University Leadership: Ethical Leadership and Social Responsibility

This essay delves into the multifaceted concept of ethical leadership and social responsibility. It begins with a self-reflection section, exploring the author's personal understanding of leadership qualities and the importance of ethical conduct in guiding groups towards common goals. The essay then examines various leadership behaviors, attitudes, and styles, emphasizing the significance of leaders setting positive examples and fostering ethical environments. The discussion extends to the traits, motives, and characteristics of effective leaders, highlighting their ability to motivate and nurture followers. The essay further analyzes the nature and importance of ethical leadership, emphasizing collaboration and understanding of people's needs. A peer assessment section provides insights into leadership strategies for non-profit organizations, followed by an examination of the strengths and limitations of the trait approach to leadership. The essay includes a case study of a printing press to illustrate the application of leadership theories, such as Environmental theory, and suggests solutions to organizational challenges. The essay concludes with an overview of various leadership theories, including Trait, Functional, Transactional, Transformational, Environmental, Contingency, Participative, and Great Man theories, providing a comprehensive understanding of the subject.

Running head: ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Ethical Leadership and Social Responsibility
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Introduction
Ethical leadership is that kind of leadership where each and person carry out some work
or do so conduct for the good of the common betterment or common good. A particular
individual does something good for the betterment of the society, or for common group of
people. The task performed may not be for a particular individual, it for the betterment or good
for the whole group or the whole society. It is not applicable on a single individual it is
applicable as whole group or bunch of individual for a common purpose (Wu et al. 2015).

2ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Section 1
Self Reflection
I learned that the great quality of a leader is who leads the group; he is the person who
motivates the group and gets it going. The role of the leader is very important, as he has the
responsibility of the group on his shoulder. In leading the group I feel that they have much kind
of roles, sometimes the leader leads from the front sometimes the leader stays at the back and
motivates the group member to move forward (Zhu, Sun and Leung, 2014). In the history the
great leaders have played many different roles their strategy may have been different, but their
goal was the same. They did everything for the betterment for the group, for the betterment of
the society as a common cause.
I think that to be a great leader one should have the quality of being honest and being
ethical and the chances are that more people having leadership quality are preferred. The
followers want a leader who leads and while him should be honest and who respects others. If
the leader is dishonest and unethical, in that case they may set a kind of personality for
themselves that all may not like or prefer (Christensen, Mackey and Whetten, 2014). The
followers want their leaders to set an example in front of them. The example is that they set in
upfront for their followers to follow.
Leadership Behavior attitude and Styles
I feel from the study that the responsibility of leaders is to inculcate certain skills or
qualities within its disciples or within ourselves so that the ethical behavior of the leaders can
contribute in the development of the society. A leader who is ethical in nature can build up an

3ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
environment which is positive. This kind of environment helps in maintaining a strong relation
and formation of a strong bond between the leaders and its members. The relationship can help
to develop the quality of the individual, how they live and think. A great leader can influence
people up to such an extent that he may change the person for the betterment of that person
(Hartman, DesJardins. and MacDonald, 2014).
Traits, Motives and characteristics of a leader
A great leader has always done something which is good for people. Maintaining an
atmosphere which is positive in nature is one of the very important traits or characteristic that a
great leader has. Many people are benefited by the motivation or the nurturing that is offered by
the leader. The leaders have the quality of nurturing the followers so that they get benefited and
thereby gets improvement in the work. The strong relation and inculcation of good habits which
makes the leader to help the people to attain success (Paharia and Singh, 2016)
Nature and Importance of Leadership
A leader having a characteristics who is ethical in nature tend to collaborate with them,
they understand the problem of the people and the issues that they are facing. They also
understands where the people are lacking and where they making mistakes. Then they try to
rectify the problem sometimes through communication, sometimes through action. The leaders
have the trait of trying to make the individuals according to the leaders as they influence them in
such a way that they gets motivated does conducts a particular work with great enthusiasm ( Du
et al, 2015).

4ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Leaders are someone who leads from the front and people follow them. Organizational
leadership is a move towards betterment of an organization or a group. To become a great leader
a person has to understand the point of view of other’s and have a clear idea of his own and
should be able to align the together (Tian, Liu and Fan, 2015).To be an effective leader it is very
important to identify the leadership theory that will be applicable for a given situation in an
organization (Tai and Chuang, 2014).
Assessment of the Environment
By applying it in the personal and business environment, I have learned that, every
successful leader is generally good communicators; they tend to communicate and influence its
followers and its surroundings. This is a good quality or traits that most of the good leaders
posses. It is the duty of the leader to communicate each and every member in the group so as to
motivate them and maintain a relation with them (Tai, and Chuang, 2014).
The communication tends to develop a trust and understanding with them. This trust and
understanding is very important for as this relation helps to motivate the people. The traits of the
great leaders had always been to influence others through communication. The leaders who are
ethical in nature tend to develop good and long lasting relationship.

5ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Section 2
Peer assessment
As we discuss governance and leadership with my friends and colleague, which provides
leadership strategies for non profitable organization. They are of the view that it is a process of
providing leadership, direction and accountability for a nonprofit seeking organization. A non
profitable organization comprises of a board, hired employees and volunteers. The board
comprises of director who takes the important decision and formulates strategies and considered
to be the leader of that organization (Hartman, DesJardins and MacDonald, 2014).
Strength and Limitation of the Trait Approach
1. Responsibility to care
Care should be taken while taking any decision whatsoever in relation to the organization. A
leader stays accountable for the decision that is being taken by him or her.
2. Responsibility of loyalty
It says that the leaders should act in a good way to take the organization forward. It is expected
out of the leader to take decision which acts in equivalence with the interest of the organization
(Paharia and Singh, 2016).
3. Responsibility of compliance
The leader should honor mission, vision and policies of the organization. They should abide by
the laws or rules that are set by the organization, which will set an example for others.

6ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
There are several theories that have been laid down which acts as pillars of leadership (Tian, Liu
and Fan, 2015).
Peer review according to a example
To explain how the leadership theory and for proper assessment an example is taken to
show problems and theories implied to solve the problem. Northwest printing press is a seventy
year old government organization which was established as a non-profit seeking organization
which is used for printing and publishing government news papers (Dubrin, 2016),Articles,
magazines etc. for government bodies such as rehabilitation centers, nongovernmental
organizations, government undertaking organizations (such as railways, airlines etc.).
This printing press used to be the highest manufacturer a decade back but started to lose
its ground from then. Most of the workers in the organization are working for more than a decade
and know each other very well. They have good co-ordination between them, but the problem
was there was no fixed goal. There was no inspiration of any kind from the leader and the
workers have no idea where the organization is heading towards. The sudden change was
brought due to the lack of clear goal setting. The workers were not communicated well enough
and have very little idea about the goals of the organization (Bowden, 2013). For this reason the
production process became slow and they were unable to complete task on time. For this reason
many work had to be outsourced which was costing them a lot and the organization was going
into losses. Mr. Harry who is the director of the organization in order to resolve the problem
undertook Environmental theory as the solution of the problem (Arnold, Beauchamp and Bowie,
2013).

7ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Suggestion
After analyzing the scenario the peer group including my friends and the classmates suggested
that after my peer review on the leadership theories and changing the leadership theory. As it can
be seen from the above mentioned case that problem was that the workers were de-motivated and
there was a gap of communication between the leader and the workers. There was no precise
goal that has been communicated ((Boatright, 2012).When there is a goal and the workers are
motivated and inspired to achieve that goal the workers give their full effort to achieve it (Brooks
and Dunn, 2012).
In my opinion leadership theories works on all level of an organization. Under this type
of leadership the leaders creates a vision for the workers inspiring them through communication
and makes them vulnerable to risk taking (Treviño and Nelson, 2014).This is an aggressive
strategy and I believe this will help the workers of Northwest printing press to raise their
temperament, motivating and inspiring them. If the workers have a clear picture and precise goal
it will be an easy for them to achieve. A leader who is ethical in nature can build up an
environment which is positive. This kind of environment helps in maintaining a strong relation
and formation of a strong bond between the leaders and its members. The relationship can help
to develop the quality of the individual, how they live and think (Collins, 2012).
Leadership theories are as follows:
A. Trait Theory

8ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
In this type of theory the leadership is based on characteristics or behavior of an individual.
Some of these behaviors that is in relation to leadership are intellect, open to changes,
extraversion, attention to detail and sincerity (Du et al , 2013)
B. Functional Theory
This theory says that the leaders should understand the need of the followers and see that
their needs are fulfilled.
C. Transactional Theory
According to this theory the leader should set goals for the individual in the organization and
asses those performances and therefore reward or punish them according to their performance.
D. Transformational Theory
Under this type of theory the leaders look upon the ultimate goal and try to motivate their
followers through motivation so that their vision could be achieved.
E. Environmental Theory
In this type of theory the leaders try to create a situation the members of the group help
each other keeping good co-ordination amongst them to achieve the goal. This type of
situation that is created motivates the individual to achieve the required goal for the benefit
of the group (Clapp, and Rowlands, 2014).
F. Contingency Theory

9ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
It says that a leader should change its theory according to the situation. There is no fixed
theory that can be applied for each and every situation that may arise.
G. Participative Leadership
In this type of theory the decisions are taken with equal participation from all the
members who are affected by that particular (Hombert et al, 2014).
H. Great Man Theory
This theory tells us that some people are born with the qualities of a leader and are born
leaders. They have those qualities inherent within them (McWilliams,2014).

10ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
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11ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
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