Ethical Forces and Leadership

Ethical Forces and Leadership

Organizational ethics address operations, business, and cultural norms and set expectations for decision-making processes, strategies, and employee well-being (Johnson, 2018). Ethical leaders are responsible for effectively communicating expectations, leading by example, and holding organizational personnel accountable for unethical behaviors. Keck et al. (2020) also found a connection between leaders who meet their followers’ ethical expectations by taking solid stances against immoral, illegal, and unethical behaviors, with higher levels of team motivation, productivity, and job satisfaction. Unfortunately, these leaders can also face interpersonal communication and relationship challenges and may struggle when organizational culture and workplace relationships are not aligned with their ethics and values (Caldwell, 2021).

Interpersonal Communications and Relationships

Build relationships with people with strong moral convictions to limit your exposure to temptation and problematic, unethical behaviors. However, taking an ethical stance does not always go as planned and can feel like a betrayal when the offender is a friend or a close professional colleague. Fritz (2022) links unethical behaviors and workplace communication complications to overlapping personal and professional relationships, which can lead to unhealthy alliances and counterproductive work behaviors. However, ethical leaders often abandon these long-standing relationships to help victims and may do so because their altruistic behaviors were born from their own experiences and suffering, leading to a strong desire to protect others from harm (Johnson, 2018).

?I retired from the military after 21 years, was exposed to various interpersonal communications and relationships, faced several ethical dilemmas during my leadership tenure, and one prominent, egregious situation still weighs heavily. A former peer of mine sexually assaulted one of his subordinates, was arrested, and went to trial, where one by one, I watched leaders I served with testify on behalf of the sexual assault offender. Unfortunately, not even a conviction stopped these unethical leaders from reprising and retaliating against the victim. I did not know the victim personally; however, I reached out pre-trial and introduced them to former military lawyers, non-profit advocates, Congressional leaders, and media members so they could tell their story at the national level to find some semblance of justice. I also exposed my peers and their egregious victim-blaming and offender-protecting misconduct; however, it came at a cost...choosing ethics over personal and professional relationships usually does.

Moral Identity

Caldwell (2021) and Gerpott et al. (2019) discovered the link between moral and ethical leadership behaviors and increased follower commitment to organizational goals and objectives, as moral identity positively affects followers because ethical leaders set higher expectations, help their followers internalize ethical decision-making, and collectively work towards improving positive organizational citizenship behaviors. A person’s moral identity also focuses on personal standards, behaviors, attitudes, and a subjective determination of right and wrong. Additionally, moral identity connects to moral integrity and governs how a person’s decision-making capabilities relate to their values, beliefs, and personal identity.

For example, the military sexual trauma situation discussed earlier represented a professional and personal crossroads. People in positions of power were out of ethical alignment and intent on convincing personnel that loyalty and silence were most important, even though the organization publicly reiterated a zero-tolerance approach. The misalignment of an organization-person culture fit also created a moral dilemma between rejecting the status quo focused on allegiance and loyalty and holding people accountable to identified ethical standards, integrity, and behaviors. My strong-minded peers and I chose the latter even though it came with professional uncertainty. Johnson (2018) referred to this phenomenon as moral conation capacity, which motivates people towards ethical decision-making even when unpopular and requires moral courage to fight despite internal and external workplace factors.

Remember. Ethical and moral leaders make conscious choices each day to lead by example, set high standards for personnel, and protect those without a voice by harnessing positive interpersonal communications and relationships and committing to a strong moral identity. ?