Ethics in Leadership: Shared Responsibility of Followers and Leaders

This essay delves into the ethical dimensions of leadership, specifically examining the degree of responsibility followers bear in supporting destructive leaders. Drawing on the provided readings and additional research, the paper analyzes whether a shared responsibility exists between leaders and followers in such contexts. It highlights the concept of the leader's "light and shadow," representing the moral and immoral aspects of leadership, and emphasizes that leaders have the power to positively or negatively influence their followers. The essay argues that followers can contribute to an unethical environment through their actions, such as failing to meet their responsibilities, and that the behaviors of leaders and followers are interdependent. The conclusion emphasizes that followers can contribute to the negative aspects of a leader, suggesting a shared responsibility between the follower and the leader in creating the overall ethical climate within an organization.

Running head- ETHICS IN LEADERSHIP
Ethics in Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1Ethics in Leadership
A leader cannot be present without a follower. A follower makes a leader, and
without the follower, there will be no leaders. Good leadership comes from a person who
possesses good quality of understanding, persistence, forgiveness and controls the followers.
The study aims to focus on the responsibility of the followers in support of destructive
leaders. It further finds out the shared responsibility between the leader and the follower in
the context of destructive leaders.
The leader’s light and shadow denote the negative and the positive sides of the
character in a leader. The light and shadow are the metaphors that differentiate between
moral and immoral leaders. Leaders have the power in their hands to build the lives of their
followers. The followers depend upon their leaders, and their nature of work depends upon
the conduct of the leader in every way. The leaders cat the light on the followers when they
mater the ethical challenges and they highlight darkness upon the followers in case of
inconsistency and misconduct in their behaviour (Jhonson, 2014). According to Palmer, the
difference between moral and immoral is the same as the contrast between hell and heaven or
the light or darkness. A leader must take up his responsibility in order to master the ethical
challenges in the workplace. Likewise, the relationship between the leaders and the followers
is vice versa. Ethical leaders brighten the lives of the people around them and leaders
reflecting a positive attitude brightens up the character in the followers (Stone, 2015). For
instance, when a follower in incompetent to establish proper communication with the leader,
the leaders too reflect incompetency in their action. Without proper communication, the
leader will also be incompetent in order to establish a proper ruling power. Frigid leaders may
be competent but they are unable to adopt the new ideas and by the fault of the followers the
practice or the conduct of such leader will continue.
Power is the foundation for the influence in the attempts. The followers contribute to
bringing such shadow as the followers failed to fulfil their minimal responsibility being

2Ethics in Leadership
unpunctual, not delivering work on time, stealing the supplies, and not working as per the
leaders. They can contribute to an unethical climate by taking too many obligations upon
them (Krasikova, Green, & LeBreton, 2014). There remains a decree of cynism and dissent
due to such negative behaviour. Responsibility is the key to bring out the light in one’s
behaviour. So there lies a shared responsibility of both the follower and the leaders in order to
bring the light in that situation. The behaviours of both the follower and the leader are
interdepended and hence both their behaviour impacts the behaviour of one another.
In conclusion, it is stated that through the conduct of the followers in their job, they
support in bringing out the dark side of the shadowed part of the leader. Further, it suggests
there exists a shared relationship between the follower and the leader for bringing out the
darkness in the situation.

3Ethics in Leadership
References
Jhonson, C. (2014). Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership (6th ed.).
Krasikova, D. V., Green, S. G., & LeBreton, J. M. (2014). Destructive leadership: A
theoretical review, integration, and future research agenda. Journal of Management,
39, 1308–1338
Stone, B. (2015). The everything store: Jeff Bezos and the age of Amazon. New York, NY:
Back Bay Books.