Contemporary Issues in Leadership –Power and ethics overlap by Nada Ibrahim.
NADA IBRAHIM·WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2017·READING TIME: 7 MINUTES
Do power and ethics overlap? To answer this question we need to understand what ethics is first. Ethics is one’s moral principles that govern his/her behaviour or actions, in other words one’s moral compass. Ethics is influenced by some external factors such as, family, friends, community, religious beliefs, co-workers, and society at large.
There are two opposing views on ethics, universalism approach that suggests that ethics are universal; what is right is right everywhere. The second approach is culture relativism, this approach is more accepted and realistic because it acknowledges that there are differences between cultures, and that influences the cultural norms and ethics. making what’s acceptable in one culture not acceptable in another.
A good leader knows how to balance these two by three simple principles:
1. Maintaining respect for fundamental human rights.
2. Respect local traditions.
3. Considering the situation from different perspectives and how it affects everyone involved before making any decisions.
A person in power exercises influence or control over their followers, which depends on the source and legitimacy of their power. That makes a leader responsible for setting and communicating the ethical policies clearly with his/her followers. And as mentioned, ethics is influenced by outside factors, so the more power a leader has over his/her followers the greater of an impact they will have on their ethical compass. Proving that Ethics and power overlap, and the greater the power the greater the responsibility.
Ethical leaders are fair, just, and responsible, their employees can depend on them for guidance. They reward ethical conducts and do not tolerate unethical conducts. Thus set an example to follow by upholding high moral principles. They also stay focused on the greater good for organization and the people involved. This kind of leadership is not only concerned about laws and regulations it is a commitment to serve the followers and create value for all those involved.
The other side is unethical leadership also referred to as the dark side of leadership. Before discussing that I need to mention that sometimes unethical behaviours can be caused by
1. The follower’s personality.
2. A corrupt system (situation).
However we are discussing the overlap of power and ethics, so I will focus on how unethical leaders influence their followers. Unethical leaders focus on results only, they treat their followers poorly, are deceptive, unfair, neglecting of followers needs, self-serving and only concerned about their self-interest. And when things get bad they could displace their responsibility on someone else, blaming an employee for example.
This kind of leadership allows the manifestation of poor ethics as the followers are discouraged because unethical behaviour is rewarded or is not punished so some followers may think it is ok to use the same unethical ways for their career to advance.
An example of how an unethical behaviour that is not considered a big deal by many lead to other unethical behaviours that are punished by law:
In a documentary I saw (dis) Honesty: the truth about lies, led by the behavioral scientist Dan Ariely they address dishonesty. In this documentary they interviewed people and conducted case-studies to find out why people lie. Most of people they interviewed that one of the reasons people lied was because everyone was doing it and they didn’t think they will get caught and that was proved by their case studies. In one of the case studies the participants are asked to answer as many questions as they can during five minutes, at the end they give them the answers and tell the participants to see how many they got right. Then they ask them to put their paper in the shredder without looking at it and give them a dollar for each question the participants said they got right.
The shredder was tampered with and only shredded the side of the papers, so later these papers were collected to be analyzed. Nearly 70% lied. Then they added an actor to the case study that would say 30 second into the experiment that he finished all the questions, takes the money and leaves. What happens is the percentage of liars increased, because:
1. They became sure they were not going to get punished for their unethical behaviour.
2. They knew no-one was checking after them.
3. They knew there was no way he finished in 30 seconds, and knowing that he was lying made it become socially acceptable.
The same case study was conducted again but this time with a different alternation, the participants had to sign an honor code ahead of taking the exam, the results were that the cheating dropped to zero! Surprisingly reminding the participants of their morals and values alone made this impact.
In this example the case-study doctors can represent the leaders because they were the ones in power and the ones setting the rules and policies. The participants represented the followers because they were reacting to what the doctors has asked of them. This is a scientific case study that demonstrates how the person in power can directly affect the follower’s behaviour, and that proves that the leaders have a direct and strong impact on their followers.
When discussing power and ethics another question arises, do ends justify the means? Is a good leader someone who can act against loyalty and humanity to stay in power and get results; be good when he/she can but bad when it’s needed? According to Machiavelli that is what makes a competent leader. However I disagree because there is a fine line between what is ethical and what is not, and once a person starts tampering with this line it breaks, and over time it becomes hard to know what is wright and what is wrong. Also sometimes one unethical behaviour leads to another and before the person realizes it he/she is in too deep. Ends do not justify the means simply because the whole process matters.
Martin Winterkorn, the former CEO of Volkswagen led by Machiavelli’s logic. In 2004 the standers for car emission were tightened in the US by the US environmental protection agency, so for seven years the company was using a software “the switch” that cheated diesel emission tests in the US. The reason that they did that was that the American market was very attractive for them and instead of meeting the standards they decided it was easier to cheat. (Dishman, L. (2015, December 28). The 10 Best And Worst Leaders Of 2015.)
While it is not conclusive if Martin Winterkoen knew about the cheat software or not he contributed to this scandal by being an unethical leader, he fostered a corporate culture that was very unhealthy. By doing that some of his employees thought it was ok to cheat to meet the company’s goals because he only cared about results, other employees just wanted to keep their jobs and the reason they might have hid the information is because he was very criticizing and treated his employees poorly. In addition there was a bonus system that gave a financial incentive for the employees so they do not offer dissenting opinions, this helped in creating a corporate culture where problems are hidden and not addressed. All that allowed the cheating to go undetected for so long. (Goodman, L. M. (2016, May 08). Why Volkswagen Cheated).
So the company made many profits prior to getting caught it, but all the glory was gone once they got caught so it was really a short-lived success. Consequences included:
1. Facing many legal issues in USA including law suits.
2. VW’s stock decreased dramatically after the scandal.
3. France opens an aggravated fraud investigation against VW in Paris office.
4. Stock holder’s fil a multi- billion law suit against VW for breaching its duty to capital markets.
5. VW’s tampered cars might be accountable for up to 1 million tonnes of air pollution.
(Moshinsky, B. (2016, April 15). Here's what Volkswagen did and how the emissions scandal has hurt the company.)
All and all this is an example of how an unethical leader can do so much harm, by not providing clear ethical policies and ignoring the unethical conducts. Martin Winterkoen success will not matter, and he will go down in history as someone that cheated or permitted cheating under his leadership, and will always be associated to the VW’s huge scandal.
When the truth comes out no one supports an unethical person regardless of how much power they might have had. No one will care about the short lived success because they will be faced with the aftermath of the unethical decisions. So no the ends definitely do not justify the means.
References:
1. Behavioral scientist Dan Ariely/(2015)/(dis) Honestly: the truth about lies/ Documentary.
2. Hughes, Richard L.,Ginnett. R.C., & Curphy .G J. (2012). Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience. (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
3. Dishman, L. (2015, December 28). The 10 Best And Worst Leaders Of 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2017, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3054777/the-10-best-and-worst-leaders-of-2015
4. Goodman, L. M. (2016, May 08). Why Volkswagen Cheated. Retrieved March 15, 2017, from https://europe.newsweek.com/why-volkswagen-cheated-404891?rm=eu
5. Moshinsky, B. (2016, April 15). Here's what Volkswagen did and how the emissions scandal has hurt the company. Retrieved March 15, 2017, from https://www.businessinsider.com/what-volkswagen-did-and-how-they-got-caught-2016-4/#in-the-same-month-the-company-is-hit-by-another-law-suit-this-time-in-the-us-16