Ethical Management: Decision Making and Leadership Skills

This essay delves into the critical concept of ethical management and its profound influence on a manager's ability to lead effectively. It begins with a literature review, examining the relationship between ethical decision-making and effective managerial practices, highlighting the essential skills and capabilities required for promoting ethical decision-making, and exploring how personality traits impact ethical choices. The essay then evaluates the results of three questionnaires, namely, the Big Five personality instrument, the emotional intelligence instrument, and the conflict mode instrument, providing insights into the manager's strengths and areas for improvement. Finally, the essay culminates in an action plan, outlining two specific goals based on the SMART framework, designed to enhance ethical management practices. The essay underscores the significance of ethical decision-making and its role in fostering organizational success within a global competitive landscape.

Running head: ETHICAL MANAGEMENT 1
Ethical Management
Name:
Institution:

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Introduction
“What is measured improves”. That is according Peter F. Ducker, Australian-born
management consultant whose works are aimed at helping people improve their management
skills in order to become effective managers. As a manager, one must be well-equipped with
skills and expertise necessary to lead the organization effectively (Carson, Carson &
Birkenmeier, 2016, pp. 12). Thus, imperative to note that the organizational success is anchored
on the manager’s ability and capacity to make ethical and principled decisions. To achieve that,
managers should be able to showcase their management skills based on consensus and teamwork
(Lasserre, 2017, pp. 130). However, not all managers possess the right skills that are required to
drive ethical decision making and effective organizational management.
With the global changes in the business environment, organizational managers and
leaders need to make sure that ethics fills all the phases of operations within an organization.
Business ethics was a concept not known to many people. However, the idea of ethics has
evolved over time and in the modern world, business ethics plays a key role in the approach of
doing business. Ethical management is becoming a significant notion for the organizational
management to guide in decision making (Bouazza, Ardjouman & Abada, 2015, pp. 112).
Therefore, managers are observing ethics when making key business decisions.
When a manager gains enough understanding on the importance and impact of ethics
during decision making and problem solving, then he/she should consider the important skills
needed to ensure observation of ethics all business processes. Ethical decisions and strategies in
an organization must be highly anchored on the organizational values (Vezhnevets & Ferrari,
2014, pp. 1982). Therefore, the organizational managers are required to create an atmosphere

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where everyone feels comfortable to relate with each other in effort to achieve the organizational
goals and objectives (Taras, 2015, pp. 17).
Thus, this essay focuses on the concept of ethical decision making and how it influences
a manager’s ability to be effective in leading an organization. The structure of this essay contains
three main sections which are:
First section of the essay includes literature review which covers three key areas that
includes the concept of ethical decision making and its relationship with the effective practices of
the management, required capabilities and skills which are necessary for promoting the good
ethical decision making as well as how personality of person relates with the good ethical
decision making. Second section of the essay involves the evaluation of the minimum three
questionnaires which are taken in the current unit. The third section of the essay includes an
action plan under which two goals are stated and each goal has its own plan which is clearly
based on the SMART goal framework. Lastly, paper is concluded with brief conclusion and
followed by the appendix.
Literature Review
Ethical decision making and its relationship to effective managerial practices
Ethical decisions making by the organizational managers bring about effective
management (Taras, 2015, pp. 17). Over time, managers are striving to furnish their management
skills in order to help the organization achieve its goals (Lasserre, 2017, pp. 130). The core part
where ethics becomes important is when managers are deciding on various things in an
organization (Barker & Bellis, 2018, pp. 2). Hence, most skills can be measured, analyzed and
measurement for the purpose of improvement (Vezhnevets & Ferrari, 2014, pp. 1982)

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It is critical to understand that ethical decision making is directly related to ethical
managerial practice (Bouazza, Ardjouman & Abada, 2015, pp. 112). Therefore, ethical decision
making is as a result of effective managerial practice (Karataş, 2015, pp. 298). Effective
managerial practice pays much attention in managing the company’s activities effectively to help
the organization achieve the desired goals and objectives (Werang & Lena, 2014, pp. 693).
Effective management practice involves but not limited to efficient decision making process,
employee relations and support, and proper stakeholders treatment (Levy & Ramim, 2015, pp.
183). Ethical decision making and management will lead to improved performance and
productivity, employee motivation and dedication as well as the organizational output (Basso,
Gaud, Gechter, Hilaire & Lauri, 2013, pp. 333). A manager must remain ethical by ensuring that
his/her decisions are not based on his/her emotions or the employees’ emotions (Carson, Carson
& Birkenmeier, 2016, pp. 12). Thus, ethical decision making is one part of the broader concept
of effective management (Cania, 2014, pp. 379).
Capabilities and skills of a Manager
As mentioned earlier in the essay, managers should possess a number of skills and
capability in order to promote appropriate ethical decision making process (Weiner & Greene,
2017, pp. 120). Managers act as role models within the organization (Rothaermel, 2015, pp. 65).
Their ability to do things differently and ethically can be determined by their ability to
communicate with employees effectively and efficiently (Weiner & Greene, 2017, pp. 120).
Their level of employees’ respect employees is also vital in the promotion of a good ethical
decision making process (Weiner & Greene, 2017, pp. 123). Their leadership skills is also a key
element for ethical decision making process (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2014, pp. 52).
Such leadership skills can be derived from the mangers ability to lead the team of employees in

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an effective manner (Werang & Lena, 2014, pp. 692). The managers should also have the
experience and knowledge (Morey, 2015, pp. 115). The experience is built upon someone’s
furnished skills in a certain field for a long time. The manager’s level of confidence and
dedication in his/her work is also a core element in promoting good ethical decision making
(Morey, 2015, pp. 118). When managers are dedicated and confident with their work, the issue
of effective ethical making becomes easy (Carson, Carson & Birkenmeier, 2016, pp. 12).
Therefore, a manager must possess a number of capabilities and skills for him/her to drive an
effective and good ethical decision making process (Levy & Ramim, 2015, pp. 185).
Personality and Ethical Decision Making
A manager’s personality and the ability to adjust themselves with the workplace
environment is important in an organization (Ewen & Ewen, 2014, pp. 23). Managers can be
friendly, emotional, introvert or extroverts, opinionated, engaging, good or bad mediators as
wells good or poor negotiators (Mischel, 2013, pp. 60). Therefore, these personalities will make
the working environment free to allow consultation and exchange of ideas while other managers
will have a personality that will surprise the issue of consultation and exchange of ideas. For
instance, managers who have a welcoming personality make consultation and exchange of ideas
as the pillar for effective ethical decision making process while others will not. Measuring of
people’s personalities will help the manager to analyze and improve their capabilities and skills
to welcome and appreciate the power of consultation and exchange of ideas in decision making
process within an organization (Kline, 2013, pp. 59). Therefore, personality and its measurement
helps in getting improved managerial personalities that will positively steer the process of ethical
decision making process based on consensus (Hartman, DesJardins & MacDonald, 2014, pp.
116). As argued by the veteran management consultant and educator Peter F. Ducker, what is

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measured improves. Once the managers get to understand their current strengths and weaknesses,
they can embark on improving their ethical decision making skills for the purpose of producing
effective management (Schermerhorn, Davidson, Poole, Woods, Simon & McBarron, 2014, pp.
100).
In summary, ethical decision making is a key element of effective managerial practice.
Effective and efficient managers will observe ethics during decision making process which takes
into consideration the views and inputs from all the employees. Managers should possess good
personalities that embrace dialogue, consultation and sharing of ideas to help in making an
ethical decision based on consensus (Cania, 2014, pp. 378). Moreover, the managers should
ensure that they take time to use appropriate tools of measuring their personalities and improve
where necessary for the purpose of being effective in their managerial roles and practices.
Therefore, the issue of manager’s personality and its analysis is a critical aspect in helping an
organization succeed in the global competitive environment due to ethical decision making and
effective management (Lasserre, 2017, pp. 132).
Evaluation of the Questionnaires used in the Unit
A leader cam can use a number of tools to gauge his/her ethical management skills. These
tools include the automatic questionnaires that ask questions concerning the manager’s behaviors
and attitudes at the areas of work (Taras, 2015, pp. 17). The system will use your responses to
analyze your answers and give you the summary of your attitudes and behaviors that shapes a
manager’s skills during the process of decision making within an organization (Vezhnevets &
Ferrari, 2014, pp. 1982). Therefore, the managers will use such tools to analyze their behaviors
and attitudes in order to understand on where to improve and sharpen their ethical management
skills.

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There are a number of questionnaires issued, filled and completed with an aim of
evaluating the personalities of managers. Once completed, the questionnaires are analyzed to
gauge the managers’ personalities that shape their ability and skills needed to steer effective and
ethical decision making in an organization (Bouazza, Ardjouman & Abada, 2015, pp. 112). The
evaluation will pay much attention on the Big Five personality instrument, the emotional
intelligent instrument and conflict mode instrument. These are some of the tools used by
managers and those aspiring to be managers with an aim of growing and improving their
managerial skills. In the sample of questionnaires from the tools used to analyze the personality
of a future manager, varying information and results have been obtained. These results that can
used to advance managers’ abilities and skills in future (Basso, Gaud, Gechter, Hilaire & Lauri,
2013, pp. 333). The tools analyzes the individual’s capabilities and personalities on various
ground to arrive at a certain point.
According to the Big Five personality instrument, results showed that the person filling
the questionnaire had high personality of openness followed by extraversion while his ability of
neuroticism was very low. In the conflict mode instrument, the questionnaire showed that in the
situation of conflict, the participant showed a high ability to avoid and withdraw himself from
the situation while showing a low ability of collaborating to solve the situation. In the emotional
intelligent instrument, the results showed that the participant had the overall score of 50 percent
which showed that his/her emotional intelligence was okay. That means that he/she is having
good emotional relations with his/she colleagues despite that they seem to be hard to work with.
Therefore, it is critical for the participant to reconsider his personalities and skills in order to
improve and advance his/her managerial skills in the future (Carson, Carson & Birkenmeier,
2016, pp. 12).

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Once the questionnaires are completed, the tools analyze the answers and give the
appropriate results based on the data given by answering the set of questions. After the results,
the most significant point is to evaluation of the outcomes and making the appropriate steps
meant to address those results. In this case, the results to be evaluated are based on the results
given after the analyzes of the participant’s personality with aim of making proper step in
improving on these personalities purposely to advance the future ethical decision making and
management skills (Barker & Bellis, 2018, pp. 2). The first part of the evaluation stage is to
keenly evaluate our current capabilities and personalities based on the results from the various
tools.
Basically, the evaluation of personality analysis is from the three instruments used, that
is, the emotional intelligent instrument, the conflict mode instrument and the big five personality
instrument. After the evaluation, the next step is to identify and review the current skills that
need to be improved and reinforced. The personalities and abilities to be improved are essentially
those that were scored poorly according to the results from the tools of personality analysis
(Lasserre, 2017, pp. 130). The third step is a thorough preparation of plan that specifies the
abilities or smart goals that need to be improved, how and when to learn more on such abilities
and how to be certain that one has learned and improved on those areas of weakness.
My Goal Plan
After the analysis of the three questionnaires, the scores for all the instruments showed
that as a manager striving to be effective in my managerial practices, some of my skills and
abilities require some improvement. These were the abilities that were scored poorly as per the
results of the analysis. The two abilities that need some improvement include my ability to
possess emotional intelligence when making decisions and the ability to handle conflict

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situations within the organization. The two abilities to be improved forms the basis for SMART
goal framework which is the action plan to followed in the process of refining on my abilities in
order to be able to handle various situations within an organization. These smart goals need to
be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based. SMART goal framework is used as
an effective way of planning on how to improve on your areas of weakness for the purpose of
achieving specific managerial goals (Basso, Gaud, Gechter, Hilaire & Lauri, 2013, pp. 333).
Therefore, the action plan for improving on the two managerial abilities is as discussed below.
 SMART Goal: Ensuring that the manager remains composed in the time of crisis to
ensure that one is sensitive in ethical decision making
 Broad Goal: Emotional Intelligence
 Specific: To improve sensitivity in making decisions despite the stressful nature
of the situation. Decision making is an important element that should be done
keenly and on a sober mind to avoid making poor moves that might fail the
organization. Although it is hard to control my emotions, I am going to be as keen
as possible to avoid being emotional when deciding on anything despite the
situation. I will do this within the next two months.
 Measurable: To learn other employees’ behaviors and strive to accommodate
them. I need a counselor as well as interacting with my colleagues and
understanding them in order to avoid clashing with them. I will ensure that I use
my colleagues to observe me whether I have stopped being emotional with time.
 Attainable: Reviewing the benefits of ethics and put the organization ahead of
individual emotions to allow sensitive and ethical decision making. The
motivation for achieving this goal is for the purpose of advancing my future

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managerial skills. I have all it takes to achieve this goals because I am social and I
will interact with my colleagues so that they can tell me on the progress I am
making.
 Relevant: To help in avoiding emotions during ethical decision making process in
order to improve productivity (Druskat, Mount & Sala, 2013, pp. 95). This is the
right time to achieve this goal since I am on the process of advancing my
managerial skills for the future management roles. The goals is relevant because I
need to control my emotions in order to be an ethical manager in future.
 Time-based: The goal will be driven by urgency and the process should take two
months to help in countering the competition due to rapid changes in the business
environment. The time is realistic because by interacting with my colleagues, it
will be easier to understand them as well understand my situation and allow them
to help in evaluating my personality.
 SMART Goal: To ensure proper engagement in conflict resolution within the
organization.
 Broad Goal: Participation in conflict resolution.
 Specific: To ensure that there is a problem solving approach in dealing with
conflict situations within an organization. I would like to be an efficient and well
skilled mediator in case there is a problem within my organization. Conflict
resolution is one of the key element of ethical management. While striving to
become an effective manager in future, possessing conflict resolution skills is
imperative for me.

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 Measurable: To learn the aspect of quick response to the conflicting situations.
Once I find any conflicting situation among my friends, my ability to intervene
will help me understand my progress. Moreover, my ability to solve the conflicts
between me and my colleagues will also be important in understanding the
progress.
 Attainable: To set a process of solving conflicts within the organization. The
goals is attainable since learning the conflict solving skills is easy. For instance, it
will be simple to intervene and take a neutral ground that will enable me achieve
peace among my colleagues.
 Relevant: To establish and maintain good employee relationship and teamwork.
Conflict resolution is an important aspect of any organizational management.
Thus, as an aspiring manager in future, I need to possess these skills in order to
manage an organization effectively.
 Time-based: Two months to make sure that I learn all the relevant skills required
to solve a conflict situation involving me or my colleagues. The time frame is
relevant since one will be able to learn all the necessary skills meant to ensure that
and the employees are in harmony to divert the time wasted in conflict to doing
productive things (Ewen & Ewen, 2014, pp. 23).
Conclusion
Ethical decision making is a core element of the broader concept of effective managerial
practice. A manager striving to be successful in the field of management should be able to gauge
his/her personality, ability and skills that are useful in driving ethics in all aspects of
organizational processes. By gauging and measuring their ability, it is possible to establish the

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areas of weakness and be able to improve on those weaknesses to purposely furnish the current
abilities and skills for future managerial roles. Effective and good ethical decision making
process plays a key role in boosting employee morale, improved productivity, better
performance, team work and a conducive working environment. For that to be fulfilled, a
manager should possess necessary capabilities that promote good ethical decision making in an
organization. Therefore, organizational managers should seek to analyze and improve their
management skills in ethical decision making to help the company grow and maintain
competitive edge in the market.