Description
Modules covered: 1- key authors in the debate on management versus leadership? refer to intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and/or refer to some motivations theories, such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or Vroom’s expectancy theory. 2- This module has explored some of the early thinking about what leadership is and how it is achieved. It has summarised trait theories and behavioral theories and concluded that a more contextualised explanation of leadership is required if we are to understand it properly – and, of course, if we are to become the best leaders we can. As the module has demonstrated, leadership is contingent on situation. Fiedler (1967) developed contingency theory, which, applied to leadership, proposes that the style of leadership appropriate in different contexts varies. Therefore, the choice of leader should be contingent on their match with followers and with the desired outcomes/goals of the organisation. Not every leader will be suitable for every leadership role. Following on from this, the module explored various approaches to the understanding and practice of leadership that are contingent on situation, and require a flexible or considered approach with regards to who is being led, what the purpose of the group/task is, and which style (or which leader) is most appropriate. The principles of contingent and contextually meaningful leadership underpin most modern approaches to leadership, which, most recently, have evolved to refer to leadership as a developmental process involving: leading in terms of thought: having vision in terms of the goals of the team or organisation; leading in terms of task: what leadership is appropriate for different tasks; and leading in terms of people: in particular, developing people so that they are enabled to give their best. 3- This module has outlined the key theories of: transactional leadership; and transformational leadership. These theories are developments of the theories of traits, behaviours, contingent and situational leadership, and propose that leadership is about influencing people by transaction and by offering opportunities to engage on a personally meaningful level. The practice of leadership as involving some degree of each of these is known as the full range of leadership. From there, three of the most commonly cited approaches to leadership hat rely heavily on the principles of transformational leadership in particular were also explored, including charismatic, servant and authentic leadership. Most recent developments in understanding leadership are beginning to focus less on individual leaders and what they do to focus more on leadership as practice and as process. These are explored in the next module. 4- This module has offered some alternative ways of thinking about leadership that broaden our view from simply focusing on the actions and behaviours of individual leaders. Among the ideas suggested are that leadership: is a collective activity that involves multiple people working collaboratively across organisational and professional boundaries. does not necessarily reside at the top of an organisation, nor is it always restricted to formal roles within an organisational hierarchy. can be understood as a social and relational process. can be understood as a set of practices and as the ongoing practice that brings about change and produces direction. On a practical level, focusing on collective and relational approaches to leadership changes the emphasis for those who are involved in the process of leadership in organisations. Instead of feeling pressure at an individual level to ‘live up to’ an ever-expanding list of behavioural competencies required of ‘good leaders’, the onus shifts to leadership as a collective phenomenon that entails building collaborative groups of people who can have effective conversations. The need to be personally ‘charismatic’ or ‘authentic’ is replaced with the social dynamic of forming and maintaining relationships and developing better dialogue to ease the process of doing leadership. In the next module, the need for different approaches in response to specific circumstances and challenges is explored. 5- gender ,ethics and culture in leadership
4.0 Post-heroic leadership
Listen to the audio recording of Professor Galloway introducing modern approaches to leadership that go
beyond the individual.
View transcript
AUDIO
4.0.1 Introduction to the module
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Bringing our exploration of the development of knowledge about leadership right up to date, Module 4
focuses on the most recent research and thinking. Currently there is little information on these most
recent developments available in textbooks on leadership (though we do refer you to a short section in
the core text). Most of the content of this module is therefore contributed by our EBS faculty, Dr Linda
Buchan.
Departing from the focus in Modules 2 and 3 on leaders as individuals within organisations, here we
focus on modern approaches to leadership that go beyond the individual.
Module 4 therefore starts by considering why we have such a fascination with individual leaders and
question the assumptions that underpin our ‘heroic’ views of leadership.
After that, different ways of thinking about leadership are explored. These include thinking about
leadership as a collective activity, as relational, as a process and as practice.
This module challenges you to reflect on your current understanding and to provoke you to reconsider
how you think about leadership!
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4.0.2 Post-heroic leadership
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As we have explored in the earlier modules, much of our understanding of leadership is based on a
focus on the traits and behaviours of individual leaders. Even modern theories of situational and
transactional/transformational leadership are dominated by a focus on the activities and actions of
individuals
Consequently, we tend to place leaders on a pedestal, and the idea that leadership holds some form of
mystery has led to a romanticised view of leaders.
As Adair (1989, 227) observed:
undoubtedly there were men and women in the past, as there are today, who exhibited extraordinary
courage, firmness, or greatness of soul, in the course of some journey or enterprise. We, as humans, also
have a tendency to admire and venerate them for their achievements and noble qualities.
Such a tendency can overemphasise the contribution made by an individual though.
Leadership Theory and Practice
4.1 Challenging our
fascination with leaders
Take, for example, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. He is regularly cited as ‘the new Steve Jobs of
business’, is profiled for his strength of leadership and appears on several lists of the best CEOs.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in his garage in Seattle, USA in 1994 and remains Chief Executive Officer.
Amazon is a market leader in online retail and has expanded its services to include Kindle books and
Amazon television services.
In 2013 Bezos purchased The Washington Post for $250 million.
In 2017 Bezos’s net worth was calculated at $72.8 billion, making him the third richest person in the
world.
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4.1.1 An example: Jeff Bezos
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His other passion is space travel. His aerospace company, Blue Origin, is developing a reusable rocket
that Bezos says will carry passengers.
This 2012 article by Forbes magazine (please click through to it), outlined Bezos’s ten leadership
lessons, thus highlighting his specific leadership capabilities. Similarly, this BBC News article also
implies that Bezos is singlehandedly responsible for Amazon’s success.
Having read these articles, you might think that Bezos offers an exemplar of good leadership that others
would want to aspire to. However, did he personally deliver all he is credited with or was he aided by the
more than 500,000 employees of Amazon?
The depiction of Bezos in the media ignores the increasing number of complaints concerning Amazon’s
working conditions and the company’s refusal to allow staff to join trade unions (see, for example, this
Guardian article ).
This should demonstrate that it is difficult to reduce the complexities of the business environment to the
innate wisdom – or misjudgements – of a single individual (Collinson and Tourish, 2015).
Central to the notion of ‘heroic leadership’ is that leaders are individually responsible for every success
and failure. Yet, as has been shown throughout this course, all leaders rely on other people and
circumstances to make things happen.
The remainder of this module focuses on introducing alternative approaches to understanding
leadership that go beyond the individual ‘hero’ leader.
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4.1.2 Beyond the ‘hero’
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New pioneering approaches to understanding and developing leadership depart from mainstream
approaches to leadership as a function of a specific individual,. Instead leadership is viewed as a
collective and dispersed activity. This is captured in the ideas of post-heroic leadership:
Postheroic leadership re-envisions the ‘who’ and ‘where’ of leadership by focusing on the need to
distribute the tasks and responsibilities of leadership up, down, and across the hierarchy. It re-envisions
the ‘what’ of leadership by articulating leadership as a social process that occurs in and through human
interactions, and it articulates the ‘how’ of leadership by focusing on the more mutual, less hierarchical
leadership practices and skills needed to engage collaborative, collective learning. It is generally
recognized that this shift – from individual to collective, from control to learning, from ‘self’ to ‘self-inrelation’,
and from power over to power with – is a paradigm shift in what it means to be a positional
leader. (Fletcher, 2004, 650)
In their review of the research on post-heroic leadership, Denis et al. (2012) suggest that there are four
approaches to considering leadership as a collective activity:
shared leadership;
pooled leadership;
distributed leadership; and
relational leadership.
We will now look at each of these in turn.
Leadership Theory and Practice
4.2 Collective approaches
Shared leadership focuses on how intrinsic motivation can lead individuals to want to participate more
actively in leadership activities. Early ideas around shared leadership emerged from transformational
leadership and the desire of leaders to develop their followers.
Shared leadership is most commonly associated with the ideas of Pearce and Conger, who argue that it
is:
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4.2.1 Shared leadership
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a dynamic, interactive influence process among individuals in groups for which the objective is to lead
one another to the achievement of group or organizational goals or both. This influence process often
involves peer, or lateral, influence and at other times involves upward or downward hierarchical
influence. (2003, 1)
In a shared leadership situation, formally appointed leaders encourage the sharing of leadership
between individuals and teams to enable the successful achievement of goals and objectives.
Source: Adapted from Denis et al. (2012).
ACTIVITY
4.2.2 The challenges of shared
leadership
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Read this Harvard Business Review article and then think about the following questions.
What are the challenges of shared leadership identified in this case?
What do the authors propose might overcome these difficulties?
Click or tap to see some suggested answers.
Note down your thoughts before continuing
What are the challenges of shared leadership identified in this case?
1. Those used to reporting to the Managing Director may find it difficult to transition to reporting to
one another, with some perhaps being reluctant to listen to authority from their peers.
2. Change is always contentious, and none more so than a transition to a different style of
leadership. In this sense, your previous followers may miss you as their leader.
3. You may be used to having regular one-to-one meetings with your team.
4. Teams react differently to the implementation of shared leadership.
What do the authors propose might overcome these difficulties?
1. As Managing Director, you should act to frame this style of leadership as an opportunity for
colleagues to support and challenge one another, rather than acting against one another in
conflict. Further, like-minded individuals may form groups with those they feel comfortable in an
attempt to ignore or undermine others. Alternatively, individuals or teams may be ostracised as a
result of their opinions, beliefs or actions. You as the Managing Director must not take sides and
instead, should devise an appropriate strategy to overcome this potentially fractious situation.
2. As the previous traditional leader used to making decisions, in your new role as a shared leader,
you need to reassure your team that you’re not disappearing completely. You as the Managing
Director should not dismiss these feelings of want as unprofessional, but encourage the team to
come together and stop seeking praise at every turn from you.
3. This is not to say that you should immediately stop having meetings with individuals, however,
you should be aware of discussing subjects which should be discussed as a whole team. You as the
Managing Director need to be cogniscant of what remains as a one-to-one conversation and what
needs to be shared amongst the team. If this isn’t implemented, you will only act to disempower
the team and subsequently, yourself.
4. It is your responsibility as Managing Director, alongside your top team, to ensure that shared
leadership is disseminated throughout the organisation in a fair and proportionate manner, with
everyone understanding its benefits and possible pitfalls so as to expect and manage them.
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Pooled leadership differs from shared leadership in that, instead of leadership being informally shared
(often by a single leader), top leadership roles are formally structured so that no individual has the
power to lead unilaterally. Instead, leadership is the joint responsibility of two or more people and
requires mutual trust.
Many organisational settings, such as the arts, education, healthcare and entrepreneurial ventures,
choose to formally divide leadership. Pooled leadership is often used to bridge expertise and provides
legitimacy in professional settings (for example, between clinicians and managers in healthcare or
between lawyers and managers in legal firms).
Source: Adapted from Denis et al. (2012).
If you are interested in pooled leadership you can read more in this article by the Management
Information eXchange. This reading is not mandatory though.
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4.2.3 Pooled leadership
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Distributed leadership is becoming one of the most talked-about developments in our understanding of
leadership. It is also receiving a lot of attention from researchers, such as Bolden (2011), Gronn (2002
and 2009) and Thorpe et al. (2011).
Distributed leadership takes a broad view of leadership, presenting it as dispersed within and
throughout an organisation among people at multiple levels. It is not based on top-down individual
leadership approaches. Distributed leadership is often found within education and public sector
organisations.
Source: Adapted from Denis et al. (2012).
Your course leader Professor Galloway conducted research in an organisation that claimed to use
distributed leadership and asserted that it had made a considerable impact on the firm’s fortunes.
The research found that the principles of distributed leadership were indeed applied, although it also
found that there was parallel close monitoring by management. The research does illustrate, however,
how distributed leadership can contribute to organisational success.
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4.2.4 Distributed leadership
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A summary of the research is provided here.
Before looking at relational leadership, read the sections of your eBook on ‘Relational Approaches to
Leadership and The Relational Process’ on pages 134-137.
Please go to your student portal to interact with your eBook account
READING
4.2.5 Reading
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The three approaches to understanding leadership discussed so far (shared, pooled and distributed) all
still include reference to what individual leaders do – albeit within contexts of other interested and
engaged parties.
A more radical notion is to reduce the role of individuals in leadership so that ‘actors are present in
leadership – enacting it, influencing it, and creating it – but they are not “containers” of leadership’
(Denis et al., 2012, 254).
Instead, leadership emerges from the interactions of people. Leadership, therefore, is a relational
phenomenon.
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4.2.6 Relational leadership
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Source: Adapted fromDenis et al. (2012).
Viewing leadership relationally changes our focus from the ‘grand gestures’ often associated
with leadership to the more mundane, everyday activities of doing leadership. Given that
relational dynamics are usually played out in conversations, this approach advocates paying
attention to communication and dialogue between people as the way in which leadership is
accomplished (Fairhurst and Uhl-Bien, 2012).
There are different ways to understand relational leadership.
On one hand, it can be seen as a two-way relationship between leader and follower with the
power residing primarily with the leader (as per the theories of leadership we have discussed up
until this point). This view retains a focus on the role of individuals and sees leadership as an
outcome of their interaction.
An alternative position is to view leadership as continually emerging and as an ongoing process
of bringing about change. Leadership is co-produced within the relationships between anyone
involved in the process, irrespective of whether they hold a ‘leadership role’. Therefore, our focus
should be on relational practices rather than individual behaviours and competencies (Crevani,
2015).
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Have a look at Reflective Question 6.4 in your eBook:
Please go to your student portal to interact with your eBook account
And answer the questions below.
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4.2.7 Relational leadership reflection
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Enter your reflection in the box below. Once you have saved your answer you’ll be able to return to this
page and see what you have written.
Notes:
REFLECTION
4.2.8 Your experiences of relational
leadership
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Question 1
Now that you have read Reflective Question 6.4 in your eBook reflect on your own experiences of
relational leadership here.
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Please answer the following questions to test yourself on this topic.
The results of these questions count towards your test marks, which can be viewed on your Course
Dashboard.
We have now discussed four approaches that offer differing ways of viewing leadership as a collective
activity. The follow questions check your understanding of these new ways of thinking.
TEST YOURSELF
4.2.9 Test yourself: Leadership as a
collective activity
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Question 1
Which form of collective leadership sees several people appointed to share the leadership role?
Shared leadership.
Distributed leadership.
Pooled leadership.
Relational leadership.
Question 2
Which form of collective leadership challenges the view of leader as the source of leadership?
Shared leadership.
Pooled leadership.
Distributed leadership.
Relational leadership.
Question 3
Which form of collective leadership could be considered as being dispersed across different people at
different levels?
Shared leadership.
Pooled leadership.
Distributed leadership.
Relational leadership.
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Question 4
Which form of collective leadership involves a hierarchically senior manager delegating leadership to
other people?
Pooled leadership.
Relational leadership.
Distributed leadership.
Shared leadership.
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Similar to collective approaches to leadership, thinking about leadership as a process shifts the emphasis
from the behaviour of individual leaders to the inputs and outputs of a process.
Leadership Theory and Practice
4.3 Leadership as a process
Many of the ideas discussed in this course so far focus on the three inputs of leadership, which Bennis
(2007) argued are:
a leader;
followers; and
a common goal they want to achieve.
Source: Adapted from Bennis (2007).
An alternative view was offered by Drath et al. (2008), who argued that, rather than focusing on inputs to
leadership, it would be more productive to focus on the outputs. They proposed that there are three
outputs of leadership, known as the DAC framework.
Direction: agreement among a collective of people on the overall goals of the organisation.
Alignment: the organisation and coordination of work among a collective of people.
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4.3.1 Input–output views of
leadership
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Commitment: the willingness of members of a collective to put to one side their own interests for
the benefit of the group.
Whereas Bennis’s ‘tripod’ sees the presence of leaders and followers interacting around their shared
goals as marking the occurrence of leadership, the DAC framework sees the presence of direction,
alignment and commitment as demonstrating the output of leadership.
Source: Adapted from Drath et al. (2008).
Inherent in these different ideas of leadership as a process is that leadership ‘does something’ in
organisations that is different from management, as per our introductory discussion in Module 1 about
the distinction between management and leadership.
Barker (1997, 349) made the interesting observation that ‘the function of leadership is to create change
while the function of management is to create stability’. Therefore, an alternative approach to
understanding leadership is to see it as a dynamic social process, involving groups of people, that
produces direction and creates change.
There are several drawbacks to adopting either one of these input–output views of leadership.
They assume that leadership is a straightforward, linear process. This is rarely consistent with
the complexities of the messy world of organisations.
It is difficult to explain the ‘black box’ of leadership (i.e. how the inputs of leader, follower and
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4.3.2 The drawbacks of input–output
views
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shared goals create leadership or how the DAC outcomes of leadership are actually accomplished).
Drath et al. (2008) suggest that people develop shared leadership beliefs and create the social
practices required to enact direction, alignment and commitment, but they are vague about what
these social practices are.
They assume that there can be a stable outcome of leadership: a defined end point at which
the job of leadership is complete. An alternative perspective is to consider leadership as an
ongoing, dynamic, open-ended process. Rather than focusing on ‘happy endings’, we should
perceive leadership as a ‘never-ending story’ (Crevani et al., 2010). Rather than seeing the outcome
of leadership as setting a single course of direction, we should see it as the ongoing producing of
direction.
Think about the following question and then click or tap below for a suggested answer.
How does adopting a process view change our understanding of leadership?
Note down your thoughts before continuing
It diminishes the role of the formal leader.
It emphasises leadership as a social and relational process.
Leadership emerges when there is a need for change.
It focuses on the outcome or effect of leadership (i.e. producing direction).
If leadership is defined as producing direction and bringing about change, this is not limited
to people in formal leader roles. It happens everywhere in organisations.
Viewing leadership as a social process challenges many of our long-held views of leadership by
removing responsibility for outcomes from an individual to the group. It also brings into question
the current approaches to developing leadership. (We will talk more about this in Module 5.)
ACTIVITY
4.3.3 Adopting a process view
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An approach to studying leadership that engages directly with both the process and collective nature of
leadership is the emergent body of work under the banner of ‘leadership as practice’ (Carroll et al., 2008;
Crevani et al., 2010; Raelin, 2011).
Leadership as practice is concerned with how leadership emerges and unfolds over time and
emphasises the activities (or practices) that constitute leadership as people respond to their day-to-day
experiences.
Leadership Theory and Practice
4.4 Leadership as practice
Among the key ideas of leadership-as-practice are that:
leadership is relational but distinct from ‘relational leadership’ because it focuses on action not just
relationship.
leadership is always influenced by the context in which it emerges (and, equally, leadership also
influences the context).
leadership involves more than just people (though they are key players); it also involves material
objects such as documents, signs and places.
it is possible to identify specific practices that enable the achievement of the work of leadership.
leadership is achieved in communication; therefore, there is a need to consider the role of
conversation in ‘doing’ leadership.
This area of research is still in its infancy, but it offers new insights that help practitioners understand
how leadership is accomplished in practice and offers more detailed ideas of some of the practices of
leadership that can be developed within organisations.
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4.4.1 Key principles of leadership as
practice
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This module has offered some alternative ways of thinking about leadership that broaden our view from
simply focusing on the actions and behaviours of individual leaders.
Among the ideas suggested are that leadership:
is a collective activity that involves multiple people working collaboratively across organisational and
professional boundaries.
does not necessarily reside at the top of an organisation, nor is it always restricted to formal roles
within an organisational hierarchy.
can be understood as a social and relational process.
can be understood as a set of practices and as the ongoing practice that brings about change and
produces direction.
On a practical level, focusing on collective and relational approaches to leadership changes the emphasis
for those who are involved in the process of leadership in organisations.
Instead of feeling pressure at an individual level to ‘live up to’ an ever-expanding list of behavioural
competencies required of ‘good leaders’, the onus shifts to leadership as a collective phenomenon that
entails building collaborative groups of people who can have effective conversations.
The need to be personally ‘charismatic’ or ‘authentic’ is replaced with the social dynamic of forming and
maintaining relationships and developing better dialogue to ease the process of doing leadership.
In the next module, the need for different approaches in response to specific circumstances and
challenges is explored.
Leadership Theory and Practice
4.5 Module summary
Enter your reflection in the box below. Once you have saved your answer you’ll be able to return to this
page and see what you have written.
Any reflections you submit do not count towards a final grade.
REFLECTION
4.5.1 Gore-tex
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Notes:
Question
Gore-Tex is globally recognised as an innovative fabric used in a range of outdoor wear. The company
behind the brand, W.L. Gore, has received significant media coverage for its innovative leadership
approach.
In the interview below, Gary Hamel talks to Terri Kelly, CEO of W.L. Gore, about Gore-Tex’s move away
from heroic leadership.
Terri Kelly: W.L. Gore’s Original Management Model
The ideas in the video are reinforced by an article by Terri Kelly on the use of distributed leadership
as a particular form of post-heroic leadership.
Having reflected on this case, what do you think are the potential benefits and drawbacks of this
approach?
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Now that you have reflected on the Gore-Tex case, please feel free to share and discuss your thoughts
with your fellow students here.
Please go to your student portal to participate in this discussion
DISCUSSION
4.5.2 Share your thoughts
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Please answer the following questions, which are designed to help prepare you for your exam.
The results of these questions do not count towards the average test mark on your Course Dashboard.
The feedback provided once you have saved your answer will help you to see whether you have
answered the question correctly.
Notes:
EXAM PREPARATION
4.5.3 Exam preparation
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Mandatory question 1
Reflect on whether you observe any post-heroic or emergent or distributed leadership in your chosen
subject.
Does this link to any theories?
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Notes:
Notes:
Essay question 1
Can you explain some post-heroic or collective leadership theories?
Essay question 2
Do you understand leadership as practice and leadership as process approaches? Explain these in your
own words below:
Adair, J. (1989). Great Leaders. Guildford: Talbot Adair Press.
REFERENCES
4.5.4 References
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Barker, R. (1997). How can we train leaders if we do not know what leadership is? Human Relations,
50(4), 343–362.
Bennis, W. (2007). The challenges of leadership in the modern world. American Psychologist, 62(1), 2–5.
Bolden, R. (2011). Distributed leadership in organizations: a review of theory and research. International
Journal of Management Reviews, 13(3), 251–269.
Carroll, B., Levy, L., and Richmond, D. (2008). Leadership as practice: challenging the competency
paradigm. The Leadership Quarterly, 4(4), 363–379.
Collinson, D., and Tourish, D. (2015). Teaching leadership critically: new directions for leadership
pedagogy. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 14(4), 576–594.
Crevani, L. (2015). Relational leadership. In: Carroll, B., Taylor, S. and Ford, J. (eds). Leadership:
Contemporary Critical Perspectives, 188–211. London: Sage.
Crevani, L., Lindgren, M., and Packendorff, J. (2010). Leadership, not leaders: on the study of leadership
as practices and interactions. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 26, 77–86.
Denis, J.L., Langley, A., and Sergi, V. (2012). Leadership in the plural. The Academy of Management
Annals, 6(1), 211–283.
Drath, W., McCauley, C., Palus, C., Van Velsor, E., O’Connor, P. and McGuire, J. (2008). Direction,
alignment and commitment: towards a more integrative ontology of leadership. The Leadership
Quarterly, 19, 635–653.
Fairhurst, G. and Uhl-Bien, M. (2012). Organizational discourse analysis (ODA): examining leadership as a
relational process. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(6), 1043–1062.
Fletcher, J. (2004). The paradox of postheroic leadership: an essay on gender, power, and
transformational change. The Leadership Quarterly, 15(5), 647–661.
Gronn, P. (2002). Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis. The Leadership Quarterly, 13, 423–451.
Gronn, P. (2009). Leadership configurations. Leadership, 5(3), 381–394.
Meindl, J., Ehrlich, S. and Dukerich, J. (1985). The romance of leadership. Administrative Science
Quarterly, 30, 78–102.
Pearce, C.L. and Conger, J.A. (2003) Shared Leaderhip: Reframing the Hows and Whys of Leadership.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Raelin, J. (2011). From leadership-as-practice to leaderful practice. Leadership, 7(2), 195–211.
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Thorpe, R., Gold, J. and Lawler, J. (2011). Locating distributed leadership. International Journal of
Management Reviews, 13(3), 239–250.
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7.0 Ethics and leadership
Please watch this video, in which Professor Galloway talks you through Module 7: Ethics and leadership.
View transcript
VIDEO
7.0.1 Ethics introduction
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While these seem like simple terms, in fact notions of right and wrong, good and bad vary enormously
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7.0.2 Ethics
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from one person to another. They are also influenced by social and cultural backgrounds and situations,
family and network influences and of course, the formal structural and legislative environment.
Business ethics is the application of ethics in the business, industrial, commercial and public domains.
In leadership situations, ethics requires reasoning and judgement based on principles and beliefs,
and balances economic interests with social responsibilities.
This module looks at the role of ethics in leadership. ‘Good leadership’ and ‘leadership for good’ are not
the same thing: there are many examples throughout history of outstanding leaders who have had a
negative, sometimes devastating, effect on economies and societies. This module invites you to reflect on
ethics and leadership, returning full circle to one of the central questions posed at the start of this
course:
What is leadership for?
The module in this course on leadership provides an introduction to the need for leadership to be
aligned with personal ethics and organisational values. It also invites reflection on practice. There is
some coverage of ethics in Chapter 13 of the eBook (pp 270–281): Leadership, Ethics and Toxicity. The
chapter focuses on the pitfalls of allowing leadership to foster poor or exploitative organisational
cultures, so since the topic departs somewhat from the focus in this module, please note that this
reading is optional and not required for examination revision;
Please go to your student portal to interact with your eBook account
READING
7.0.3 Reading
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Often we know what is right and what is wrong and how to reach a decision without actually being able
to explain how we know! However, it is possible to examine rules for ethical decision making. Some
examples are listed below.
Utilitarian rule: a decision is ethical if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number of
people.
Rights rule: a decision is ethical if it maintains and protects the fundamental rights of those
affected by it.
Justice rule: benefit and harm are distributed equitably among groups.
Leadership Theory and Practice
7.1 Rules for ethical decision
making
The concept of relativism has its roots in classical philosophy.
Socrates introduced the idea of cultural relativism, in which interpretations of reality may vary based
on people’s different beliefs and values, which are in turn influenced by their social culture.
This has implications for all manner of human activity, including that pertaining to ethics, so people’s
morals and values may vary according to their social culture or some other distinguishing feature (such
as gender, religion or race).
The implication is that ethics are not entirely consistent between people, and that right and wrong are
not ‘fixed’. Variation is most likely to occur in two ways:
temporally: changes in ethics, values, morals over time; and
geographically: differences in ethics, values, morals in geographically distinct cultures.
We will explore these in further detail.
KNOWLEDGE BUILDING
7.1.1 Relativism
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Temporal variation
Attitudes and values can change over time. For example, different generations tend to exhibit different
morals, values and ethics. This is sometimes the result of having access to more or better information.
Consider the effects of temporal variation in the tobacco industry: as people became increasingly aware
of the effects on health of smoking, their attitudes towards both the products and towards the companies
that supply cigarettes has radically changed.
Sometimes there is no obvious reason for temporal variation. For example, consider attitudes in
European markets towards the fur trade. While, once, ownership of clothing and soft furnishings made of
animal fur was considered high fashion and desirable, more recent generations have boycotted products
of this type.
Geographical variation
Geographical variation (across geographically dispersed social cultures) is sometimes observable.
Consider the following example.
When recruiting in her organisation, a leader selects her brother over other candidates because he is
her brother.
In North America and northern Europe this is often referred to as nepotism or cronyism and is
considered unethical (to the point that it is legislated against in some countries in these regions);
In other countries, preferential treatment is considered perfectly acceptable business practice;
Elsewhere, in some cultures, such as some southern European states, putting ‘family’ first is
considered a moral duty.
None of these approaches is objectively ‘right’ or ‘wrong’; rather they are perceived as one or the other
depending on the cultural background in question.
Practices such as guanxi in China; ubuntu in sub-Saharan Africa; and wasta in the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) all resonate with the idea of a preference for close ties. All refer to a sense of strong social
network and the prioritisation of that network and their expression is resonant of collectivist cultures.
The implications for leadership include that decisions and practices have to achieve a balance between
what is personally and organisationally acceptable and the values and practices of the socio-culture. This
is complex and requires reasoning and reflection of some sophistication.
guanxi: a Chinese social concept based on the exchange of favours, in which personal relationships are
considered more important than laws and written agreements.
ubuntu: humanity or fellow feeling; kindness.
wasta: the practice in the MENA region of prioritising close ties.
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For leaders, an understanding of ethical relativism is required to judge what decisions should and
should not be taken. It is not simply a case of ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’
Decisions that involve ethics will depend on:
the context of the decision (cultural, social);
the extent to which personal ethics are compromised; and
the extent to which company ethics are compromised.
These MUST be considered by leaders, and there are no quick or clear answers. Our contributing leader,
Chief SI Ivor Marshall describes the need to take ethically-informed decisions as “courageous” in some
instances – and in the context of his work in the police force, there is the need to make robust valuesbased
judgements quickly and efficiently.
View transcript
KNOWLEDGE BUILDING
7.1.2 Ethical relativism and
leadership
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In its simplest expression, the purpose of business is to achieve profit through trade. This gives rise to
lots of ethical considerations because business is conduced, and profit is pursued, in human, social and
natural contexts. Leaders therefore must balance ethics and profit in accordance with firstly, the laws of
the land in which they are trading, but also with other ethical consideration including those relating to:
stakeholders: shareholders, staff, customers, people who live nearby and greater society, all of
whom are affected by the organisation;
conscience: questions of personal conscience on all sorts of ethical issues, from child labour to
animal testing and environmental protection; and
profit generation: publicity surrounding questionable or unacceptable ethics may impact on
customer opinion and, in turn, be detrimental for an organisation’s public profile and profit
generation.
Leadership choices about ethical issues therefore require sophisticated philosophical and ethical
analysis.
Leadership Theory and Practice
7.2 Ethics and business
Parboteeah and Cullen (2012) cite research studies from around the world that have found that good
and considered ethics correlate with business performance.
In addition, while ethics are relative and not consistent, the UN has identified 17 sustainable
development goals that consolidate some of the most commonly held moral positions, including those
pertaining to human rights.
KNOWLEDGE BUILDING
7.2.1 Sustainable development goals
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These goals are promoted to nations and businesses globally and have implications for leaders in terms
of making compliant decisions. You can read about the goals in greater detail on the UN’s Sustainable
Development Goals site. At its simplest, the UN’s message is that leadership in organisations must be
ethically responsible.
Ethical leadership also includes responsibility to staff. In the spirit of transformational and other
people-centred styles of leadership, the most effective way to develop people so that they may give their
best is through communication, trust and consideration, within cultural and organisational
parameters.
Consider the ethical prioritisation characterised by transformational approaches to leadership, including
servant leadership and authentic leadership, as discussed in Module 3. Similarly, in the clip below, our
contributing leader Paul Lucas provides an example of the importance of demonstrating a strong ethos
to foster trust and promote an organisational culture that is ethical and productive.
VIDEO
7.2.2 Ethics and leading people
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View transcript
While ethical considerations may result in the prioritisation of social, environmental and other ethical
factors over profit orientations, profit and business are themselves not unethical – in fact, they
represent the ethical choice in some situations.
Since business exists to make profit, an economy works because of the business being conducted within
it. This creates:
jobs
income
wealth
Working life funds family life and society. Business decisions and business practices, informed by ethics
and values, are part of a net contribution to humanity and social life. While ‘business’ has often been
charged with pursuing profit at the expense of humanity and social life, in fact, with due attention to
ethical reasoning, business has the potential to be the source of much ethical solution.
KNOWLEDGE BUILDING
7.2.3 Ethics, leadership and business
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This module has explored leadership and ethics and the need to balance personal and organisational
values with strategy and operations.
Leaders often operate (and must make difficult decisions) in complex contexts in which there are few
constants. Their decisions are affected and influenced by the tasks to be carried out and the people
doing them. Leaders also feel the influence of their own demographic background, culture and ethics.
The need for sensitivity and to be able to analyse complex issues is one of the main leadership
challenges in the global economy.
The next module draws on the complexities associated with leadership (tasks, people, environment) and
explores how leaders develop and how they, in turn, help followers to develop into the next generation
of leaders.
Leadership Theory and Practice
7.3 Module summary
Think of situations in which ethics has had an impact on companies in your country (or further
afield if you can’t think of any).
These might include:
the use of ethics to gain market share;
losing customers because of poor ethical judgements; or
industry decline as a result of changed societal values.
Share these with your fellow students on the discussion board.
Please go to your student portal to participate in this discussion
DISCUSSION
7.3.1 The impact of ethics
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Please answer the following questions, which are designed to help prepare you for your exam.
The results of these questions do not count towards the average test mark on your Course Dashboard.
The feedback provided once you have saved your answer will help you to see whether you have
answered the question correctly.
Notes:
Notes:
EXAM PREPARATION
7.3.2 Exam preparation
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Mandatory question 1
Is there an ethical element to the actions of your chosen leader? Can you relate this to research an
knowledge covered so far in this course.
Essay question 1
Do you understand what ethical relativism is?
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Notes:
Notes:
Essay question 2
Can you identify key research or writers that refer to ethics?
Essay question 3
What are the tensions between business goals and ethics, and how do leaders navigate these?
Parboteeah, K.P. and Cullen, J.B. (2012). Business Ethics. London: Routledge.
REFERENCES
7.3.3 References
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