weLEAD Leadership Tip - What is Your Moral Leadership Style?

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Leadership Tip of the Month

July 2002

What is Your Moral Leadership Style?

There is much discussion in the news today about ethics, particularly in the business sector. Many major corporations have been guilty of accounting irregularities and fraud. Each individual possesses his or her own values and ethics that are reflected in their leadership style. This is true of business executives and others in high-level management positions. This tip will discuss four particular leadership styles. Each style is built on a different level of ethical standards and can be observed along a continuum from least ethical to most ethical.

1. The Manipulator – the “ends justifies the means” approach [Least Ethical]

This style is amoral and is driven by the motive of power and control. It is essentially an economic or egotistical ethic. The end result of any decision or action “justifies the means” taken to manipulate others. It is based on a Machiavellian ethic that views leadership unscrupulously. It is based on short-term gain and relationships that lack trust. The motives of this style are amoral but the effect upon others is typically immoral. Other stakeholders are considered unimportant and mere pawns for personal advancement.

2. The Bureaucratic Administrator – the “rules” approach [More Ethical]

This rule-based style is based on the ideal principles established within the organizational bureaucracy. The administrator is interested only in maintaining efficiency rather than effectiveness, by enforcing fixed rules and applying the “chain-of-command” control structure. The problem with this style is that legitimate human needs may be neglected because the ability to intercede was not included or spelled out in the rules. This creates a “sin of omission” where others are hurt unintentionally because their unique need is not included in the rigid rule-based organizational structure.

3. The Professional Manager – the “social contract” approach [More Ethical]

This style reflects the proverbial “company man or woman”, but with more flexibility than the Bureaucratic Administrator. The Professional Manager’s style is based in the organization’s “social contract” between the managers and corporate executives. This agreement includes the explicit or implicit set of ethics and ground rules that govern the managers’ behavior. This management style relies on amoral techniques and basic assumptions on how to get work done like the previous two styles. The major ethical problem with this style is that the corporate culture may be amoral or immoral and this will dominate the Professional Manager’s approach due to the social contract. The collective corporate culture may lead itself astray due to Groupthink or other factors. Click here to learn more about Groupthink.

4. The Transforming Leader – the “personal ethic” approach [Most Ethical]

This style is grounded on a personal ethic. This type of leader elevates the values and motives of others and is not hesitant to counter the “social contract” if it is deemed amoral or immoral. Transforming Leaders base their effectiveness on relationships and they actively motivate others to reach personal growth and self-actualization. They maintain a moral approach to the work environment and in the words of William Hitt, “it raises the level of human conduct and aspirations of both leaders and led, and thus has a transforming effect on both.”

Take some time to consider these four particular leadership styles. What are the ethical standards reflected in your leadership style?

For weLEAD, this is Greg Thomas reminding you that it was Theodore Roosevelt who said, “No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.”