated incident does not reflect the core values of Starbucks. He then closed down some 8000 Starbucks outlet all over USA to conduct unconscious bias training as he believed the staffs were not well trained on this (Tangdall 2018). Johnson’s action also was highly regarded by the public and it helped to create a positive effect on Starbucks by regaining customer’s belief on the brand.

Example of Unethical Leadership  

Figure 4: Olympus Chairman Tayaoshi Kikukawa resigning in 2011 (BBC News  2017)

In 2011, Michael Woodford the CEO of Olympus Corporation exposed the ongoing financial scandals that has been happening for over many decades in Olympus (Ng 2017). When the matter was brought up to the Board Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, he dismissed it and told Woodford to stay off the matter. Woodford decided to continue pursuing the matter and that led to Kikukawa firing him with the board’s support. Later on, the incident snowballed into a large corporate scandal and led to the resignation of Kikukawa and the arrest of many past and present board members (Ng 2017). The abuse of leadership by board chairman Kikukawa led to Olympus’s share falling almost 82% and it took many years for Olympus after that to regain the confidence of its customers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ethical leadership can build organisations and promote positive attitude among its employees. Employees often learn from example and corruptions at top level of management could trickle down to their employees and this could disrupt the effectiveness of an organisation. By adhering to some basic guidance such as the teleological theory, deontological theory and the 4P values, leaders can decide better on the morality of decisions and pass on the positive example to their followers.

Reference

BBC News (2017) Olympus scandal: Former bosses to pay $529m over fraud[online] available from < https://www.bbc.com/news/business-39741921&gt; [27 January 2019]

BBC (2014a) Duty-based ethics [online] available from <http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/duty_1.shtml&gt; (Accessed 27 January 2019)

Isaac,P.(2018) ‘Phobia Isaac 2018’, Healthy Nutrition Tips,[Online] Avaible from http://healthynutritiontips.info/phobia-isaac-2018-d22a206/ (Accessed 27 January 2019)

McCartney, S., & Parent, R. (2015). Ethics in law enforcement. Victoria, BC: BCcampus. Available from  <https://opentextbc.ca/ethicsinlawenforcement/chapter/2-3-deontology/> %5BAccessed 27 January 2019].

Mullins, L. (2013). Management & Organisational Behaviour. 10th ed. Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited, pp.676-686.

Ng,D. (2017) ‘How Olympus was almost brought down by one of the worst corporate scandals’, Channel News Asia, 26 November.Available at: <https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/how-olympus-was-almost-brought-down-by-one-of-the-worst-9440206&gt; (Accessed : 27 January 2019)

Rankin,O.(2012) ‘LEADERSHIP 101’ Ormond Ranking Boise, 18 May. Available from <https://ormondrankin.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/leadership-101/&gt; (Accessed: 27 January 2019)

SOAS University of London (n.d) Unit 1 Introduction to Ethics[online] available from <https://www.soas.ac.uk/cedep-demos/000_P563_EED_K3736-Demo/unit1/page_17.htm&gt; (Accessed: 27 January 2019)

Tangdall,S. (2018) ‘The CEO of Starbucks and the Practice of Ethical Leadership’, Markula Center for Applied Ethics, 29 August. Available at: <https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/leadership-ethics/resources/the-ceo-of-starbucks-and-the-practice-of-ethical-leadership/&gt; (Accessed: 27 January 2019)
The Center for Ethical Leadership (n.d.) The 4-V Model of Ethical Leadership[online] available from < http://www.ethicalleadership.org/concepts-and-philosophies.html&gt; [27 January 2019]

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