...Ethical Egoism We will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of ethical egoism, but before we begin we first must understand what ethical egoism is and what is involved. Ethical egoism is the normative ethical position that moral agents ought to do what is in their own self-interest. It differs from psychological egoism, which claims that people can only act in their self-interest. Ethical egoism also differs from rational egoism, which holds that it is rational to act in one's self-interest. Ethical egoism contrasts with ethical altruism, which holds that moral agents have an obligation to help others. Egoism and altruism both contrast with ethical utilitarianism, which holds that a moral agent should treat one's self with no higher regard than one has for others as egoism does, by elevating self-interests and the self to a status not granted to others, but that one also should not as altruism does sacrifice one's own interests to help others' interests, so long as one's own interests (i.e. one's own desires or well-being) are substantially equivalent to the others' interests and well-being. Egoism, utilitarianism, and altruism are all forms of consequentialism, but egoism and altruism contrast with utilitarianism, in that egoism and altruism are both agent-focused forms of consequentialism (i.e. subject-focused or subjective), but utilitarianism is called agent-neutral (i.e. objective and impartial) as it does not treat the subject's (i.e...
Words: 433 - Pages: 2
...observations. He stimulates change in subordinates’ attitudes and values and also tries to augment followers’ self-efficacy. He fulfills his duties and responsibilities stated by the organization at the same time compromising it with what is dictated by the situation. DOING WHAT IS RIGHT The ethical leader does what is right. He leads the way and inculcates fairness, pluralism and inclusion in the organization. No one is left behind. He articulates a vision that connects to the shared experiences of the members of the organization. He live with integrity and fosters the values it espouses. The leader also invests wisely. He trains future leaders and help those who have the potentials. He is not confined with the norms of nepotism and favoritism. Everyone is treated equally. The ethical leader also guards his heart. He does not allow his emotions to cloud his judgment and thinking. He also exercises humility. Fame, power and fortune does not hinder him from mingling with fellow workers and developing harmonious relationship with them. Despite his position, he maintains camaraderie with everyone in the organization. An organization led by leaders who are ethical and...
Words: 312 - Pages: 2
..."Real leaders concentrate on doing the right thing, not on doing things right." As defined by Rushworth Kidder (1995), an "ethical dilemma" is not a choice between right and wrong, but a choice between two rights. For example, considering a bribe would be a "moral temptation"; deciding whether scarce resources should go to a gifted curriculum or a dropout-prevention program would constitute a dilemma. Dilemmas arise when cherished values conflict. A principal who values both teacher autonomy and student achievement will face a dilemma when teachers want to enact a policy that lowers expectations. This kind of conflict is heightened because school leaders are public officials with obligations to many people who often have competing values or interests.Leaders' moral duty expresses itself not only in the obvious day-to-day ethical dilemmas, but in the mundane policies and structures that may have hidden ethical implications. Robert Starratt (1991) notes that every social arrangement benefits some people at the expense of others; simply to assume that schools embody desirable standards is "ethically naive, if not culpable." Thus, the principal must not only behave responsibly as an individual, but must create an ethical institution. As leaders, principals have a special responsibility to exercise authority in an ethical way. Greenfield points out that much of a principal's authority is moral; that is, teachers must be convinced that the principal's point of view reflects values...
Words: 605 - Pages: 3
...Ethical Leadership: the Call of the Times The recent global economic crisis and the various political changes that challenged existing governments show the need to change our concept of leadership. Leadership challenges in the present times are reflective of the ever changing needs of our society. Leaders must be able to respond and address the needs of its constituents. Our society is ever changing and the people’s consciousness is also changing. And we continually face these challenges in our work place as well. Ethical leadership seeks to address the gap in the current leadership context. What is Ethical Leadership? Ethical signifies it is based on some moral ethics. What would be the basis of this ethics? There has to be some form of standard or expected outcome from the type of leadership. According to Freeman and Stewart, many executives and business thinkers believe that it is a matter of leaders having good character and the right values. Brown and Trevino define ethical leadership as “the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making” (Brown et al., 2005: 120). Another definition is that ethical leadership is a stewardship that preserves the aspirations and culture of the organization. Whatever the definition is, this type of leadership gives emphasis to the impact of the type of leadership...
Words: 1200 - Pages: 5
...Ethical Egoism Ethical egoism is a normative theory based on the promotion of one’s own good in accordance with morality (Moseley). Shaver avers that based on the ethical egoism theory it is necessary and sufficient for an action to be morally right and that it maximizes one's self-interest. The promotion and pursuance of one’s self-interest underscores the normative theory. It prescribes the motivation of one’s thought, behaviour, and action. To fully understand the ethical egoism theory we must first know certain principles behind it. Ethical egoism is a normative theory, which means it prescribes how we should think, behave, and act. Three different formulations of ethical egoism have been identified: individual, personal and universal. Individual ethical egoism is the prescriptive doctrine that all persons should serve self-interest. Personal ethical egoism is the belief that one should act from the motive of self-interest. Universal ethical egoism is the universal doctrine that all persons should pursue their own interests exclusively (Shaver). A theory of ethics is said to be coherent if it is founded in truth, consistent and complete. ‘In truth’ means that a statement of action is either true or false and not both. Consistency means that there should be no contradictions or incompatible statements. Completeness means that there should be no moral truth, which is not provable from the basic moral principles of the theory (Moseley). Shaver’s...
Words: 1015 - Pages: 5
...Option 2: EthicsGame Dilemmas ETH/316 Option 2: EthicsGame Dilemmas Introduction The project that was presented included the application of personal values in working through two different ethical dilemmas. In order to work through each of the dilemmas two analytical skill sets were used to come to a resolution. The first skill set involved the use of the four ethical lenses. The lenses include the Results Lens, Rights/Responsibility Lens, Relationship Lens, and Reputation Lens. The second skill involves the use of the Baird Decision Model which is a five-step process that gives a systematic approach to the resolution of an ethical dilemma. The five steps of the Baird Decision Model include: * Step 1: Be Attentive * Step 2: Be Intelligent * Step 3: Be Reasonable * Step 4: Be Responsible * Step 5: Be Reflective The combination of the ethical lenses with the decision model provides the groundwork to come up with, good value based, solutions to ethical conflict (Rian Brown, 2014). Mysterious Blogger The first ethical conflict that was presented was that of the “Mysterious Blogger.” In this simulation the Director of Information Technology, who is responsible for managing all internal information system functions which include systems programming, application programming, networks, and computer operations, is presented with an employee who is leaking the proprietary company information to the public through a blog sight as an anonymous...
Words: 1292 - Pages: 6
...ARTICLE REVIEW Title : Ethical Leadership: The Effect on Employees Author : Atiya Alshammari, Naser N. Almutairi & Shebaib Fahad Thuwaini Year of Publication: February 27th, 2015 Source: International Journal of Business and Management, Vol.10, No.3;2015 The article, Ethical Leadership : The Effect on Employees focuses on the impact of this style of leadership and also its contribution to the performance, efficiency and productivity of employees of an organization that adapts ethical leadership in their business environment. The author believes ethical leadership is the key ingredients in ensuring the success of an organization. In recent years, a few companies has collapsed such as Lehman Brothers as a result of unethical behavior which caused harm to thousands of employees, forced the government to apply new strict regulations as well as losing customers confidence investing in financial industry. Cases like these proves that without ethical leadership, the tendency of negative influences to appear within the employees of the organization will generate trust issues among peers and lack of faith in the leadership of the leaders of the organization which will result in unproductive and inefficiency in the organization. Ethical leadership is defined as the process of influencing people through principles, values and beliefs of something that we believe as the right behavior. The practice of ethical leadership is increasingly popular in every modern organizations...
Words: 1200 - Pages: 5
...Ethical Leadership is leading by knowing and doing what is right. The problem with ethical leadership is that it is difficult to define right. Ethical leadership is divided into two parts. The leader must act and make decisions ethically, and second, the leader must also lead ethically in their attitudes and interactions. Ethics - is central to leadership because of: * The process of influence * The need to engage followers to accomplish mutual goals * The impact leaders have on establishing the organization’s values However some of few characteristic of Ethical leadership as: 1. To knowing and doing what is right. 2. Ethical leaders distinguish themselves by doing that which is inconvenient, unpopular, and even temporarily unprofitable in the service of long-term health and value. 3. Ethical leaders also consider other solutions that may require an investment but generate more value over the long term. 4. Ethical leaders extend trust to their workers, creating the conditions necessary to empower employees, suppliers, and even customers to take the risks necessary to create game-changing innovations. 5. Ethical leadership is a renewable human resource and, for this reason, represents one of the most efficient and practical assets an organization can put to use. The Major principles of Ethical Leadership as: 1. Respect others: Leader shall treat other people’s values and decisions with respect, allow others to be themselves with creative wants...
Words: 450 - Pages: 2
...recent years, there are many corporate ethics scandals, which raised significant enquires about the roles of leadership in shaping ethical conduct (Brown, Trevino & Harrison 2005). Leaders by nature are responsible for motivating their subordinates to carry out a task or to behave in a certain manner. According to Starratt (2005), ethical leadership requires ethical leaders, as it is believed that how the leaders conduct themselves have direct impact to the organization in terms of organizational culture and employee values. Also mentioned by Resick et al. (2006), ethical leadership focuses on how leaders use their social power in decision-making, influencing others as well as the actions they engage in. Therefore, if leaders are ethical, they can maintain high level of ethical awareness and ensure that ethical practices are carried out throughout the organization. Often, ethical leaders display a high level of integrity that is important to stimulate a sense of leadership trustworthiness. These factors provide the foundation for personal characteristics, which directly impact a leader’s ethical beliefs, values, and decisions. However, studies also show that leadership integrity only accounts for one minor portion of a person’s trait. In this essay, we attempt to provide insights and discuss ethical leadership and also attempt to prove that ethical leader is mostly about leadership integrity. Moral Person and Moral Manager While production and profitability goals are...
Words: 913 - Pages: 4
...and responsibility under right behaviors. Everyone has different values, so it is impossible to have a standard ethical guideline for everyone. Especially, people usually have different behavior standard when people meet different situations. For me, initially, I felt like I have two different standards for my family, including my girlfriend and my best friends, and for others, but after I did some researches of types of ethical theories, I feel like my ethical standard is more like the ethical egoism, partially. Ethical egoism states that individuals should do what is in their self-interest, and I really agree with this concept. In my opinion, if I cannot treat myself well, it is ridiculous and meaningless to talk about treating others well, so I always believe that I need to take care my self-interest well when I make a decision and do something. It doesn’t mean that I don’t care about others’ interest. What I believe, and most people agree with, is that I should act and achieve my self-interest, and, at the same time, others also can act and achieve their self-interest. A win-win situation is always the best way in any situation. However, sometimes, the interests of people have conflicts, and, in this situation, I will care about myself more rather than others, as long as I didn’t break the law or disobey some consensuses that followed by people as basic ethical standards, such as queue jumping, littering, and so on. As I already mentioned, I felt like I have two different...
Words: 673 - Pages: 3
...Ethics Task 1 Ethical Theories For the task at hand we are to identify and describe the theories of Ethical and Psychological Egoism. First let us look at Ethical egoism, this theory is based on the idea that each individual should do what is entirely in his or her self-interest. A description of this type of egoism is, if you are doing things that are only in your best interest to do, you have achieved morality. Secondly we have the theory of Psychological Egoism a theory that is based on the idea that each person has but one ultimate aim, their own welfare (Christman, 2002, pg 29). This view is defined as human nature, holding to the belief that all human behavior is motivated by self-interest. This theory results from evaluating the human condition and all of it associated quirks, and can only be accepted as truth if there are no exceptions. Psychological egoism makes no claim as to how one should act because it is not an ethical choice. It also states that people will always seek their own self-interest and that if taken in that context will always be true. The fallacy of the Psychological Egoism theory is that it is irrefutable (Rachels, 2007, p. 73) meaning once an example is given and accepted; that data can be provided and interpreted to support it. The whole idea appears to be overly simple and all inclusive which in itself draws some scrutiny to it. The basic premise of the theory states that people are always motivated by their own interests...
Words: 927 - Pages: 4
...Ethical Dilemma Wilbert Thacker CMGT/575 December 1, 2014 Gordon Hodgson Ethical Dilemma Ethical dilemmas, also known as a moral dilemmas, are situations in which there is a choice to be made between two options, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion. In such cases, societal and personal ethical guidelines can provide no satisfactory outcome for the chooser. Ethical dilemmas assume that the chooser will abide by societal norms, such as codes of law or religious teachings, in order to make the choice ethically impossible (Your Dictionary, 2014). As a project manager it is their job to manage and get to know their team. The CIO has informed the project manager that his/her team will be released and the department will be outsourced. In this situation the first step that should be taken is gathering all of the facts. The CIO has informed the project manager that their department would be outsourced and their team would be released but there was no reason provided. As a concerned project manager it is almost their obligation to research to what led up to this decision. A decision this drastic couldn’t have possibly be made over night. The main ethical issue here is it has to be a trust issue between the company they are providing the service for and the project management team. Most of those issues revolve around project management teams not completing a service on time or a service not meeting expectations. Many people will...
Words: 778 - Pages: 4
...Trustworthiness and Ethical Stewardship The problem to be investigated is to address the relationship between “leadership behavior, perceptions about [a] leader’s trustworthiness, and the ethical duties” (Caldwell, Hayes & Long, 2012, p.497) associated with interdependent leadership style. As this author reflects upon the different leaders that he has served under over the past forty years, the good ones were epitomized by assigning responsibility and expecting subordinates to live up to those responsibilities, keep their word, and being congruent in keeping their own. On the other hand, the worst leaders were characterized by being unfaithful in keep their word, appearing not to care about those that worked for them, in being mediocre in their jobs, and tolerating mediocrity in others. This author realizes that principles are not established by individual experience, but the findings of Caldwell, Hayes, and Long, among others, empirically support the subjective experience of the author. Ethical Stewardship The idea of ethical stewardship is presented in Caldwell et al. (2010), who indicate that there are leaders who strive to “maximize long-term wealth creation” through “creating relationships that maximize stakeholder ownership and commitment” (p.501). Ryan, Buchholtz & Kolb (2010) reviewed research drawing from stewardship theory and “its assumptions of executive good will and firm-interest-maximizing motivation” (p. 681) in discussing relationships between CEOs and corporate...
Words: 1880 - Pages: 8
...Developing an Ethical Culture Click Link Below To Buy: http://hwcampus.com/shop/developing-an-ethical-culture/ To complete this assignment, refer to Chapters 7 and 8 of the textbook, the Yukl article, and scholarly resources from the Ashford University Library. For this assignment, you will create an 8- to 10-slide PowerPoint presentation for new employees that explains the principles of ethical leadership and how this leadership style promotes an ethical culture within an organization. To prepare for this assignment, access and view the following tutorials: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/training-courses-for-powerpoint-2010-HA104039040.aspx and A PowerPoint Tutorial – The Essentials. This assignment also requires you to create a Notes page that will accompany your presentation. For guidance on how to create your Notes page, visit this page on the Microsoft Office website: https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Create-and-print-notes-pages-324b234d-83b6-4db1-8bb6-9ee5c934a76f. In your presentation • Provide a definition of what an ethical leader is. • Give an example of an ethical leader and describe why this person fits the definition. • Describe ethical culture in your organization (or any other organization). • Describe how to create conversations about ethics. The presentation • Must be 8 to 10 slides in length (not including the title slide and references slide) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the FSB APA guidance...
Words: 321 - Pages: 2
...CONSENT FORM Thank you for being willing to take part in this interview exploring ethical conflict or turbulence. I would like to transcribe the content of this interview to form a written document to be submitted to Sheffield Hallam University as a piece of assessed piece of coursework. It is important that you only take part in this interview if you want to. As such I would be delighted if you would complete and sign this confidentiality questionnaire prior to the interview taking place. (i) In general terms are you willing to take part in this interview: and an edited transcript of the interview submitted to Sheffield Hallam? Yes (ii) Are you happy for your own name to be used in the transcript: or do you want the final transcript to written up with a pseudonym? Own name (iii) Are you happy for the names of other people and organisations to be used in the final transcript: or do you want all other names to be content of this transcription to be submitted to Sheffield Hallam? Pseudonyms (iv) Are you happy for me to submit the final transcript without you reviewing it - or do you want to reserve the right to see the final transcript before I submit? Submit unseen (v) Sometimes the ethical dilemmas described in these transcripts provide real life case studies that can be helpful to show other students, and can provide rich data for research projects. Would you be willing for this transcript to be used in further teaching or research - or would you prefer...
Words: 1766 - Pages: 8
