leadership and ethics

The concept "ethics" is derived from the Greek word "ethos," which basically refers to a person's behaviour, actions, or principles. The concept is used to describe the morals and practices that certain people and/or cultures have embraced and view as acceptable (Leadership Ethics, Chapter 16). An upright person is one that has a strong conscience and intentions. The ethical philosophy, on the other hand, is the foundation upon which laws and principles governing what is right and wrong are established. All is supposed to use the model when making critical decisions. The forum also assists individuals in thoroughly comprehending moral decency and exaltation. The ethical theory is demarcated into two main domains namely leaders’ character and leaders’ conduct. Leaders’ role is mainly concerned with the virtues adopted by an individual. The theory informs what a person should be as opposed to what they should do. On the other hand, leaders’ conduct focuses on an individual’s actions and results. This branch of ethical theory is further subdivided into teleological theories and deontological theories. Teleological theory concentrates on the consequences realized upon undertaking a particular activity. On the other hand, the deontological theory is not only concerned with the result of an action but also of the appropriateness of an action. For instance, the theory asserts that every leader should always speak the truth and fulfill their promises.

Importance of Ethics and Leadership

Ethics and leadership are often intertwined with power, at least in the context of an institution. Thus, an individual must have the power to execute an action for them to be termed either ethical or unethical. Additionally, for one to lead, they must have been granted power by those they direct. The field of project management demands that all the players conduct themselves ethically. Ethical behavior helps minimize wastage, enhance transparency, and fan success. In this way, all the stakeholders, taxpayers, vendors, and employees can sleep soundly and rest assured that their resources are being utilized in the most optimum way possible. Ethics and leadership among the project management professionals are driven by some values including but not limited to the fairness, respect and a sense of responsibility.

Ethics helps elevate the profession of the project manager, placing them way ahead of their unethical colleagues. An ethical manager can create a good rapport with the client. In case another project arises, the client can always contact the manager for services. Referred clients are also very many.

Ethical leadership implicitly helps a firm to increase its fortunes and achieve great success not only in the short run but also in the long term. This has been witnessed with reputable firms (Northam, 2005). For instance, Starbucks, a Coffee Company based in the US has been tipped as one of the most ethical institutions globally. Indeed, ethics has become part and parcel of the firm’s culture. The employees of the firm often regarded as partners dedicate themselves to quality service delivery to the clients.

It is worth noting that consumers today have become more informed of the appropriate code of conduct in as far as production and product sale are concerned. Starbucks appreciates this fact and has already raised its bar high. According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Howard Schultz, the journey has been gruesome (Starbucks Inc., 2014). In the short run, the firm’s ethical treatment of workers, as well as clients, disadvantaged them when compared to their arch rivals. However, as time went by, the firm was able to catch up with its competitors and surpass. Today, the firm is a force to reckon with. Indeed, it has become a market leader in the coffee industry.

Leadership Styles

Leadership style is the pattern of behavior by a person trying to influence others. The style includes both supportive and directive behaviors. The directive behaviors assist team members to achieve their goals through one-way communication involving defining roles, giving instructions, and establishing goals and how to fulfill them. On the other hand, the supportive behaviors help followers to feel contented with the condition, co-workers and themselves in two-way communication. It includes problem-solving, listening and praising, and asking for input.

The most potential success factor for a project manager is the leadership styles. It is tough to measure a person’s leadership skill in training since it is a soft skill hence frequently ignored. The key to becoming a great project manager is to understand the different leadership styles, and they are significance. Consequently, the choice of the correct leadership style based on the project team requirements should be the priority of the project manager. There are several leadership styles for a project manager which may include:

Transformational Leadership: This is the process through which individuals are changed and transformed. It involves outstandingly prompting supporters to achieve a more than anticipated outcome. In this style, a wide range of leadership impact is defined where leaders and followers are bound together in the transformational process. This style delivers an instinctive context which separates scholarship from circumstantial assistance. The project manager sets challenging expectations to the time which helps to achieve higher performance. Through empowering followers, this style tends to have many happy and loyal supporters.

According to Burns (1978), the types of leaderships include: First, transformational whereby there is a connection created between the project manager and the followers to improve their motivation and morality. The project manager helps the workers by motivating them and assisting them to reach their fullest potential. Second, transactional which concentrates on the interactions that happen among project managers and their workers. This is more of a “give and take” consideration where each subordinate must work for the leader to earn some rewards. Lastly, Pseudo-transformational which concentrates more on the interest of the project manager rather than that of his/her workers. This kind of leadership is oppressive, self-consumed and power oriented with perverted ethical values hence a transformation in the adverse direction.

According to an industrial psychologist Bernard Bass, transformational leadership has four key elements. Firstly, intellectual stimulation whereby the worker’s autonomy and creativity are valued by this leadership style. This is possible since project managers involve their workers in the process of decision making and motivating their determinations to become innovative and resourceful to get better solutions. This element also helps workers to try new approaches and develop innovative methods of tackling organization matters (Albritton, 1998).

Secondly, inspirational motivation which refers to the capability of the leader to encourage, stimulate confidence and create a sense of tenacity to his/her supporters. The transformational leader must establish an obligation to the objectives set, articulate a clear vision and converse anticipations to the group. Additionally, the project manager is required to portray outstanding communication skills when conveying messages with exactness, authority and a sense of command (Albritton, 1998). The project manager must also be positive and wholehearted.

Thirdly, individualized consideration whereby the project manager should be able to listen carefully to the desires of the workers. Additionally, the manager can provide opportunities for training sessions that mentor and couch each worker to help them grow and become fulfilled with their positions.

Lastly, the idealized influence where transformational leaders should portray charismatic personalities and act as role models for their supporters. This influence is characterized by the willingness of the project manager to take risks and follow the ethical principles in every action he/she takes. The project manager is capable of influencing workers to follow his/her vision since they will have trust and confidence in him/her.

Transformational leadership is significant in that it provides a way of leadership that stresses on innovation, inspiration, and concerns of individuals. The style is also able to influence a firm performance positively. Additionally, the style helps the project manager to develop an attractive vision together with the workers, develop this vision, express optimism and confidence about the vision and implementation and together with the workers work successfully towards the fulfillment of the vision (Albritton, 1998).

Transactional Leadership: This is a leadership style that comprises of an interchange practice, whereby supporters get instant rewards for doing what the leaders want them to do. The behavior includes; clarifying the expected performance of a worker; outlining how the expectations would be met; and giving contingent rewards once objectives are met (Burns, 1978).

Transactional leaders emphasize on performance, encourages success through rewards and penalties, and uphold compliance with the goals and expectations of the organization culture. A product manager who is a transactional leader is expected to do the following; set goals and provide guidance on what they should expect from the workers and the rewards they will get for their commitment and efforts; identify actions that can be taken to improve performance and excellently respond to deviations from the expected results; and establish practices to that will enable the company to be efficient and industrious.

The factors involved in transactional leadership include; contingent reward whereby the efforts made by workers is exchanged with some fruits and management by exception which involves remedial condemnation, undesirable response, and destructive support. It takes active and passive forms. The active form is whereby the worker is monitored closely so that rules violations and mistakes are identified. On the other hand, passive form involves intervention only when a problem occurs, or the set standards are not met.

Transactional leadership is significance in that it motivates employees through rewards and since it has short term goes it increases production and cuts down costs.

Laissez-faire. In this style, the leader does not have direct command of workers, and he/she does not offer the systematic reaction to those he/she supervises. The leader relinquishes accountability and makes little effort to assist employees in meeting their needs. The highly educated and skilled workers little supervision in this style are hence hindering production of workers requiring supervision. Since the managers have no oversight efforts, this style can lead to poor production, increased costs and lack of control in the company. This method is only appropriate for established, committed groups since on any other team it will encourage failure and laziness making the project to fail accordingly.

Charismatic Leadership. The innovative influence of the charismatic leader is demonstrated. Charisma results to a person being treated as a leader since he/she portrays exceptional character traits which give him/her outstanding powers. It involves the transformation of the workers’ beliefs and values. The charismatic leaders by acting in unique ways give the supporters the exceptional charismatic effects.

The significant of charismatic leadership is that a charismatic leader with dominant personal traits sets a strong role model hence his/her supporters trust in his/her leadership ideology. A self-confident leader articulates goals hence giving him/her unquestionable acceptance from the workers. The strong moral values of a charismatic leader express confidence hence workers become obedience and want to be associated with such a leader.

Qualities of a Good Project Manager

A good project manager is characterized by the following qualities

Integrity. A good product manager should be honest or loyal. His/her actions should be an example to the rest of the members. The project manager is accountable for setting principled morals for the rest of the team hence he/she should practice what he/she tells the workers to do so as to earn trust.

Competence. The team manager must demonstrate a belief in his/her actions or doings. A competent and capable leader can inspire, enable, challenge and encourage the workers.

Empathy. A product manager must be understanding and be able to put himself/herself in the shoes of others. He/she must also understand that workers have emotions and need to take some rest outside the work premises. This will help to create a good relationship with the employees.

Problem-solving. The product manager should be capable of solving any problem that arises either with the project or with the team. The team should have trust in him/her such that they can confidently approach him/her to solve their problems and also involve them in decision making.

Sociability. The manager should encourage effective relationships. He/she should also display sociability traits such as team spirit, friendly, outgoing attitude, and self-control. The leader should seek pleasant social ties.

Determination. The project manager should portray the ability to have the job done. He/she should have initiative, persistence and dominance characteristics.

Ethical Challenges Faced by Project Managers and Their Solutions

Ethical challenges are the dilemmas in situations that require the project leader to decide between alternatives which must be evaluated as ethical or unethical (Hitts, 1990). Ethical issues are faced every day by project managers, and they include:

Lack of Authority: A project manager might have responsibilities without proportionate authority. This is a case where one is in charge of a work financial statement where the manager has little control over the incomes. For instance, in a matrix environment, the project manager relies on the sponsor and functional administration to get support either financial or any other kind, to complete a project successfully. The pressure from such circumstances can lead to issues such as mischarging. This will be against the policies and procedures regarding, management direction and labor charging.

A project manager should be allowed to have balanced authority in what he/she is doing such that he/she does not waste most of the time seeking for approval from the seniors. Only those tasks; which should be few that must be approved by the sponsor should he/she be denied authority to do them.

Unstructured data: Product managers create different structures of data. The organized ones will create their structure while others within the management may have their conventions. Since the information will be distributed in various methods, the organized product managers will either waste time keeping the information structured, or they can let an unstructured plan take precedent which means they will waste time looking for information from the structure.

The solution to this remedy is for the organization to ensure that they have an efficient and reliable format that every project manager should use to structure the data so that every party can be able to understand the information recorded by his/he colleague without wasting much time.

Information on a personal computer: product managers nowadays are using Microsoft tools such as MS Word, PowerPoint, Email or MS Access to record and store data. Storing vital information in this format might be risky for the organization in cases where the staff are on emergency leave or have to travel to other areas outside the work premises where they are supposed to access this information.

Companies should put measures in place to only allow access to this information only at the right time by those who need them.

Limited time: product manager might face pressures to achieve results in a short time. He/she must make sure that the product is delivered on time. The stipulated time must be used wisely. Any delay that might happen in any phase must lead to delay in delivering the product on time. This induces pressure on the product manager and the workers, and he/she might cut corners without informing the customer. Since the product manager has no authority to extend time, there will be an ethical transgression if he/she is forced to reduce the quality of the product to keep time. This might bring a major negative consequence in the long term to the customer.

To solve this challenge, the product manager must ensure that his/her staff are skilled enough and they have requested for sufficient time such that in the case of some short delays, they will still be able to deliver the product on time.

Varying environments: some project managers may have experience in different fields which can make them work in various settings. A manager may have expertise in both business and technical environment. The major challenge is that these environments have different rules and regulations. In case he/she misinterprets or miscalculates calculations while trying to adapt to one environment can lead to ethical issues. For example, a product manager working in the USA but requires to manage two products one inside the US and another one in another country. Laws and cultural behaviors will contradict in these two nations. Failure to follow the guidelines will lead to ethical issues.

The solution would be to ensure that every policies and procedure for different environments are fully understood before working there.

References

Albritton, R. L. (1998). A new paradigm of leader effectiveness for academic libraries: An empirical study of the Bass (1985) model of transformational leadership. In T.F. Mech & G.B. McCabe (Eds.), Leadership and academic librarians (pp. 66–82) . Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998.

Burns, J.M. (1978) Leadership. New York. Harper & Row.

Hitt, W. D. (1990). Ethics and leadership. OH: Batelle.

Northam, D. (2005). Leadership and Ethics: The relationship of leadership style in maintaining organizational ethical and moral behavior. Retrieved June 19, 2017, from http://dtpr.lib.athabascau.ca/action/download.php?filename=mba-06/open/DanielNorthamProject.pdf

Starbucks Inc. (2014). Leadership Team: Starbucks and Howard Schultz Recognized for Leadership. Retrieved June 19, 2017, from https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-and-howard-schultz-recognized-for-leadership