Business Ethics: Reflection on Ethical Leadership and Practices

This essay provides a reflection on ethical leadership, emphasizing the importance of ethical values and behaviors in the business environment. It defines ethical leadership as leadership guided by respect for ethical values and the dignity of people. The essay highlights key qualities of ethical leade...Read More

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Business Ethics 1
“Reflection on Ethical Leadership”
Ethical Leadership refers to the leadership that is directed by respect for the ethical values and
beliefs for the dignity of people in the environment. Under the ethical leadership process, the
ethical leader needs to initiate leadership activities with trust, fairness and consideration in the
environment. Being is more important for an ethical leader than being right. The concept of
ethics explains the values and morals that are present in the society and are desirable for
satisfaction in the environment. In my perspective, an ethical leader needs to follow all the
requirements of a normal leader and he needs to follow all the practices that satisfy subordinates
in the target market. There are various ethical leadership qualities that the ethical leaders should
implement in order to make its employees work with them to attain success in the target market.
The ethical leader needs to perform justice through their activities in the environment. Fair and
justice will make the ethical leader to treat every person equally and do not discriminate them
based on their nationality, gender etc. (Xu, Loi, and Ngo 2016).
Further, an ethical leader needs to respect the concern of other people and be honest with them as
well. Honesty will help the ethical leader to attain the trust of its subordinates in the business
environment. Further, it should be noted that Humane is one of the most revealing trait of an
ethical leader in the environment that makes them kind and likable as well. It should be noted
that it is important for an ethical leader to get a reputable position in the eyes of its employees so
as to make them work in favour of the business (Freeman 2016). The most important quality of
an ethical leader is that they do not tolerate any kind of ethical violation in the environment
irrespective of the fact that the activity can provide benefit to the business in the environment.
Further, in my perspective, the qualities of an ethical leader and more diverse than the qualities
of an ethical manager (Schwepker, and Schultz 2015).
There is no specific definition of ethical manager in the environment but according to me ethical
manager is a person who takes care of the interest of the employees in the organization but also
performs regular business activities in the environment. Whereas, an ethical leader a person who
create and innovate activities in the business environment and positively insist the subordinates
to work with them in the environment. The roles and duties of an ethical leader is entirely
different from that of an ethical manager in the environment. As per my understanding a
manager’s duties are limited to the extent of regular chores of business whereas the leader needs

Business Ethics 2
to perform extraordinary roles and responsibilities to increase the satisfaction of the business in
the environment (Fehr, Yam, and Dang 2015).
I believe that an ethical person has wide scope of becoming an ethical leader in the environment
but they just need to focus on their leadership skills to perform. So, I believe that firstly an
ethical person can successfully become an ethical leader in the environment and secondly ethical
leadership can successfully provide success to the business. An ethical leader can help the
business in becoming an ethical organization by successfully complying with all the rules,
regulations and responsibilities present with them (Ko, et. al., 2018). In my perspective, the
ethical leader will make the subordinates to adopt the ethical strategies to complete their goals
and objectives in the environment which will ultimately make the company ethical and profitable
as well.
If the leader will insist all the employees to work ethically in the environment then ultimately the
organization will become an ethical organization in the environment. I believe that an ethical
organization might also reduce its efficiency with the change in ethical leader present with the
business (Zhu, et. al., 2015). Every leader has different skills and qualities so if the company will
change then the employees might reduce using ethical activities in the business due to less
influence of another leader or vice versa. Lastly, I will bring the best environment for ethical
practices in the company by appropriately influencing the employees to work for the betterment
of the company in the right way. For this purpose, I would not require any specific tools or
resources as human resource are the biggest resource and effective communication is the most
important tool in the process of ethical leadership (Babalola, et. al., 2019).

Business Ethics 3
References
Babalola, M.T., Stouten, J., Camps, J. and Euwema, M., 2019. When do ethical leaders become
less effective? The moderating role of perceived leader ethical conviction on employee
discretionary reactions to ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 154(1), pp.85-102.
Fehr, R., Yam, K.C. and Dang, C., 2015. Moralized leadership: The construction and
consequences of ethical leader perceptions. Academy of Management Review, 40(2), pp.182-209.
Freeman, R.E., 2016. Ethical leadership and creating value for stakeholders. In Business ethics:
New challenges for business schools and corporate leaders (pp. 94-109). Routledge.
Ko, C., Ma, J., Bartnik, R., Haney, M.H. and Kang, M., 2018. Ethical leadership: An integrative
review and future research agenda. Ethics & Behavior, 28(2), pp.104-132.
Schwepker, C.H. and Schultz, R.J., 2015. Influence of the ethical servant leader and ethical
climate on customer value enhancing sales performance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales
Management, 35(2), pp.93-107.
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.
Zhu, W., He, H., Treviño, L.K., Chao, M.M. and Wang, W., 2015. Ethical leadership and
follower voice and performance: The role of follower identifications and entity morality
beliefs. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(5), pp.702-718.