Ethical leadership

Ethical leadership
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The dilemmas in assessing ethical leadership when a leader needs to create enthusiasm for a risky strategy or project
An organization may require creating an innovative project or strategy to be successful in the industry. A leader has the responsibility of explaining the risky venture to the followers so that they can comprehend what they are expected to do. A risky investment has a high likelihood of bringing significant revenues and profit margins to a company although it can also result in massive losses especially when it fails or is not completed at the right time. A leader must influence the perception of his followers in regards to risks and prospects for success. There are various ethical dilemmas that a leader can be faced with when he/she needs to create enthusiasm for a risky strategy or project.
One ethical dilemma is the creation of a full proof plan. A leader must come up with a convincing plan for the new risky project that would help followers to have trust in its success. An ethical dilemma can arise when a leader is unable to come up with a full proof plan which can be confusing to all those who are involved. A leader must also clearly state the advantages and the benefits that would be realized after completing a project which can also create a dilemma especially on the part of employees (Trevino, 2015).
Bonus and performance-based rewards can motivate employees to work towards accomplishing a goal.

On the other hand, a company can incur huge costs that can result in losses. A leader is therefore faced with an ethical dilemma of whether to offer these rewards or not. A leader is also faced with a dilemma of whether to undertake similar projects in the future that promise high profits in the future due to the great risks involved.
A leader is also expected to inspire confidence and self-belief after a project has been accomplished successfully. The failure to inspire self-belief and confidence can fail employees to perform well on upcoming projects.
The dilemmas in assessing ethical leadership when a leader needs to induce followers to change their underlying beliefs and values to accomplish organizational goals
Trying to change the beliefs and values of people can trigger controversy and ethical dilemmas. Most people agree that a leader who tries to influence beliefs and values can be considered unethical in spite of the fact that the aim would be to the benefit of followers as well as an organization. An ethical dilemma is that charismatic leaders may end up influencing followers who are deemed weak and insecure. Another ethical dilemma is that sometimes leader may end up misusing their power and control over information to help influence the discernments of followers concerning difficulties and incidents.
Inducing the followers to change underlying beliefs and values of individuals at the workplace in efforts to achieve the organizational goals requires the leader to weight the overall implication of that particular stand. Resistance to that is change is a common occurrence that a leader needs to be prepared to encounter. Additionally, other ethical implications come along with the issues hence bringing about an ethical dilemma to the leader (Piccolo et al., 2010).
The other dilemma that a leader may be faced with in efforts to bring about change is misunderstanding and unnecessary confrontation. At the workplace, the people need to be aware of the organizational goals that exist and the importance of teamwork in efforts to accomplish all these goals. An effective leader who is ethical is expected to explain to the employees or other employee leaders why it is necessary to undertake these changes and the expected outcomes. In doing so, the resistance to change will have been reduced. The change of the underlying beliefs and values of the employees should be done gradually. The employees should also be informed the reason as to why the organizational goals have to be accomplished for the overall benefit and the progress of the firm.
Analyze the dilemmas in assessing ethical leadership when a leader needs to influence decisions that will benefit some people at the expense of others.
There are various dilemmas that an ethical leader may face before making decisions that might benefit some people in the organization at the expense of others. One of the issues that the leader may be faced with the ethics surrounding dealing with fairness. Everyone expects that the leaders must exercise fairness at all times. The act of fairness should always be extended to all. Fairness is critical to all organizations since it ensures that there harmony.
The other dilemma that an effective leader may be faced with is the feeling of doing what is unjust. This feeling may affect the overall performance of the leaders as well as the whole organization. The leadership may feel that they have unjustly dealt with a section of employees in the organization.
Explaining the reason behind making such decisions to the parties that have been affected is another ethical dilemma that may present itself in such situation. The affected individuals need to get convinced of the reason as to why such actions were necessary and the criteria that were used by the leader. Explaining these decisions will boost the confidence of the employees and the trust they have on the leader. The affected parties should not feel victimized. The same will also reduce the chances of there being distrust among the employees. The reduction of the distrust will boost teamwork and hence increase the organization’s harmony and growth (Trevino, 2015).
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Piccolo, R. F., Greenbaum, R., Hartog, D. N. D., & Folger, R. (2010). The relationship between ethical leadership and core job characteristics. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31(2‐3), 259-278.
Trevino, L. K. (2015). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. Place of publication not identified: John Wiley.