Moral uprightness is the ability to differentiate intentions, decisions made and the actions that are good and bad. Morality is derived from a code of conduct from a religion or a culture. Moral values define the character of an individual and the inner self of the person. From the article declarations, there is a very important teaching on the moral values in life. A person with good morals appears to be holy and holiness is a value that comes from God. The story of exulting Gods name has a moral lesson that can help one live with good moral and values. With good moral values one knows what is right and wrong and God wants people to always be right. The story also encourages people to love each other in their day to day lives.
An ethical leader has the aspect and idea of goodness and goals that he is willing to hold on even in difficult times. A good ethical leader cares about some ideas that needs concern and is a prudent person. Ethical leaders are said to own reception and are always open. Ethical leadership calls for someone to possess the traditional characteristics such as being honest, having the integrity. An ethical leader should also be trustworthy to the people that he serves. Personal values and morals of an ethical leader are usually associated with the general performance of employees.
The willingness of the employees to address a problem when it arises depends largely on the values and the morals of the ethical leader. Strong ethical commitments lead to the employees putting extra efforts in their job, hence impacting the general output at the end. In an organization where leadership is unethical, it is manifested by the failure of the leader to go by certain rules. Also, the leader fails to take responsibility for the unethical behaviors and fails to avoid the appearance of the impropriety. There are two variables that are important to the ethical leadership and that improve the job performance of the employees. The two variables are; the leader should be trusted by the employees and also committed to the employees.
Value is the general worth of an item or an object in terms of quality. Value makes someone or something desirable or undesirable. Applying personal values in day to day lives, people continually make judgments about a lot of things that happen. People often make decisions that support the system of personal values than choices that do not. Values are a part of attitudes that have influence on the behavior and the behaviors of all those that people interact with. Whatever people value in life, guide both the choices that people make personally and the perceptions of the worth of the others. It is more likely for people with hard-work value to be evaluated than one who finds work distasteful and always led by personal gratification.
Ethics are the way by which behaviors of people are evaluate for them to be right or wrong. If a person has the value of achieving success and knows that the value is important, then the general expectation of his behavior is known. The person can be expected to have the goal orientation and gain the skills necessary to achieve the goal. Though, one cannot know whether the person cheated to achieve the goal or it was achieved through hard-work and determination. The concept is based on morality where the person knows what right should be done to achieve the goal. The person may also choose to achieve the goal through orthodox methods by cheating that is wrong.
It is very possible for a good person to become bad or evil according to Dr. Zimbardo. Most of the roles that people play are usually good and acceptable by others. At times, people face pressure from a system and d they find themselves playing and using a certain role differently. This means that a person can be a good employee or a bad employee only when the system decides so. People in the prisons are said to be bad people in the society and they are forced to be imprisoned to be taught how to be good. It means that it is possible for a bad person with poor morals to be a good person in the society only if he accepts the demands of the society.
As a new interim city manager, there are some ethical strategies that have to be implemented in the system in order to have an active and effective city management. The first thing is for the new manager to be a role model to the people he is heading. The employees are known to look on the behaviors of their leaders as a model of what is acceptable in the working environment. A manager who has bad moral and values is expected to mislead the workers since they look up to him.
A new city manager is expected to communicate the issues that concern the expectations of the ethics in the field. This is by creating and disseminating the ethics code in an organization. The code should state the values and the ethics that the employees are expected to follow for a successful and productive working environment. A code of ethics will be rather useless if the top management officials do not follow the regulations. The manager should set up seminars and ethical training programs. These training sessions can are important in reinforcing the standards of conduct among the employees. The trainings also clarify the practices that are permitted and also address the possible ethical dilemmas.
It is good for the new manager to introduce a system where visible ethical acts are rewarded and the unethical ones punished. The appraisals of the performance by the manager should involve point-to-point determination of how the decisions he makes measure the code of ethics in his team. The appraisals should involve the means taken to attain the goals and the ends of the goals. It is right for the people who act ethically to be rewarded and those that act against the ethics be punished. The manager also should involve in his plan the mechanism that would provide protection to the employees. This is by providing formal mechanisms for the employees to discuss the ethical issues and report unethical without any fear. This would involve the creation of a team to deal with the ethical issues.
A moral dilemma is a situation what is seen to be the necessary action brings contradictions of the moral imperative it is designed to have. Anything that was made to save the lives of human and bring good to the humanitarian service was said to destroy the lives and the ecological systems in the natural habitat. The dilemma that a new manager should take is what should be done in the town he represents that would bring good to the people. Whatever decision the manager will take would bring back trust and people would believe in the management system. His decision and choice of what would be good to the city and its people would benefit and improve their lives and living standards of the people.
The alternative will benefit mostly the investors in the city and the lives of every other person in the city. The leadership ethics that is impacted in the city’s system gives the workers the morale to work. The ethics improves the discipline of the workers and their ability to do what is acceptable during work. When the leaders have good and high ethical values, the workers are encouraged to reach the same level of competence as their leaders. The ethical leadership also facilitates the reputation of the city and the financial market of the whole community.
Justice is a value that an ethical leader should possess. The manager should always fair and just to his employees and the people that he serve. In implementing his plan, the manager should not have any people that he should favor but should treat everybody equally. It would be inconvenient and bad if any employee feared being treated on the basis of gender, ethnicity, nationality or any other indiscriminative factor. The manager should also have respect for all the other employees in the management of the city. This is a very important characteristic in ethical leadership and a good way to help implement the plan that the new manager has brought forward. Respect to the members should be shown by listening to them attentively in every issue that they raise and taking their contributions as being of value. The new manager should also be compassionate and generous while considering the view points that should be opposed.
It is of no debate that ethical leadership goes hand in hand with honesty and loyalty. The followers only trust the honest and loyal leader hence, explaining why the new manager should implement loyalty in implementing his plan. The manager has to be transparent enough and not consider his popularity. The manager should be humane and place importance in all human kind that every act that he takes benefits the team. Focusing on team building is another aspect that the manager should do. The goals that the manager intends to achieve in the town should not be personal but should benefit every resident in the city.
The decisions that the manager makes should be driven by values. All decisions should be first checked to ensure that they follow the values as accorded in the code of ethics that the manager has brought forward. By so doing, the people in the city and the employees gains more trust in the manager since they know that he is aiming in benefiting everybody in the town. An ethical leader ensures that all the employees thrive and flourish in the town system. He should reward the employees that come with ideas that lead to innovation and encourage them to improve on how they do their things.