Ethical and Unethical Leaders Use of Power
An ethical leader will use his or her power
to expose a sense of virtuous duty, and empower his or her target. By
empowering their followers, and giving them a sense of duty, ethical
leaders allow their followers to have autonomy, and direction. In seeing
that both follower and leader have the same sense of duty, followers
sanction their leaders. Thus, principle-centered leadership is created;
“principle-centered power is not forced, it is invited, as the personal
agendas of both leader and follower are encompassed by a larger purpose
(Covey, 2003, p. 104). So, one could say, that an ethical leader will
use his or her power to empower the target towards a common virtuous
goal.Unethical Leaders Abuse Power
By contrast, an unethical leader may use his or her power to control his or her target, where such manipulation is from a point of self-interest. As well, to the leader seeking self-interest, his or her followers are just a means to an end. “Leaders who deny other organization members their right to participate in organizational decisions and who treat employees like means rather than ends justify their behaviors by rationalization and self-deception” (Warner, 2001, in Caldwell & Canuto-Carranco, 2010, p. 2). Such unethical leaders are more akin to organizational terrorist; leaders whose actions further self-serving personal agendas and denies the rights and welfare of the target (Caldwell & Canuto-Carranco).Contrast in the use of Power by Leaders
To put it plainly, an example of an ethical leader using power, is liken to a CEO whom is responsible for inspiring employees in meet the company’s goal. This is true, when the aforementioned goal is in line with the moral commitment of the company, and to its investors, and employees. However, when the goal of the leader has fallen away from all moral commitments, except for his or her self-righteous objectives, the leader is in error. An example of unethical use of power is a CEO falsifying accounting records to pocket millions; while his or her employees, and investors, loses their life saving as the company unknowingly crashes.Do you think there are times when ethical leaders have to act unethically? Why?
No, that is an oxymoron. I my opinion, the moment that an ethical leader does something unethical, he or she has become an unethical leader. However, sometimes instead of doing things right, one may have to do the right thing. And, to the uninformed, the right thing may look wrong.
References
Covey, S. R. (2003). Principle-centered leadership .Free press, Simon and Schuster, Inc.,
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