Chpt 11 – ethical leadership and followership

Ethical leadership and followership
Name
Institution
Professor
Course
Date

Leadership in any group or society comes with it great responsibility. Guiding subordinates will sometimes require a leader to make decisions that may favor or disfavor members in the group. Power affects the nature of the leader as it may cause one become productive or does more damage to a team. The authors, Hackman and Johnson, support the close relationship between ethics and leadership. They state that as leaders have access to a lot of information unreachable to the public, there are high chances of them manipulating the data for either personal interest or the collective interest of the group (Hackman & Johnson, 2013).
Ethics require the transparency of the leader in all respects as it gives meaning to honesty and reputation in a group. The authors support this ideology, but with it come disadvantages that affect a group negatively. Upholding information from members and exaggerating the info constitute to unethical leadership (Hackman & Johnson, 2013). Instances of lying and stealing on the part of leaders are immoral as it motivates selfish personal gains at the expense of the followers. Succeeding leaders usually follow the predecessors, and if the leader is corrupt, the same happens, and this affects the achievement of goals. Thus, treating subordinates as a means to an end is wrong. Unethical leaders significantly do more harm than good to societies and organizations.
The factors discussed above prove that ethics provide a better way of effecting proper leadership that the followers can also adopt.

Instances of deception and cover up prove to be expensive to followers since in most cases they are the ones to experience both benefits and hardship. Principles such as honesty and loyalty facilitate efficient administration as occupying a leadership role means that a certain amount of trust vested upon those in power will deliver and protect the collective interest of a group (Hackman & Johnson, 2013).
Reference
Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2013). Leadership: a communication perspective (6th ed., pp. 336-366). Illinois: Waveland Press.