Assignment Sample on Authentic leadership and ethical leadership in today’s popular model of leadership.
Introduction
An organisation’s growth is very essential for enhancing the productivity and profitability of the company. It is directly dependent on the leadership effectiveness and ways they implement to improve their team’s efficiency (Ciulla, 2020). Leaders need to choose effective leadership practices so they can improve all the operations of an organisation. The chosen leadership practice for this essay is authentic and ethical leadership as it is the most used leadership model in today’s rapidly changing environment. Authentic leadership is the practice that helps in building a leader’s legitimacy by using loyal relationships with their team. They need to follow the same behaviours as they want to be followed by their group. On the other sight, ethical leadership means maintaining morals and values along with focusing on their employee’s requirements and needs. The basic resemblance between both leadership models is to enhance work efficiency by setting an example as per Rihal, (2017). The essay also discusses their strengths and weaknesses. Along with that, examples of different leaders following these two models are also described.
Description
In today’s world, leadership is described differently in comparison with the traditional practices used. Not a single employee is in favour of following the old top-down management approach. Authentic leadership is described by leaders that are transparent, genuine, and self-aware. It helps them in increasing the loyalty and trust among employees by explaining their qualities with employees (Authentic leadership, 2020). Also, leaders following authentic leaders can increase their worth by monitoring their weaknesses. On the other hand, ethical leaders want their followers to follows the lead as appropriate and acceptable by them. In simple words, these leaders have some rules and values that they follow while performing any task in their life. In the rapidly growing world, authenticity will become the major adoption of every organisation (Gatlinget.al. 2016). It possesses the quality that has the power of attracting talented employees and improves the engagement level of employees as well.
According to Ohand Oh, (2017) authentic leadership is regarding being honest and truthful about themselves and behaves similarly as they are. The theory that can describe authentic leadership adequately segregates the qualities in four different categories: self-awareness, balanced processing, relational transparency, and internalized moral perspective. The first component of self-awareness is all about measuring personal strengths and weaknesses so the leader can lead the team effectively stated by Kotzéand Nel, (2017). Measuring an individual’s weaknesses also helps them in implementing strategies for converting them into their strengths. This leadership quality also helps them in sharing their perspectives and communicates freely with their employees, it enables them to create a comfortable and friendly environment for their employees. Authentic leaders share their leadership qualities with their group that makes them feel relaxed while sharing their problems. It improves the level of employee engagement.
Figure 1: Authentic leadership qualities.
(Source: Authentic leadership, 2020)
The second factor represented by the theory is relational transparency. It states that leaders feel free to accept their mistakes and communicate comfortably with their team. Their way of giving reaction is the same in public as they are in person. It increases employee’s confidence to become transparent and can accept their mistake as per Olaniyanand Hystad, (2016). Accepting weaknesses and helps them in correcting them by giving feedbacks will improve their work-efficiency. Authentic leaders have the quality to keep their personal views and emotions out of their professional life. Using relational transparency will make employees feel comfortable in sharing their opinions and views.
Balanced processing is all about respecting the views and preferences given by the team members. Leaders listen to views very precisely and consider them effectively. It builds an environment of engagement and trust stated by Gardneret.al. (2021). Additionally, getting different views and preferences allows leaders to select the excellent option that can enhance the productivity of the task. A balanced procession also puts positive effects on the decision-making process.
Figure 2: Four components of authentic leadership.
(Source: Towler, 2019)
The final component highlights internalized moral perspective, which means they adjust their behaviour as per their moral values (Chaudharyand Panda, 2018). It helps them in managing an ethical and valuable work environment that is based on some set of rules and morals. Following moral values enables the probability of taking decisions ethically that will not hurt anyone’s feelings (Towler, 2019). In this way, the theory of authentic leadership explains the four significant quality of authentic leaders that helps in improving decision-making, employee engagement, productivity and ethical values in an organisation.
For example, Martin Luther King, Jr. can be described as one of the best authentic leaders. Martin was involved in fighting violence using nonviolence in the Civil Rights Movement started by Connell, (2020). The significant quality of Martin was non-violence, no matter how the other person treats them; Martin’s value of non-violence was in legacy to attain the objective of equality. The authentic values followed by the leader are an inspiration for others and helps in achieving advancement for equality in society. It is the best suitable example based on the values of an authentic leader. It can conclude that authentic leadership is all about being true, being open with team members, and being honest, and follow ethical values.
The biggest drawback of using an authentic leader is that the values followed by the leader are suitable for every situation. Sometimes, leaders need to change their moral values to acquire the benefits for the organisation as per Luenendonk, (2020) Other than that, all the employees are not always satisfied by the values followed by these leaders and it can become a major reason for rising conflicts. Other than that, taking feedbacks and preferences from others is right but there comes a situation where leaders have to make a quick decision as per Bediet.al. (2016). Authentic leadership is not suitable here and might become an obstacle in taking quick decisions that can enhance an organisation’s ability.
Ethical leadership is all about concerning at developing virtuous behaviour and moral values. It means creating positive respect for ethical beliefs and values that focuses on other right and dignity. Their actions and words are used for demonstrating good values and beliefs (Leadership and Ethics, 2019). The significant benefit of following this leadership practice is creating a positive culture, improved brand image, scandal prevention, enhances emotional well-being and loyalty in the workplace. In context with that, it can be seen that authentic and ethical leadership follows similar qualities such as inhibiting positive values to implement an optimistic work environment. It helps in creating a healthy work environment that is essential for enhancing employee’s work efficiency elaborated by Sharmaet.al. (2019). Ethical leaders possess the quality of inspiring people to improve their work competence and think out of the box.
Their primary mission is to create a positive brand reputation so they work on reducing the probability of scandal rising. It can be declared that scandal can be harmful to the brand image of any organisation and also stops their growth (Anfar, 2018). The entire work practice adopted by leaders is based on truth and honesty that enhances the level of loyalty among customers and employees. They also work for managing the stress and conflicts in the workplace so they can maintain an emotional and healthy work environment (Koet.al. 2018). Ethical leaders have the superiority of representing the suitable professional behaviour in between team members that enhance their work efficiency.
For demonstrating ethical leadership adequately, the 4V model of ethical leadership is used. 4V holds Vision, Value, Virtue, and Voice. All four factors contribute to building an excellent ethical leader. The model is concerned with internal factors followed by external beliefs serving a common goal (Dadhich, 2016). The first V of Value helps in monitoring the core-values possessed by them and it also helps them in improving self-knowledge. Communication is the basic quality possessed by an ethical leader. By understanding their values effectively, they can use them in completing the entire task assigned adequately.
The second component is about creating a vision statement that helps them in making team understand the requirements of the goal. It will also help in enhancing the morale of team members and they can contribute their creativity in achieving the goals. According to Pushkar, (2018) understanding values helps in creating a vision that inhibits the values followed by leaders. Further, a clear voice enables the opportunity for the leader as they can explain the created vision to their team members adequately. It will also help the group in keeping themselves motivated and a clear vision and voice allow them to bring creative ideas that can be implemented in achieving the goals. Finally, virtue is all about completing the entire task adequately and acts as per the situation.
The development of this model includes three more components that are service, polis, and removal. Service creates a link between vision and value. For example, vision can be explained elaborately by using the values a leader possesses. Polis is all about following some set of ethical values and rules that helps in creating an ethical work environment (Engelbrechtet.al. 2017). Renewal aims at concerning the art of innovation. This model can help ethical leaders for building their qualities and enhance productivity.
For example, the Telecommunication Company faced several difficulties in several months as digitalization changed the world. The leader working in the company was afraid to share this situation with their colleagues so they keep their assets for taking a loan and pay the salary of every employee (Weinstein, 2019). After the consultation, the leader decided to share their situation with employees freely and this decision was worth everything. After sharing about the situation their employees supported them and insisted them to reduce the payable wage. They work together so their company can achieve success again. Their efforts worked and they achieve great success. It states that sharing every situation with the team is great as they come with various ideas and preferences that can work as an excellent solution.
Finally, the major drawback of adopting ethical leadership is that it needs comprehensive support to become efficient and expensive for SMEs to implement. Other than that, it primarily depends on the leader’s ability to inspire others so they can work on their set of ethical values and beliefs (Miller, 2020). Clarity is must for ethical leaders in making their team understand their vision statement.
Conclusion
It has been concluded that it is mandatory to choose the best leadership practice so a healthy work environment can be maintained. Ethical and authentic leadership practices both focus on working based on some set of ethical values and beliefs. They keep the level of honesty high with their employee to enhance the level of comfortableness among them. Leaders share their issues with their team members and solve the employee’s problems precisely. Following ethical values and rules is not applicable every time. There occurs a situation that needs some other values. Both the leaders act as an example for others. These leadership practices possess the quality that helps in enhancing work-efficiency, employee engagement, and the decision-making process. The essay concludes that ethical and authentic leadership practices are the most asked leadership practice in the future.
References
Books and Journals
Bedi, A., Alpaslan, C.M. and Green, S., 2016. A meta-analytic review of ethical leadership outcomes and moderators. Journal of Business Ethics, 139(3), pp.517-536.
Chaudhary, R. and Panda, C., 2018. Authentic leadership and creativity. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management.
Ciulla, J.B., 2020. The importance of leadership in shaping business values. In The search for ethics in leadership, business, and beyond (pp. 153-163). Springer, Cham.
Dadhich, A., 2016. My vision of Ethical leadership.
Engelbrecht, A.S., Heine, G. and Mahembe, B., 2017. Integrity, ethical leadership, trust and work engagement. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Gardner, W.L., Karam, E.P., Alvesson, M. and Einola, K., 2021. Authentic leadership theory: The case for and against. The Leadership Quarterly, p.101495.
Gatling, A., Kang, H.J.A. and Kim, J.S., 2016. The effects of authentic leadership and organizational commitment on turnover intention. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
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.
Kotzé, M. and Nel, P., 2017. Personal factor effects on authentic leadership. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 27(1), pp.47-53.
Oh, J. and Oh, S., 2017. Authentic leadership and turnover intention: does organizational size matter?. Leadership & organization development journal.
Olaniyan, O.S. and Hystad, S.W., 2016. Employees’ psychological capital, job satisfaction, insecurity, and intentions to quit: The direct and indirect effects of authentic leadership. Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones, 32(3), pp.163-171.
Pushkar, B.K., 2018. IMPACT OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP ON BUSINESS PRACTICES.
Rihal, C.S., 2017. The importance of leadership to organizational success. NEJM Catalyst, 3(6).
Sharma, A., Agrawal, R. and Khandelwal, U., 2019. Developing ethical leadership for business organizations. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Online
Anfar. S. 2018. Five Principles of Ethical Leadership.[Online]. Accessed through: <https://medium.com/@anfar.shafreen/five-principles-of-ethical-leadership-218eccbb4918>
Authentic leadership. 2020. [Online]. Accessed through: <https://www.technofunc.com/index.php/leadership-skills-2/leadership- theories/item/authentic-leadership-2>
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Leadership and Ethics. 2019.[Online]. Accessed through: <https://culcamandapung.home.blog/2019/06/03/blog-1-leadership-and-ethics/>
Luenendonk. M. 2020. Authentic Leadership Guide: Definitions, Qualities, Pros & Cons, Examples. [Online]. Accessed through: <https://www.cleverism.com/authentic-leadership-guide/#:~:text=Disadvantages%20of%20authentic%20leadership,to%20be%20an%20authentic%20leader.>
Miller. K. 2020. 14 Advantages and Disadvantages of Ethical Leadership Styles.[Online]. Accessed through: <https://futureofworking.com/14-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-ethical-leadership-styles/>
Towler. A. 2019. Authentic leadership. [Online]. Accessed through: <https://www.ckju.net/en/dossier/power-authentic-leadership-how-legitimacy-ethics-and-positive-psychology-drive-organizational-performance>
Weinstein. B. 2019. Examples of leaders following ethical leadership. [Online]. Accessed through: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceweinstein/2019/10/14/seven-bold-leaders-reveal-how-ethical-leadership-is-a-boon-to-business/?sh=51335cb2454c
