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Why Leaders Fail Ethically: A Paradigmatic Evaluation of Leadership PDF

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Why Leaders Fail Ethically Cameron A. Batmanghlich Why Leaders Fail Ethically A Paradigmatic Evaluation of Leadership 1 3 Cameron A. Batmanghlich L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University Astana, Kazakhstan Instituto de Estudios Superiores Spenta México Spenta University Monterrey, México ISBN 978-3-319-12732-3 ISBN 978-3-319-12733-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-12733-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014955341 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) I dedicate this to all those, who at various workplaces are and have been abused and oppressed in one form or another. True happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. Helen Keller vii Prologue In recent years the crisis in ethical failures in leadership in organisation, particularly corporations, has been highlighted more than ever. Psychological maladies lead- ing to higher number of sick leaves, general feeling of disillusionment among the employees, loss of motivation and loyalty to employee suicide—both in Western corporations and other parts of the world—are just a few examples of the way ethi- cal failures in leadership are expressed. It is has been argued that economic downturn and a general toughening of market conditions are furthering and function as a catalyst for unethical behaviour, im- plying that in times of economic prosperity and good market conditions, there are fewer crises in ethics and leadership. However, as we shall see, this is not the case, as failures in ethics in leadership are an intrinsic part of leadership, since leadership is viewed as a social process and hence a paradigmatic phenomenon. Regardless of the type of the leadership style deployed or leadership theories experimented with, since leadership as a social process is an outcome of the prevailing paradigm, it will inevitably suffer from the same inadequacies and weaknesses as the paradigm itself. ix Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 2 W hat is Leadership? .............................................................................. 5 2.1 T he Development of Leadership Studies ........................................ 6 2.2 Ethical Leadership ........................................................................... 9 2.2.1 Definition of Ethical Leadership ......................................... 10 2.3 Becoming an Ethical Leader ........................................................... 11 2.4 Unethical Leadership and Toxic Behaviour .................................... 13 2.5 T oxic Leadership Behaviour and Its Implications ........................... 14 2.6 Reasons Behind Toxic Behaviour ................................................... 14 2.7 W hat Motivates Our Drive? ............................................................ 17 2.7.1 T he Influence of Commerce on our Legal System and Its Influence of Leadership ........................................... 18 2.8 Problem Areas ................................................................................. 20 2.8.1 Lack of Consensus .............................................................. 20 2.8.2 Lack of Direction ................................................................ 23 2.8.3 Ignoring Other Voices ......................................................... 23 2.8.4 Methodological Problems ................................................... 26 3 E thics and Corporate Leadership in Context—Identifying the Paradigm................................................. 33 3.1 T he Abrahamic Tradition ................................................................ 34 3.1.1 T he Origin of Abrahamic Religions .................................... 34 3.2 Isomorphism .................................................................................... 35 3.3 Is Today’s Value-System a Hybrid of Merged Abraham–Greco School of Thought? ............................................. 37 3.4 Leadership Under Abrahamic Tradition .......................................... 40 3.4.1 Power and the Source of Authority ..................................... 41 3.4.2 T he Expectations of the Followers ...................................... 42 3.5 Ethics in Hellenism (Virtue Ethics) ................................................. 46 3.6 Implications ..................................................................................... 53 3.7 Is It Only Corporate Leadership? .................................................... 54 xi xii Contents 4 Cross-Sector Leadership—A Sector-Specific Leadership Analysis ������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 55 4�1 Public Sector ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 56 4�2 T hird Sector ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 58 4�3 A Cross-Sector Analysis of Leadership ������������������������������������������� 60 5 Alternative Perspectives ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 63 6 Reflections on Corporate Ethical Leadership ������������������������������������� 67 6�1 So What Have We Learned So Far? ������������������������������������������������ 70 6�2 W hat Is Missing? ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 71 7 P ropositions �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 73 8 W hat Do People in Power Say? ������������������������������������������������������������ 75 8�1 Overview—Link Between Main and Emerging Themes ���������������� 76 8�1�1 Formulated Meaning of the Significant Statements ������������ 76 8�1�2 Emerged Themes and Clusters �������������������������������������������� 76 8�1�3 Link Between Designated and Emerged Themes ��������������� 77 8�2 Participants’ Profile ������������������������������������������������������������������������� 77 8�3 T hemes �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 80 8�3�1 Designated Themes (Main)—Propositions ������������������������� 80 8�4 W hat Else Did They Say? ��������������������������������������������������������������� 91 8�5 So What Does All This Mean? �������������������������������������������������������� 98 8�6 And What Does All This Say? ��������������������������������������������������������� 104 8�7 W hat Does All This Mean? ������������������������������������������������������������� 110 8�8 W hat Does All This Say? ���������������������������������������������������������������� 113 9 How Do We Make Sense of All This? ��������������������������������������������������� 115 9�1 Power ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 115 9�2 Leaders are Born; One Leader �������������������������������������������������������� 117 9�3 Individual Leadership ���������������������������������������������������������������������� 119 9�4 Narcissism ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 120 9�5 Followers’ Need to be Led �������������������������������������������������������������� 121 9�6 T he Role of Biology ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 123 9�7 T oxic Leader and Toxic Leadership ������������������������������������������������ 124 9�8 Rhetoric ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 124 9�9 Limited Accountability �������������������������������������������������������������������� 125 9�10 T he Impact of Societal Norm-Shift on Leadership ������������������������� 126 9�11 Essence �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 127 10 A Few Practical Recommendations ���������������������������������������������������� 129 References ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 131 Chapter 1 Introduction The study of leadership (as part of the study of governance) was occupying the minds of philosophers in antiquity. From Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Cicero to Machiavelli and beyond, they all have discussed and written about leadership, but that is only within the Western culture (Sterling).1 However, the rapid evolution and progress of our societies due to several factors, such as, advancement of information technology, transportation, human mobility and increase in the global population, coupled with the immense influence corpo- rations exercise upon ordinary people’s lives (Giddens 1997), facilitated through globalization (Case et al. 2004), are putting a different type of demand on our lead- ers—particularly our corporate leaders (Jones and Millar 2010). The effect of glo- balization at a deeper level is illustrated by the authors when they posit globalization implies the worldwide spread of what is left after tectonic shifts––in particular: rationalism, positivism, reductionism, individualism, secularization, utilitarianism, and performativity (p. 348). They attribute ‘a well-established trajectory within a range of utilitarian approaches to organization studies as represented in Total Quality Management, Business Pro- cess Re-engineering and Cultural Excellence programmes’ to the pervasive power of globalization (p. 346). Hence, more and more, leadership as a social process (Avolio 2009) and phe- nomenon is taking centre stage in social science research in general and in business management studies in particular (Ciulla 2004; Walton 2004). One particular aspect in leadership studies, which has attracted more attention, particularly in lieu of re- cent years’ visible failures in leadership (Gini 2004; Cohen et al. 2006), is business ethics (Brown and Treviño 2006). There have been an increasing number of reports in recent years about unethical behaviour expressed in toxic acts by those in positions of power (Reed 2004; Ciulla 2004; Lipman-Blumen 2005; Lipman-Blumen et al. 2005; Kofodimos 1990), across the society’s spectrum, particularly in the business world. An increasingly abusive working environment is being combined with more pressure on the workforce to 1 http://www.lawandliberty.org © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 1 C. A. Batmanghlich, Why Leaders Fail Ethically, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-12733-0_1

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