In today’s workforce, it is the management team that helps drives a company to success. Managers are responsible for a long list of task including; ensuring their employees are doing the job correctly and on time; ensuring that the expectations and goals are clear and concise; the expectations and goals are being met; ensuring that the employees’ needs are being met; ensuring that the employees are following company policy; and the list goes on and on. One major role of a manager is to be a good role model to their employees. According to Yahoo Education, a role model is “A person who serves as a model in a particular behavioral or social role for another person to emulate.” (Role Model, 2009) This means that a manager as a “role model” needs to lead by example. In this paper we will discuss some moral and ethical dilemmas managers face as a role model and the relationship between ethical responsibility and social issues.
According to Trevino, L., & Nelson, K. (2007), “They [managers] are probably the most important ingredient in an organization’s success and they [managers] are frequently the most overlooked.” They go on to say that “managers are the lens through which employees view the company, as well as the filter through which senior executives view employees.” (Trevino & Nelson, 2007) This can put a lot of pressure on a manager. Managers need to understand that what they say is not as important as what they do. Managers can talk all they want about different ethics and morals, but if they do not follow what they say, it is all in vain and their employees will not listen. Role models are such because of the position that they hold, not because they want to be. As an example, parents are role models to children, teachers are role models to students, pastors are role models to followers, and managers are role models subordinates.
In today’s workforce,