Ethical Leadership: Examining Ethical and Unethical Behaviors Report

This report delves into the multifaceted realm of ethical leadership, contrasting ethical and unethical behaviors within organizational contexts. It explores key dimensions, including transactional and transformational leadership styles, and examines how leaders influence decision-making, respond to criticism, and manage risk. The report also investigates the communication of information to stakeholders. Furthermore, it outlines criteria for measuring ethical behavior, such as customer complaints, workplace ethical performance, goal setting, and community contributions. The report highlights the importance of ethical standards in fostering a positive organizational environment and achieving long-term goals. References to relevant academic literature are included to support the analysis.

Ethical leadership

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Various dimensions of ethical and unethical behaviours of leaders
The ethical behaviour of the leaders is significant in attaining organizational long-term goals.
The dimensions of ethical leadership govern a person’s behaviour with esteem to what is
right or wrong. Unethical leadership is influenced by the increasing intricacy of the business,
increasing the haste of information flow and increased burden from the top management
concerning employee performance. There are various dimensions of ethical behaviour of the
leaders. Most notably transactional and transformational leadership are deliberated to be the
most important dimensions. The transactional leadership more authoritative, untrustworthy,
self-centred and manipulative (Walumbwa, Hartnell and Misati, 2017). The transformational
leadership have various ethical behaviours like robust focus for self and others, moral
character and ethical values. On the other hand, dimensions of unethical behaviour of the
leaders are autocratic approach and participative approach. In the autocratic approach, the
managers own total authority and more frequently than not. Such managers enforce their will
upon personnel without any deliberation of the employee’s ideas. The participative approach
values to the inputs of team members and higher-level authority. In this dimension, people
who are introverts do not find ease to convey their ideas and may feel left out. Therefore,
their ideas do not get much space and consideration.
Dimensions Ethical behaviour Unethical behaviour
Power to influence
decision
The ethical leaders have the
power to stimulate the
decision by appropriately
guiding employees as they
work for the betterment of
the organisation.
The unethical leaders do not
have the power to influence
the decision (Bedi, Alpaslan
and Green, 2016).
Criticism by colleagues
and subordinates
The ethical leaders respond
to the criticism in the
appropriate manner and take
it for further improvement.
The unethical leaders
respond to the criticism of
the colleagues in an
undesirable manner and are
revealed in the activities
conducted by them.
Risk taking through the The ethical leaders are The unethical leaders are

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process of decision-making always ready to take risks
for decision making. They
are even responsible.
irresponsible and when it
comes to taking risks, they
do not favor.
Communication of
pertinent information to
the stakeholders
The ethical leaders convey
pertinent information to the
stakeholders in the business.
The unethical leaders
provide wrong information
to the skate holders for their
gain.
A criterion to measure ethical behaviour.
A criterion to measure ethical behaviour are standards of appropriate or inappropriate
behaviour while dealing with the organisation’s several stakeholders comprising employees,
customers and sellers. Ethical behavior can be measured through:
Criteria Description
Customer complaints Pursuing and assessing customer complaints
represent how capable a leader is in meeting
ethical performance standards. The
organisations should find out the
information shared is inappropriate or
overstated.
Workplace ethical performance The workplace ethical performance can be
effectively assessed by maintaining track of
the number of workdays mislaid each year.
The lack of ethical behaviour discourages
employees to elevate their standard of
demeanour (Babalola, Stouten and Euwema,
2016).
Setting goals and evaluating performance The goals are fixed to enhance the ethical
performance of the organisation.

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Collaborating existing performance levels
and goals for the imminent year represents
personnel that the leader takes ethical
standards extremely.
Contributions to the community The ethical performance can also be
evaluated by the number of hours
contributed to the association (Xu, Loi, and
Ngo, 2016). Such efforts have even great
role in enhancing the image of an
organisation.

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References
Babalola, M.T., Stouten, J. and Euwema, M., 2016. Frequent change and turnover intention:
The moderating role of ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 134(2), pp.311-322.
Bedi, A., Alpaslan, C.M. and Green, S., 2016. A meta-analytic review of ethical leadership
outcomes and moderators. Journal of Business Ethics, 139(3), pp.517-536.
Walumbwa, F.O., Hartnell, C.A. and Misati, E., 2017. Does ethical leadership enhance group
learning behavior? Examining the mediating influence of group ethical conduct, justice
climate, and peer justice. Journal of Business Research, 72, pp.14-23.
Xu, A.J., Loi, R. and Ngo, H.Y., 2016. Ethical leadership behavior and employee justice
perceptions: The mediating role of trust in organization. Journal of Business Ethics, 134(3),
pp.493-504.