Prior to beginning your discussion, read Understanding (and preventing) ethical leadership failures (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. After reading the article, give an example of one or more leadership failures that you are familiar with. You may use an organization, group, or political figure for your discussion. Describe the failure(s) in detail. Analyze how the failure(s) could have been mitigated.
Your response must be a minimum of 300 words.
Guided Response: Review several of your classmates’ posts and respond to at least two of your peers by 11:59 p.m. on Day 7 of the week. You are encouraged to post your required replies early during the week to promote more meaningful interactive discourse in the discussion. When responding to your classmate, give an additional solution that could help to mitigate the failure that your classmate has described.
Your response must be a minimum of 150 words
EDWARDS DISCUSSION REPLY 150 WORDS:
When I worked at McDonalds as a teenager, it was a bad work environment where a lot of customers were upset about the service and the products. The night shift manager had no leadership and the only time he talked was when he criticized other employees. “No Ethical Leadership and Behavior Standards (“There Are No Rules About This”) Oversimplified Rules (“Just Do the Right Thing”) Lack of Positive Role Models (“Who Is Doing It the Right Way?”) No Training or Coaching (“How Will I Learn It?”)” (Thornton, 2014). Employees were never trained on how to close the store at night or to properly cook and dress the sandwiches which created a lot of customer complaints. If an employee was doing the job right they never received recognition and those who made mistakes were scrutinized by all the seniority employees.
What’s even worst is that the manager would often be rude to the customers, steal company products and be under the influence while at work sometimes. Because the manager demonstrated the poor ethical leadership and behavior, crew members did the same by not coming to work in proper uniform, being tardy and taking products as well. Not to mention when conflict rose between crew members, management would not intervene. The night manager and a few people on the night shift were eventually fired due to poor sales and excessive customer complaints.
The situation would have immediately reporting how the night manager was behaving to the corporate office because that would have started an investigation and he would have be dismissed. It would have also been good if the restaurant had a code of ethics or at least displayed them on company wall. Not to mention that the store manager should have rotated all managers to where they worked different shifts, because the night manager would have been fired quickly if he displayed that same ethical behavior during the day shift.
References
Thornton, L. F. (2014, Jan. 15). Understanding (and preventing) ethical leadership failures. Retrieved from https://leadingincontext.com/2014/01/15/understanding-and-preventing-ethical-leadership-failures/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
JEFFREYS DISCUSSION REPLY 150 WORD MININUM:
While we all complain about our managers, I especially disliked one of my previous managers because of several ethical leadership failures he had. I believe there were several contributing factors to this. First, we were a small publicly traded company that did not have an HR department during most of the time I was there. I believe this allowed him to ‘get away’ with some of his unethical leadership behaviors. Second, our CEO was based in a different state but when I met him I felt as though he also had some similar ethical leadership failures. Both of these leaders seemed to have little to no respect for employees or their families. They were entirely focused on the organization at any cost.
At a company event, my manager was praised for his direction and accomplishments for the company. Nobody on his team were acknowledged. In fact, nothing was ever good enough for this manager. If he asked you to do W and you stayed late to get it done, the next day he would not thank you but would instead ask you why you also did not think of doing X, Y, and Z as well.
Everybody on his team disliked him and did not respect him. He did not set good ethical examples by his actions or decisions. I also believe that he lacked honesty and integrity and did not communicate clear ethical standards to our team. I didn’t feel as though he acted fairly or that he could be trusted. He definitely did not put the needs of others above his own self-interests.
After reading the article by Thornton (2014), I believe there were several compounding factors that led to my manager’s ethical failures. First, there didn’t seem to be many ethical leadership standards in the company by the CEO or others at the top. Second, my manager had an entitlement view thinking that he was far superior to all of us on his team and that we were all idiots even though several of us were really well respected in our field, held senior level positions, and had a lot of experience. I also believe that he lacked a moral compass and lacked ethical leadership standards by acting based on his own self-gain.
I feel as though many of his failures could have been easily mitigated had he tried. By treating his employees fairly and with respect, he could have gained a lot of trust and confidence. Also, by acknowledging that people were doing great work for the organization would have also gone a long way. Leading ethically through decisions, actions, and behaviors would have also been beneficial for everyone.
Resource:
Thornton, L. F. (2014, January 14). Understanding (and Preventing) Ethical Leadership Failures. Leading in Context. Retrieved from https://leadingincontext.com/2014/01/15/understanding-and-preventing-ethical-leadership-failures/
