Three Levels of Ethical Leadership in HRM

This article discusses the three levels of ethical leadership in HRM and how it affects the performance of an organization. It includes personal experiences of the author as a team leader and management in MNCs. The article also provides analysis and evaluation of the three levels of ethical leadership and an action plan for improvement.

Running head: HRM
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Name of the Student:
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Leadership is like the building block of the sound performance of any organization. It is
the responsibility of the leaders to make sure that the employees are being able to abide by the
ethical code of conduct that has been set by the company. However, the employees will be able
to abide by the rules and regulations only if they see the leaders or the ones who are in the
hierarchies are being able to take care of their responsibilities and also abide by the rules and the
regulations. I have made sure that I am being able to understand the three different levels of
ethical leadership so that I can use the same in my personal and professional life properly and
soundly. The first level of the ethical leadership mainly tries to study and understand the
connection between the personal life of the leaders and how the leaders usually carry on within
their business or carry on their work with the context of their professional lives
Description
The situation happened when I was appointed as the team leader in one of the well known
MNCs. I knew that I had to carry on all my duties in a proper way. I knew that to establish
myself as one of the most ideal leaders in the future, I will have to set an example for all my
teammates. Though several leaders like, Clinton are usually considered to be a failure both in
their personal lives and also in the professional or the career lives. While I started on with my
charge of being a team leader, I used to feel pressure as there was a huge amount of workload
every day. However, at the same time, I was also going through some financial problems at my
home. I consider myself to be responsible for this particular aspect. This is because I had taken
some money from my friend during a huge urgent need. However, later I fought with that friend
and did not want to interact with him any further. Thus I thought that I will lose my control if I
interact with him. Thus I wanted to take revenge for him and I did not give him back the money.
However, this was not right. I was constantly being asked by my parents to give him back the

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money and this is not the right way to carry on any kind of anger. However, this was also
affecting my performance and I was not listening to any doubts about my employees at my
workplace. Several complaints were coming from all my employees.
Second level Description
The Secord level of ethical leadership deals with how a leader carries on his duties. In
other words, the second level deals with the different methods in which the leaders try to look
after the leadership and the management of their teammates. This event happened when I was
working as the management in one of the local MNCs. I realized that there was a kind of
confusion between the employees and their leader. This is mainly because the managers are
taking their own decisions without taking any kinds of views or feedbacks from the employees.
In other words, there is a huge lack of understanding or mutual communication among them.
Thus there were always several communication gaps and people did not want to interact with
anyone. One day there was a strike called by all the employees saying that they need a salary
hike and if their request is left un-heard they will quit. Being the team lead I realized that before
my joining the rest of the members from the management were mainly following the autocratic
leadership. However, this angered the employees as they realized they are not being given any
value or any kind of worth in the organization.

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Third level description
Description
The third level ethical analysis of leaderships mainly was with the connection between
good leadership and sustainable business, In other words, a business can reach up to the desired
successful goals only if the leaders are well aware of their duties and it is carried on properly. I
remember that it was during a very important board meeting at my company. I was the in charge
of the meeting, I was aware of the fact that all the employees must be working as one group to
make the presentation in front of the external foreign delegates. However, I saw that the
employees were not feeling encouraged to work. They were always making some the other
mistakes
Feeling
First level ethical analysis
Feeling
As far as I can remember nothing much was going well in this experience. However, I
recalled that while joining the MNC I was given several training by the manager. During the
induction session, I got to know about the ethical obligations that a leader has to abide by all the
ethical codes of conduct during all instances. Thus I realized that due to my problems, I must not
make my employees suffer. The ethical principle says that I must always take care of the interest
of my teammates and keep my issues aside. Thus the thing that went well was my realization
between what is right and what is wrong.

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Second level ethical analysis
Feeling
I felt that this must not be the situation. I realized that one of the basic ethical principles
that must be followed by all the leaders is to use the right kinds of leadership strategies for taking
care of the employees. Wang and Calvano (2015) has suggested that the leaders must make sure
to chose the proper ethical model so that their followers can see them as true leaders. There must
be a culture of proper inclusion among all the organizations so that there is no discrimination
among the employees and the employees can give in their opinion in every business decision.
Third level feeling analysis
Feeling
I felt that there was some mistake on my part. Thus I circulated feedback sheets among
the employees and wanted to take my self review. I saw that the employees were feeling too
much stressed and said that they were frustrated with the workload and with my temper. Thus I
realized that I have to bring some changes in my behavior.
Evaluation
First level Evaluation
Thus I thought that I have to strike a balance between the personal and professional life,
to do this I started forgetting about all my problems while I am in my workplace.
Second level Evaluation

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Wood et al. (2015) have suggested that leadership might fail for several reasons and one
among them is not being able to take proper care of the welfare of every employee. Thus the
leaders must make sure that they are following the right approach of leadership and making sure
to include all their employees in the decision making the process.
The bad experience that I had in this aspect was the lack of proper understanding on part
of the management. I felt that it was their prime duty to take the opinion, ideas and the feedback
from all their employees from every department to make sure that they are not making their
employees dissatisfied in any way, However the good or the positive experience that I had was to
understand the employees and being able to make their side. I talked with my colleagues and
made them realized that the modern-day leadership system must be adaptable and flexible. The
second level ethical analysis of leadership is mainly based on the connection between the
leadership models and how the leaders are exhibiting the same.
Third level Evaluation
I realized that good leader is the ones who do not think about only their benefits but also
about the welfare of their employees.
Analysis
First level Analysis
As per the opinion of Palmer (2009), there are several connections between the actual
personality or the actual morality of leader and how he or she is carrying their duties of being a
leader. However, it must be noted in this context that there are also other types of arguments that

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have been put forward by the other author. Shin et al. (2015) have opined that there is no such
concrete connection between the personal life or the morality of the leaders and the entire
concept of leadership. However, I realized that with the repeated effort I can divert my mind
from personal problems. I develop a horizontal communication system and started listening to
the doubts and the fears of the employees.
Second level Analysis
As far as my analysis is concerned I realized that emotion is one of the basic aspects that
hold good in ethical leadership. In other words, a sound leadership framework cannot be carried
out if the leaders are not being sympathetic or empathetic towards their employees. Thus after
undergoing a proper consultation with all my colleagues, they realized that a more approachable
and flexible leadership structure will be followed by including the opinion of all employees
Third level Analysis
My analysis from this case was that I have to see all my employees as one united group. I
was only thinking about my benefit and the benefit of the company. Thus I gave huge pressure
over my employees.
Conclusion
First level Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that leaders must distance their personal and their professional
lives. In a similar context, the people like the employees or the followers also must not compare

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the personal lives or the personal thinking patterns of their leader with the entire concept of
leadership

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Second level Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that a participatory leadership model is needed to abide by the
second level of ethical analysis of leadership.
.
Third level Conclusion
However this is not right, I realized that I have to develop a flexible work shift and a
friendly work environment. As their leader, I must stay with them at every point of time and give
them all the possible support

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Action Plan
Areas of
improvement
Resources
needed
Feedback to be
taken
Desired outcome Time needed
Managing of
stress
Stress
management
class, taking
small
refreshments in
between the
work so that I
can abide by the
ethical rules of
taking care of the
welfare interests
of the employees
One to one
interviews and
group
discussions with
employees
I will be able to
take care of the
employees
keeping aside my
personal
problems
2months
Establishing
horizontal
communication
Email systems.
Employee
Chabot systems
and others
Floating of the
feedback sheets,
survey forms and
others to the
employees
This will help in
including all
employees in the
business decision
making process
2months
Developing
participative
Voting system by
the employees,
To interact
personally with
This will help in
developing a
2 months

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leadership chat -bot systems each team
member in a
open ended
communication
system
sound leadership
by including all
the employees
and seeing them
as one united
group

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References
Ng, T. W., & Feldman, D. C. (2015). Ethical leadership: Meta-analytic evidence of criterion-
related and incremental validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(3), 948.
Palmer, D. E. (2009). Business leadership: Three levels of ethical analysis. Journal of Business
Ethics, 88(3), 525-536.
Shin, Y., Sung, S. Y., Choi, J. N., & Kim, M. S. (2015). Top management ethical leadership and
firm performance: Mediating role of ethical and procedural justice climate. Journal of
Business Ethics, 129(1), 43-57.
Wang, L. C., & Calvano, L. (2015). Is business ethics education effective? An analysis of
gender, personal ethical perspectives, and moral judgment. Journal of Business
Ethics, 126(4), 591-602.
Wood, D. J., Logsdon, J. M., Lewellyn, P. G., & Davenport, K. S. (2015). Global Business
Citizenship: A Transformative Framework for Ethics and Sustainable Capitalism: A
Transformative Framework for Ethics and Sustainable Capitalism. Routledge.