BUSI 570 Week 2 Group DB Forum 1 Replies Example

Group Discussion Board Forum 1: Replies

BUSI 570 Ethical Leadership, Group Discussion Board Forum 1: Replies

Thread by [Student Name]

The two group members and their threads are composites; the research and Scripture cited are real, and the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for BUSI 570.

Reply to Nicole

Nicole, I agreed with your argument that servant leadership is the clearest picture of ethical leadership, and your example of a hospital manager who covered night shifts during a staffing crisis made it concrete. Research supports your view and adds detail. Van Dierendonck (2011), synthesizing the literature, grouped what servant leaders do into six recurring themes, among them growing their people's abilities, a modest view of themselves, genuineness, acceptance of others, clear direction and a sense of stewardship for the whole organization. Using a new multidimensional scale across several work units, Liden et al. (2008) found that it predicted followers' commitment, in-role performance and community citizenship behavior even after accounting for transformational leadership. Your manager's sacrifice showed humility, but the research suggests the lasting effect comes from developing people, so the unit can handle the next crisis without him. Covering shifts solves one month's problem; teaching charge nurses to build schedules, recruit float staff and make staffing calls themselves solves the next year's. Servant leadership measured this way is less about the leader's visible sacrifice and more about whether the people around the leader become more capable. In Mark 10:43-44, Jesus turns greatness upside down, telling His disciples that leadership among them means serving everyone else. How did your manager develop his staff after the crisis passed?

Reply to Ethan

Ethan, your thread argued that the most ethical employees are the most loyal ones, because people committed to an organization will protect its reputation. I agree that commitment matters, but research suggests loyalty can cut the other way. Umphress et al. (2010) found that employees who identified strongly with their organizations were more willing to engage in unethical acts intended to benefit it, such as hiding damaging information from customers, particularly when they believed the organization would reward their efforts. Moore et al. (2012) showed that people with a stronger tendency toward moral disengagement, the cognitive moves that make harmful conduct seem acceptable, such as blaming the victim or diffusing responsibility, were more likely to behave unethically at work, as rated by coworkers and supervisors. A loyal employee who tells himself that a small deception "helps the team" is using exactly such a move. This is why the ethical leader's role is so important: leaders must define loyalty to include honesty with customers. A leader can do this by publicly thanking an employee who reported a problem that cost the company a sale, which shows the team that protecting the organization's integrity is the highest form of loyalty, and by refusing to reward results achieved through shortcuts. Would you change your definition of a loyal employee in light of this research?

References

Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Zhao, H., & Henderson, D. (2008). Servant leadership: Development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(2), 161-177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.01.006

Moore, C., Detert, J. R., Treviño, L. K., Baker, V. L., & Mayer, D. M. (2012). Why employees do bad things: Moral disengagement and unethical organizational behavior. Personnel Psychology, 65(1), 1-48. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01237.x

Umphress, E. E., Bingham, J. B., & Mitchell, M. S. (2010). Unethical behavior in the name of the company: The moderating effect of organizational identification and positive reciprocity beliefs on unethical pro-organizational behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(4), 769-780. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019214

van Dierendonck, D. (2011). Servant leadership: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management, 37(4), 1228-1261. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310380462