2.2 Literature review
2.2.10 Ethical leaders have deep sense of ethical principles
Mondy (2010) argues that there are codes of ethics that prescribe certain behaviour for professionals and without this conscience that has been developed, it might be easy for the leaders to do wrong things on the ground that everyone does it, or by telling themselves that doing the wrong thing just once won’t hurt or no one will ever know. Ivancewich, Konopaske and Matteson (2008) maintain that values are significant for leaders. They define values as the guidelines and beliefs that leaders use when faced with situation where a choice has to be made.
Therefore, values pervade decision making. Pushpa (2012) corroborates the latter assertion as she posits that ethical leaders consistently face challenges and engage in doing the right thing for the organisations making difficult decisions from reorienting the organisations’ strategy to basic value propositions and personal decisions. Kreiter and Kinicki (2008) and Mondy (2010) maintain that many organisations are examining ways to strengthen their cultural underpinnings. Pushpa (2012) argues that what ethical leaders have in common is a deep sense of ethical principles, values and character at the core of their leadership. Similarly, Buell (2015) maintains that leaders must model ethical behaviour and instil the culture in which unethical behaviour is not tolerated. Organisations do this by fostering an ethical culture. By fostering an
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ethical culture, organisations gain the confidence and loyalty of their employees and their stakeholders.
Moreover, the fostering of ethical culture results in reduced financial, legal and reputation risks and also improves organisational performance. Mondy (2010) maintains that the code of ethics offers guidance to ethical behaviour, prohibiting acts that can be harmful to others in the organisation. Pushpa (2012) like Mondy (2010), maintains that a leadership code of ethics guides leaders, not only in their roles, but also for ethical decision-making. In addition, a leadership code of ethics lays principles for fair and equitable treatment of all employees in the organisation. It accentuates fair business practices and, with all the stakeholders, ensures confidentiality, legal compliance and enforcement of the company’s standards and code of conduct. It guides leaders in maintaining ethical, social and environmental responsibilities in the organisation practice. Kocabas and Karakose (2009) argue that school principals have a key responsibility in leading schools because they are the main decision-makers, they are school leaders. Therefore, they have more responsibility than others. Hence principals’ ethical behaviour and decisions directly affect the school climate positively. However, for all this to happen, school principals need to follow their code of ethics and always think of stakeholders first in their decision making process.
Furthermore, Mondy (2010) points out that, if behaviour is illegal, most people would consider it to be unethical as well. Sadly the organisation becomes negatively impacted by such behaviour. Kreiter and Kinicki (2008) argue that there is sufficient evidence pointing out that organisations that have an enhanced reputation for honesty and citizenship have enhanced profits. Similarly, Mondy (2010) contends that there is an abundance of evidence that suggests that ethical organisations perform much better financially. Khuong and Dung (2015) in corroborating this view contend that ethical leadership is significant because of the impact that leaders exert on the conduct of the organisations and ultimately on organisational performance and on job performance.
Charlton (1992) asserts that successful leaders have to pay attention to building trust on the organisation and individual level. In addition, Charlton maintains that trust is a lubricant which makes it possible for organisation to work. Hazrati, Alvani, and Zader (2013) corroborate the views of Charlton (1992) as they posit that managing ethical values in the organisations strengthens the coherence and balance of the organisational culture and further improves trust
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and relationships between individuals and groups. Kocabas and Karakose (2009) maintain that it is essential for the reputation of schools that they have an ethical culture as ethics is an essential part of the job. Khuong and Dung (2015) contend in the same vein that ethical leadership is relevant behaviour that leaders can use to show their integrity and that this behaviour is a vital antecedent of trust. Smit, de J Cronje, Brevis and Vrba (2007) maintain that leaders can entrench ethical behaviour in their organisation by providing ethical training programme at all levels of the organisation.
Moreover, they emphasise the vital issue of trust within the organisation. They further assert that the negative behaviour of the leaders in the organisations create moral dilemmas through small gaps resulting from the dissonance between the words uttered and the actions performed.
Most importantly, ethical leadership plays a vital role in enhancing subordinates’ involvement (Hazrati, Alvani, & Zedah, 2013). Hansen, Dunford, Alge and Jackson (2015) surmise that employees’ propensity to trust refers to an employee’s dispositional tendency to trust or their willingness to become vulnerable to the actions of their leaders. Employees with great propensity to trust are more willing to take risk based on leaders because they generally tend to trust their leaders more. Bhatti (2007) points out that employees select and follow someone as their leader because that person is demonstrating a high level of trust, dependability and credibility. Bhatti (2007) further states that followers place their trust in the ability of a leader and in their intention to lead them and fulfil their needs. Hazrati, Alvani, and Zedah (2013) posit that ethical leaders must be careful of what they say or what they do because they have to gain their subordinates’ trust. The latter assertion is corroborated by Bhatti (2007), who argues that a leader has to create and maintain trust by demonstrating his great skills and ability, acumen and sincerity in the fulfilment of the goals and aspirations of the followers. Hansen, Dunford, Alge and Jackson (2015) further argue that an ethical role model is a significant determinant of trust. Employees place their trust in their leaders within organisations through their performance and intentions to influence social behaviour. Therefore, it is vital that leaders in organisations are ethical people and explicitly outline what constitutes ethical behaviour for the followers (Hazrati, Alvani, & Zedah, 2013). Engelbrecht et al. (2014) corroborate Hazrati, Alvani, and Zedah (2013), as they posit that employees who experience an increase in trust also experience an increase in work engagement.
In addition, they propound that subordinates learn what to do and what not to do by watching their leaders and also being influenced by them. Bhatti (2007) argues that inspiring leadership
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is more than motivation as, by itself, it instils positive feelings and ideas amongst people and drives them, willingly and without persuasion, to give their maximum best at work. Hansen, Dunford, Alge and Jackson (2015) suggest that followers process information about the justice of leaders’ actions, along with the cues about organisation’s responsibility to make judgements about their leaders and to assist them make sense of and develop opinions about their work environments. Most importantly, the effort that the leader puts in to show commitment gives birth to organisational success. The only way to obtain trust is by doing the right thing with absolute clarity and reliability (Charlton, 1992). Likewise, Khoza (2011) avers that trust cements the leader-follower relationship. In the same vein, Bhatti (2007) avers that people appreciate humility in a leader because it touches their hearts while earning him/her people’s respect from within. Most significantly, the leader becomes popular and very close to the people.
Meanwhile, Bhatti (2007) states that the leader needs to remain humble and trustworthy notwithstanding his/her high status. Mondy (2010) corroborates the foregoing argument in the context of ethics, as he contends that leaders have a responsibility to avail themselves in planting the seed of ethical behaviour and providing guidance in ethical behaviour; simply put, in showing followers what is good and bad. Mondy (2010) further argues that leaders need to show care about what is right and wrong, and not be concerned with what is expedient. Trevino and Brown (2004a) point out that, even when people make the right decisions, they find it difficult to follow through and do the right thing as they succumb to the pressures from their work environment. Buell (2015) argues that ethical erosion is characterised by a series of small, sometimes unnoticed acts that erode ethical behaviour, with each act providing a foundation for a more erosive act. In addition, taken together, such acts can lead to significant and even hazardous consequences for both organisations and leaders.
However, a code of ethics establishes the rules by which the organisations live and becomes part of the organisation’s corporate culture. In addition, once the organisation has published the rules, everyone within or outside the organisation knows the rules that the employees of the organisation should live by (Buell, 2015). Weaver (2015) states that principals and teachers need to know that they are accountable for their actions whether they are at school or outside school. To qualify her statement, Weaver (2007) contends that many teachers and principals have lost their jobs because their actions occurred outside of schools. Code of ethics
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encompasses professional responsibility, ethical leadership, fairness and justice, to mention a few key aspects (Mondy, 2010).