Essay: Leadership in Business and the Crisis of Trust (Course Name)

This essay delves into the critical issue of leadership, particularly focusing on the erosion of trust due to unethical behaviors. It explores the prevalence of unethical values such as corruption and greed within leadership roles, examining their impact on individuals and organizations. The essay investigates the root causes of these behaviors, questioning whether leaders are inherently flawed or influenced by external pressures. It also proposes potential solutions, including leadership development seminars and training, to foster ethical conduct and improve leadership effectiveness. The discussion includes examples like Martin Shkreli to illustrate the negative consequences of unethical practices. Ultimately, the essay aims to provide a nuanced perspective on leadership, acknowledging that not all leaders exhibit unethical values while emphasizing the importance of ethical considerations in leadership.

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Introduction
Over the years, the issue of lack of trust among our leaders has raised a lot of questions to
most of us. It’s not matter of smiling about when everyone is complaining of the unethical values
that are being exhibited by our leaders. This has led to some of the researcher to come up with
the belief that we are or may be victims of “crisis of trust”. In this essay, is a discussion and
exploration on what is exactly wrong with our leaders and what can we do to correct the
situation. Moreover, it will also target on showing why these practices occur and an indicator if
for sure these leaders are bad or there are forces or circumstances forcing them to be behave in
that manner.
Today’s leaders have been linked with several unethical values. It’s not only state leaders
but this cases any leader including the organizational leader. Some of these values go unnoticed.
The common values include:
1. Corruption
2. Greed for power
The above are the major unethical values that in most cases are being associated with bad
leaders. The main reason why these leaders end up getting involved in such , is lack of the
second thought on what are the impacts of the choices they make to not only themselves but the
group of people they lead. According to (Ciulls, 2010) decisions with intended consequences can
just be as harmful as intentionally unethical decisions and thus why it becomes an issue of no
questions when a leader is associated with unethical behavior.
The reason as to why most of today’s leaders are termed wrong is explained by the notion
that the unethical leaders have already set in our minds. Our today's leaders do not respect other
people opinion. This means that they are practicing dictatorship either directly or indirectly.
Most of these leaders got this position through corruption and maybe it cost them lots of
financial expenses to gain those title. This is a trend that will never end since they have to
compensate for losses they may have incurred and later use these positions to make themselves
profitable and more wealthy. A good example of this is Martin Shkreli, founder and former chief
executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals. After noticing that his drug was of high demand, he hiked
the price within one night. This is an example of greed for money. (lydia dishman, 2015)
What can be done to our leaders?
It’s a question that everyone asks when they find themselves victims of bad leaders.
Therefore the solution to these bad leaders can be of help to many of the citizens in many states.
According to (Scott span, Nov 2012) leaders should be entitled to leadership development
seminars and training that will enable them to improve in one way or another. He claims that this
will help them conduct themselves within certain boundaries.

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Moreover (Ciulls, 2010) claims that, “We need to understand the ethical challenges faced
by imperfect humans who take on the responsibilities of leadership, so that we can develop
morally better leaders, followers, institutions, and organizations. At issue is not simply what
ethical and effective leaders do, but what leaders have to confront, and, in some cases
overcome, to be ethical and effective. “
Conclusion
It’s not true to claim leaders are bad people. Not all leaders portray the unethical values
and this should not make the term leader be tarnished. Only some leaders practice unethical
values and this is what can lead them be defined as bad leader. (Michael E. Brown & Marie S.
Mitchell, June 2007)

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References
Culls, J., July 2010. The nature of leadership. In Ethics and leadership effectiveness.
lydia Dishman, March 2015. best and worst leaders of 2015. [Online] fast company Available at
https://www.fastcompany.com/3054777/the-10-best-and-worst-leaders-of-2015 [Accessed 27
November 2017].
Michael E. Brown & Marie S. Mitchell, June 2007. Ethical and Unethical Leadership. In Exploring Avenues
for Future Research, Business Ethics Quarterly. p.79.
Scott span, Nov 2012. Leadership and Unethical Behavior: How Does It Impact the Organization? [Online]
Available at: https://www.tlnt.com/leadership-and-unethical-behavior-how-does-it-impact-the-
organization/ [Accessed 27 November 2017].