Oxfam Australia's Leadership Crisis: A Moral and Ethical Review

This report identifies and analyzes a leadership issue within Oxfam Australia, specifically focusing on the organization's moral leadership crisis stemming from sexual misconduct allegations and subsequent handling of the situation. The report reviews literature concerning ethical leadership failures, effective leadership qualities, and the importance of moral principles in organizational leadership. It connects these findings to the Oxfam Australia context, highlighting the implications of the leadership's actions on stakeholder trust and organizational reputation. The analysis emphasizes the need for transparency, ethical conduct, and a strong moral compass within leadership roles to prevent such crises and maintain the integrity of the organization. The report also touches on the importance of mental health and a positive work environment in fostering ethical behavior among staff.

Assignment: Leadership problem
Name:

Leadership problem
Oxfam Australia is a non-profitable organization that is independent, secular, its operations are
community based and concerned with development, it is one of the biggest Charity organizations
found in the United Kingdom("Special Issue Leadership Journal: Indigenous Leadership", 2014).
This organization is based in Australia, closely linked with Oxfam International, part of the
organization’s work is long term development projects, campaigning for life improvement for less
fortunate people in the world and responding to emergencies. Their activities depend on funding from
well-wisher, sponsors and partners. The main leadership issue in the organization is a very poor moral
leadership("Forthcoming Changes toBoard Leadership", 2013). Oxfam Australia has been involved in
more than one sex scandal under the watch of the leaders and the management of the organization.
There was an article that alleged that the Oxfam covered up reports that some of the senior staff
members who were in Haiti hired prostitutes, some of them were even under age to be involved in
sexual activities. This allegation was later denied by Oxfam claiming that they did not cover up but
instead, they accepted the fact that their staff members had hired victims at Haiti for sexual favors
which was termed as sexual abuse(Graen, Rowold&Heinitz, 2010).According to the book of Hebrews
chapter 13 verse 4, the bible is against any form of immorality, that those people who do such shall be
judged by God, therefore whatever the staff members did was totally against the will of God. The
Charity stated that the totally unacceptable behavior among its staff was put under internal
investigations immediately where four staff members were dismissed including the director of
operations by then Mr. Van Hauwermeiren, who was said to have used prostitutes at a villa rented for
him by the Oxfam Organization and other three were given a chance to resign before the investigation
came to an end. This wasnot the first time that the Charity was involved in sexual misconduct, reports
state that in 2006 during a mission in Chad, its staff used prostitutes, also led by one Mr. Van. These
are serious allegations that were proved true about the organization and it shows how its leadership is
poor in terms of moral behaviors("Gibbs Leadership Prize: Best Manuscripts of 2017 in Women's
Health Issues", 2018). It raises much concerns even when a whole director of operations is included
in the mix of sexual misconduct during a Charity mission, furthermore they hired victims who they
were supposed to help some of them are said to have been underage.As much as the staff members
were out to do what God wants us to do as Christians and that is helping those who need help, they
forgot their moral obligation of not going against the Christian teachings about sex, they failed to
respect the victims and took advantage of them which is not right. Due to this moral leadership issue,

the organization has experienced a difficult time because some of its donors withdrew their support
financially, one of them was actress Minnie Driver cut off ties with the Charity because she did not
want to be associated with such organizations, and she was the celebrity ambassador for the
Oxfam(Bush, 2010). As much as the Organization stated that there were no cover ups, there were
reports that said the Charity did not disclose all the information concerning the sex scandal. This is
the fault of poor leadership in terms of morals because if the leaders can keep some secrets
concerning such behaviors, it means the culture itself has been cultivated among senior staff members
and does not want to join the public to condemn such actions but instead chose to keep some
information for themselves in the name of carrying out internal investigations(Lumby& Morrison,
2010).Christianity calls for transparency in all aspects and even if they kept it from the eyes and ears
of human beings, God is able to see each and every hidden thing even beneath the earth and so as
leaders, they should have put the matter in the open so that those people who were involved can be
warned and taught the right ways as they serve as an example to the rest who might be planning to do
such immoral things in future.
Literature review
Findings of the readings
Articles have been written by various concerning leadership issues related to the chosen poor moral
leadership(Mitra, 2013). Catey Hill wrote on the Daily News Staff Writer about what makes an
effective leader. Often, poor leadership is directly associated with the person in control of an
organization, institution or a group of people. For it to be said that there is a leadership issue,
probably the supposed leader must have failed(Schriesheim, 2013).A leader is supposed to pray for
wisdom and knowledge from God so that they can be able to know what is wrong and right and how
to lead as an example to the subjects.Still on Catey Hill articles, there is an article that says great
leaders are born and not made; however, people acquire leadership skills through practice.A leader
should be prepared to be committed by all means, it takes a lot of time and hard work, he or she
should be aware of the weaknesses and strengths in them in order to take a personal control. A good
leader has clear visions, goals and above all, principles which will help that person be in control of

things even in a tempting situation, the principles will help that person maintain personal
lanes(Morrison, 2010).When Jesus came to earth, He came to deliver human beings from their sins
but all through His missions on earth, He portrayed all qualities of a good leader and that He actually
served rather than leading, Jesus sacrificed a lot of things for the sake of the disciples and for the
mankind, so should leaders be committed to go through thick and thin for the sake of their
people.Another article on effective leadership it states leadership to be effective, a leader should
know the purposes of the mission being undertaken by the organization and have the best strategies
that will help the group achieve its goals. Employees or rather the junior members of staff should
always be motivated, encouraged and shown the right directions to take and all these are done by the
person in control. A leader should have clear rules for the subjects because human beings tend to
forget things and most of them work well under rules and regulations(VAN WART, 2013).Linder
Fisher published an article on preventing ethical leadership failures. The things than an individual
leader does/doesn’t and things that organization does/doesn’t are the main things that lead to failure
of leadership in the ethical sector. Individuals can ignore ethical codes of the organization, failing to
use self-control, following what the crowd is up to and lack of personal moral compass often leads to
failure in conducting moral behaviors among staff members in an organization. The organization as
well can fail to provide clarity for its staff, too simple rules, lack of positive role models and when an
issue occurs concerning morals, scapegoating of individuals is just done to make things right instead
of finding the root causes to cultivate a good moral culture(Burnes, Hughes & By, 2016). It is
something clear that every human being works well under rules such as in the Bible, the Israelites
were Given the ten commandments of which they were supposed to live in accordance to the
commandments, man has to be aware of the strict rules so that in as they do, they know the
boundaries.
An Explaining ethical failure of leadership is an article that was written by Terry L. Prince. In most of
the cases when an ethical failure is shown to the public, the explanation for the leader’s behavior is
provided which should not be the case, what should be done is looking at the moral status of what
was done. It should be noted that ethically failed moral leaders were aware of what they were doing at
the time of incident but went ahead anyway(Bell, 2014)Ronald Paul Hill published an article about
Failure of ethical leadership: Implications for stakeholders Theory and Anti-stakeholders .Leaders are
paused to be people with so many expectations from others; they have challenges that are brought
about by the stakeholders who happen to be their environment. There are situations that present

themselves to these expected highly moral leaders which may lead them to failing at the end(Acharya,
2010). When Mosses found out that Haron who he had left in charge was leading others to worship
idles, he faced a punishment which means that Moses had expectations on Haron as he knew that he
would lead the Israelites until he came back from where he had gone to communicate with God.
When Haron did meet the expectations , he lead people to the wrong way which means that a leader
determines where his or her followers head to. Another moral failure is seen in an article by Philip
Hersh when Olympics were on crisis. There was corruption cases reported in when choosing the
country to host the Olympics. There were unfavorable terms that were set by some immoral leaders’
such that other countries were kept out of bidding for the Olympic host country(Edmonstone, 2018).
Cheryl Conner talks about things that a considered strong leader does and the greatest aspect is the
mental health in the leadership sector so that those in charge can be able to make rational decisions
and set up good policies as they act as the role models in the organization. Physical health for any
human being but the most important health in a leader is the mental health. A leader should be
mentally strong enough to withstand pressure from outside and overcome tempting situations that
may lead them to leadership immorality(Chiu, 2010).Being mentally upright means that a person has
sober thoughts far from the evil, being evil minded can make people do something that they will live
to regret for the rest of their lives, therefore, whatever is fed to the mind should be clean so that the
results are right before human beings and above all, it pleases God.
Good leaders make people feel safe and the organization is on safe a hand that is according to an
article written by Simon Sinek. Such leaders understand that their task is great and acts as the shield
for the organization and at the same time he or she is the head. To make sure that the Organization
sticks to the rules and regulations, the leader must provide a safe environment for their subjects where
they can understand and do what is required of them(Ergle, 2015). The New York Times article by
Tony and Porath shows that some people hate their jobs for reasons that vary from one individual to
another. The hatred for what someone does leads to a don’t care attitude where one ignores the rules
and regulations set to guide all workers and goes on to do what they desire however wrong it might
be.The Bible teaches people to love neighbors more than they love themselves, hatred is a sin and the
wages of sin are death, no one wishes to live such a life when they can avoid by simply being
concerned about one another rather than living under enormity. It is the role of the leadership in
charge to make sure that the employed love what they do to avoid such ugly circumstances where

someone misbehaves painting the image of the organization in a negative way ("Forthcoming
Changes toBoard Leadership", 2013).
Relationship between the articles and the leadership problemArticles that I read relates to the
organization context in that they all revolve around leadership(Graen, Rowold&Heinitz, 2010). For
instance, the sexual misbehavior by Oxfam staff members included on of the leaders among them. It
means that the leader did not have the required moral standards to prevent such things from
happening. They chose to ignore the required code of conduct of the organization and the Biblical
moral teachings that sex is sacred and should only happen between two people who are married but
went onto do things that they wanted(Bush, 2010). The organization itself could be the reason why
people fail morally because they fail to draw clear line and take rules and regulations very lightly that
its employees forget what is required of them. It is the role of a leader to set examples, it is contrary
to what Mr. Van Hauwermeiren did but also hiring prostitutes together with other members yet he
should have been the one to do what is right for others to follow(Lumby& Morrison, 2010).He should
have considered what Christianity demands from people, taken control of his body because it is the
temple of God and anything that comes forth as temptation is was not beyond his powers to
overcome, the bible says that you shall not be tempted beyond what you can.
Recommendations
Due to the unfolding of the sex scandal issues involving Oxfam, many donors have lost faith in the
organization and some even deicide to withdraw their support not forgetting the risk of losing British
support. This organization depends entirely on donors and such events put it at a risk of falling down
yet it plays an important role when it comes to Charity activities and providing emergency services. It
is therefore important that this organization takes a step to ask for forgiveness from the affected
stakeholders, this will give it a chance to thrive once more as it has always done. Apologies alone
cannot be enough; the organization should find the root cause of this problem instead of making few
staff members’ scapegoats by sending them away. They may leave yes, a solution for that moment
but such incidents will happen again In future because the main cause has not been found and no new
culture has been cultivated in the organization. Leaders should make sure that they act as role models
and adhere to the rules and regulations of the organization. Things would have been different if this
organization would have put into consideration the teachings from the bible. the staff members did it

out of ignorance or did not know the biblicalteachings about sex at all and moral behaviors, this
organization therefore should make sure that they bring in training sessions to remind the workers of
their obligations as Christians and when setting rules, they should be based on the Christian
foundation and follow the teachings of Christ as well as the provided commandments from God to
humanity. Those who are not saved should be convinced to receive Jesus in their lives because this
will help them know what is right and wrong.
Lesson learned from the case studies
The lessons learnt from the case studies are quite a lot. It is now clear that whatever happens in an
organization is based on the leadership situation in the area of operation. Setting a good leadership
standard in an organization helps avoid many leadership issues including the example used in this text
that is Failure in the moral leadership. Leaders have to understand their roles and be committed in
each and everything they do which will surely take a lot of efforts and time but at the end of it all, the
organization’s leadership will thrive. Failure in one leadership area puts the organization as a whole at
a great risk and makes it unstable just as the Oxfam Organization faced a lot of problems simply
because a group of people from the organizations failed to conduct themselves morally lead by the
expected leader himself. I have also learnt that Christianity plays the greater role in terms of
leadership whereby if one is a born again Christian, he or she will do things guided by the teachings
and God will always light their ways so that they do not land in embarrassing situations.
Self-discoveries and self-reflections
Personally, I need to work on my leadership, be close to the bible and religious leaders who can teach
me more on leadership skills so that given a chance to be in an organization whether as a junior or a
leader, I will know what is required of me and understand how to dodge problems as I follow the
rules and regulations in the institution. I need to set my own goals and principles that will guide me in
each and everything I do, without them, it will be easy to be carried away my excitements from a
given situation or following the crowds which eventually lead to failure and leadership issues.
Leaders are born and some can be made, it is not yet too late to make a god leader out of me by
learning and looking for experiences that will build my mental health. Mental health is an important
aspect that I require to be able to make rational decisions at any given time and under wanting
circumstances that may require critical thinking and sober

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