Moral leadership is at the center stage of quality leadership today. According to Rhode (2006), moral leadership is the type of leadership firmly founded on a set of values and principles that influence how a leader acts, inspires, and motivates their subjects. Some of these qualities include integrity, respect, humility, and aptitude for critical thinking. Moral leadership's significance is realized when the personal characteristics of a leader impact their ethical actions and decisions, even in tough ethical situations.
A real-life example of an ethical situation in the workplace is an employee or a manager taking credit for other staff’s work. Managers and supervisors often take advantage of their positions in the workplace to exploit employees for their own gain. There are many instances where managers are credited with innovations; they were not associated with in the first place. The inventor of such innovation is usually not recognized or awarded. On the other hand, the manager receives all the accolades, including a salary increase.
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Principles of moral leadership can be applied to resolving the moral dilemma in the case above. A moral leader's role is to ensure that ethical standards are established and effectively enforced in the workplace to prevent such instances (Rhode, 2006). For example, an employee found violating the provisions of integrity by assuming credit for work not done can be punished. The purpose of such principles is to prevent the occurrence of such behaviors and penalize those that do occur.
Hartman, DesJardins, and MacDonald (2017) also emphasize the need for ethics in the workplace. According to the authors, ethical leadership should be observed by anyone who has a principal effect on the company's decisions. It implies that ethics does not rely on topmost managers but anyone with the power to influence decisions, including individual employees. That being so, according to the views of Burton and Goldsby (2010), whose view is consistent with Brown and Trevino’s (2014) suggest that a leader should serve as a role model in ethical matters.
References
Brown, M. E., & Treviño, L. K. (2014). Do role models matter? an investigation of role modeling as an antecedent of perceived ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics , 122(4), 587-598.
Burton, B., & Goldsby, M. (2010). The moral floor: A philosophical examination of the connection between ethics and business. Journal of Business Ethics, 91(1), 145-154.
Hartman, L. P. & DesJardins, J. R., & MacDonald, C. (2017). Business ethics: Decision-making for personal integrity & social responsibility (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Rhode, D. L. (Ed.). (2006). Moral leadership : The theory and practice of power, judgment, and policy. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
