Theme 1: Leadership and Ethics
Defining Ethical Leadership
Ethical leaders is an attitude or conduct of a person showing a good example to the company to set a standard for the disciple. Prior to making a decision for the company, they will consider the short and long term effects as well as the pros and cons. They take responsibility, value every person and treat everyone equally with respect (Mihelic et al., 2010). By being an Ethical leader, it will also enhance the working environment and initiate assurance and respect from their followers.
Two Principles Theories
Deontological and Teleological
The teleology and deontology theories have been utilized for centuries in western philosophy. Both perspectives are integrated into theories of decision-making. Deontology is known as ethics, which is based on rules and obligations whereas Teleology is based on the consequences of actions. (Smith et al., 2023) The idea of deontology is individual are right if they follow a certain morals or rules, nonetheless the outcome, teleology judges the morality of a course of action by considering its outcome rather than the method behavior itself.
Benefits and Limitations of the principles theories
Benefits of teleology and deontology:
Teleology theories could be more suitable from a business point of view because it can be more straight forward when deciding on how to maximize profits and expand operation. While deontology shows fairness and equality through morals which is suitable in places like nursing homes. (Manaher, 2009)
Limitations of teleology and deontology
Teleology can cause people to lose a sense of morality as they only value the outcome. Idealism is only of the limitations of deontology because they are unable to make decisions realistically and follow their morals regardless of the outcome. (Difference between Teleological and Deontological, 2023)
4V Model of Ethical Leadership
Figure 1 (Center for Ethical Leadership, n.d.)
This model was found and developed by Bill Grace in order to help people to acknowledge what it takes to become an ethical leader. With the aim of becoming an ethical leader, it will be important for them to understand the 4 core values of the model which are Values, Vision, Voice and Virtue. (Mulder, 2017).
There are many real life cases of company leaders that show these 4 values, For example United Airline CEO Oscar Munoz personally apologized to the passenger who was forcibly dragged from the plane that said was overbooked which ended up as a mistake. He said that he and the company will take full responsibility for this incident. ” I deeply apologized to the customer who was dragged off the flight and to all the other customers abroad “ he wrote. (Gajanan, 2017) His action shows the core of virtue because by apologizing to the passenger who was wronged, it shows that he is willing to take actions and take responsible instead of just hiding in the backs. He demonstrate a good role model for the employees in the organization.
(Business Insider, 2017)
Ethical and Unethical Behavior in Organisation
(The Coca-Cola Company, n.d.)
Ethical Behavior
In 2020, the Chief Procurement Officer of Coca-Cola Mark Westfall state that Sustainability is founded in their Sustainable Agriculture Guiding Principles, along with expectation to improved the Human Rights and Workplace Rights. The company has promised to the public to increase sustainable sourcing and aims to grow the shared of sustainable sourced volumes from 8% to 54%. He also claims that sharing information on safety equipment and safety measures can helps smaller suppliers to work more smoothly. (Westfall, 2020). From the statement, we know that Mark shows us the value of vision because he thinks about how to benefit others that is involved in the business.
Unethical Behavior
(NBC Digital News, 2023)
In the late 2011, Coca-Cola worker from Namibia went on a strike and protest against Coca-Cola for underpaid wages. These workers cannot pay for their healthcare and says that they are not fairly paid. Coca-Cola will threatened to fired the workers if one dares to discuss about the wages. Coca-Cola is quite well-known for human rights abuse over the past decade (Schilmoeller, 2012). Another cases is in Guatemala and Colombia, 8 workers were killed and another 65 were intimidated by physical violence. Even though that is an evidence of the act, Coca-Cola denied all the allegations which lead to a protests in New York (Kolesnikova, 2022).
Recommendation
There are plenty approach that managers can do to enhance their ethical behavior. Rewarding employees with high quality of behavior can be a practical way to boost company ethical behavior. Employees feel valued and will most likely spread their positiveness among others. Encouraging employees to collab or work together as a team to improve their relationship. Conversation will be engaged more which implies more exchange of ideas.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we learned that being ethical is crucial for every organization, not only does it benefit the company, it will also brings satisfaction to stakeholder, supplier and even customers. As we can observe from the debate previously, an ethical leader is the key to a successful company. Apologizing to the public before any unwanted problems appears to minimize unnecessary troubles.
References
Business Insider. (2017, April 11). Video shows a passenger forcibly dragged off a United Airlines plane. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrDWY6C1178&t=8s
Gajanan, M. (2017, April 11). United Airlines: CEO Oscar Munoz apologizes for incident. Time. https://time.com/4735141/united-airlines-ceo-oscar-munoz-apology-passenger-removal/
Kolesnikova, T. (2022, October 16). Coca-Cola Ethics, principles and company’s problems. StudyBay. https://studybay.com/blog/business-ethics-of-coca-cola-compan/
Mihelic, K. K., Lipicnik, B., & Tekavcic, M. (n.d.). International Journal of Management & Information Systems (IJMIS). https://doi.org/10.19030/ijmis.v14i5.11
Mulder, P. (2017, October 30). Ethical leadership theory plus 4V model. Toolshero. https://www.toolshero.com/leadership/ethical-leadership/
NBC Digital News. (2023, April 22). Coca-Colas Oshakati branch employees stage demonstration against APS-nbc. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y5wa0bymXw
Schilmoeller, J. (2012, July 2). Labor practices questioned as Coca-Cola workers protest unfair policies worldwide. MintPress News. https://www.mintpressnews.com/labor-practices-questioned-as-coca-cola-workers-protest-unfair-policies-worldwide/31715/
Smith, A. E., Zlatevska, N., Chowdhury, R. M., & Belli, A. (2023). A meta-analytical assessment of the effect of deontological evaluations and teleological evaluations on ethical judgments/intentions. Journal of Business Ethics, 188(3), 553–588. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05311-x
Westfall, M. (2020, February 7). Ethical and sustainable sourcing during COVID-19. Ethical and Sustainable Sourcing During COVID-19 – News & Articles. https://www.coca-colacompany.com/media-center/ethical-and-sustainable-sourcing-during-covid-19
NBC Digital News. (2023, April 22). Coca-Colas Oshakati branch employees stage demonstration against APS-nbc. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y5wa0bymXw
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