Leadership Beyond the Physical: A Review of Spiritual Leadership - Essay Sample

Introduction

Being a leader or position of power has its challenges. First, the person in authority is entrusted with making essential decisions that impact the lives of others. However, there is a challenge where they may be tempted to act selfishly and benefit themselves. Spiritual leadership goes beyond the physical representation. The leaders have external drivers that are based on spirituality that enables them to maintain the required standards of good leadership. In the article, a review of spiritual leadership is explored; more focus is paid to morality which is explored in detail. Its application to leadership and a personal reflection on it is made.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Definition and Theory

Traditionally, morality was used to refer to the individual characters of a person. The modern usage of morality refers to personal conduct. To be moral, one has to be ethical; ethics refer to the relations that exist among humans (Curry, Mullins, & Whitehouse, 2019). Ethics in moral philosophy is portrayed as the study of ethical conduct. In today's application, morality is used to show an individual's capacity to discern between right and wrong. It is a hallmark of human nature and an essential component of personal identity (Hitlin & Vaisey, 2013). Moral judgments' are the evaluations based on the stated sense of morality, and they compare the actions or opinions of an individual and groups to certain norms and values.

Curry et al., (2019) states that with the use of the evaluations, moral judgment is seen to provide a mechanism for morality that guide or constrain the thoughts of people and their behaviour. Quapp, (2016) notes that moral judgments' guide human behaviour, however, the interrelation that exists between specific events such as harm, legality and how the features influence ethical decision remain yet to be characterized.

Theory of Morality

Scholars, including Psychologist, philosophers, anthropologist and sociologist have brought forth various explanations on why people act morally. The stage theory of moral development developed by Kohlberg served the purpose for decades through investigating how individual moral reasoning affected moral behaviours in hypothetical situations (Hitlin & Vaisey, 2013). While Kohlberg theory provided more insight into the growth of moral reasoning, the theory is limited as moral actions do not solely rely on reason (Stappenbelt, 2013). Modern researchers have tried to bridge the gap created by the stage theory. A new approach to moral psychology attempts to create a link between moral judgment and moral actions (Hitlin & Vaisey, 2013). The new approach has brought about an interest in moral identity. The new approach states that the desire to be moral or importance of morality is based on an individual's personality.

Another theory that discusses morality is "morality as cooperation." It argues that morality is a collection of biological and cultural solutions to human cooperation problems (Hitlin & Vaisey, 2013). Morality as a form of cooperation is based on the theory of non-zero-sum games to point out distinct issues that affect human interaction and their possible solutions (Han, 2014). It also predicts that specific forms of cooperative behaviour such as helping kin or group. Reciprocating, being brave, fair allocation of resources or respecting possessions is considered morally right if they arise in all cultures.

Morality Application for Civil Engineers

Civil engineers are tasked with the creation of structures, in their work line, they may be forced to create structures that will affect members of the society or interfere with nature (Genc, Olcay & Erdis, Ercan, 2016). Morality entails balancing human welfare and personal interest. Essential guidelines for civil engineers start with the respect of nature. The respect is accompanied by high priority to safety, welfare and health of people or future generations (Genc et al., 2016). Hoke (2017) states that there is a need to value traditional technology while advancing modern techniques. Value attachment is accomplished through performing civil engineering work with a broader perspective; this is with little regardless of personal affiliation. All reports must be published be based on expertise rather than personal belief and conscience (Hoke, 2017). Moreover, the reports ought to disclose all information on issues such as public safety, health, sustainability and global development.

The attitude towards work ought to be fair and impartial; the attitude maintained should be similar for clients, the public and government agencies. Moreover, there ought to be no discrimination based on sex, religion or race (Quapp, 2016). When contracted, civil engineers ought, to be an honest agent when doing the technical work. All the applicable laws should be followed while maintaining the standards. When working, it is essential to understand the functions, norms and structural characters of civil engineers (Quapp, 2016). When planning, take into consideration the design, maintenance or disposal of advanced and traditional technology. Doing this should take into account the ecosystem and remaining mindful of historical heritage (Quapp, 2016). While striving to enhance personal expertise, there should be a sharing of knowledge with members of the profession.

Strengths and Weakness of Morality

Individual Strengths of Morality

What individuals do determine who we are, and whether we made the world a better place or not. With an understanding of this, I strive to make the world better by upholding virtues that are essential in a leader. Kindness is a virtue that has been a personal philosophy from a tender age. Kindness is attributed to an upbringing where its importance was emphasized by the caregivers (McGavin, 2013). Initially, kindness was meant as a way to seek praise from others, with progress in age, it becomes a personal responsibility where one has to do it as part of social responsibility (McGavin, 2013). Incorruptibility is a moral value that has been developed and cultured over time (Han, 2014). As an individual, I understand the importance of civil engineering and the risk that it poses when one fails to uphold ethics. Being incorruptible goes beyond conventional moral reasoning; it is essential move in ensuring that a positive contribution is made to the society.

As a civil engineer, my actions are guided by post-conventional moral reasoning. Most of my dealings and decisions are guided by social contract and universal humanitarian principles (McGavin, 2013). In the course of my work, I maintain respect for everyone that I come across. Moreover, respect for nature and existing structures is upheld. Whenever my actions are beyond societal expectations, a personal reflection and correction are done to align them with what ought to be done (McGavin, 2013). Loyalty has been maintained as a way to ensure that I can gain knowledge from experts. Maintaining loyalty and societal expectations have been essential in the expansion of wisdom.

Weakness of Morality

Even though I may perceive myself as a moral individual, some loopholes exist in morality that proves to be my weakness. A significant flaw has been focusing on the organization or group success rather than individuals accomplishment (Kruepke, Molloy, Bresin, Barbey & Verona, 2017). In an ideal scenario, I ought to focus more on my goals and encourage others to do so. The move helps them attain the overall goal. By focusing on the organization, I fail to develop myself as expected. Another issue is on brotherly love, even though maintaining of brotherly love in organizations is meant to see that others succeed, it has turned out to be a weakness such that I tend to lose myself to see others succeed (Kruepke et al.,2017). It is worth noting that by doing so; I focus less on the overall organizational goal. Brotherly love ought to be more professional; if one isn't good enough, they ought to get the required training. Creating a boundary on how to handle brotherly love and personal weakness at the place of work remains a challenge.

Improving the Qualities in Daily Life

One way to enhance qualities is by having a higher level of integrity. A higher level of integrity helps overcome the moral challenges that one may face. For instance, maintain a higher level of brotherly love means that it may be tempting to look away from mistakes made by peers (Jia & Krettenauer, 2017). With strong integrity, any shortcomings will be highlighted and corrected immediately. Showing compassion towards others entails understanding their feelings, being kind to others and helping whenever possible (Jia & Krettenauer, 2017). By being able to help others improve, I will enhance my understanding of the ideal ways to correct my mistakes. Having goals in life will improve the quality of daily life. Through the accomplishment of daily goals, it becomes possible to attain the long term goals and the main goals that one has created.

Having a stand-in life acts as a bearing to the direction taken. As an engineer, the first step in ensuring morality is through understanding what my goals are and how I should accomplish them. With this, it will be easy to enhance my strengths while correcting my mistakes (Jia & Krettenauer, 2017). With the stand, it will be easy to choose a cause and follow it. In this case, I may focus on individual success as the tool to bring about the group and organizational success. By doing so, I will rectify my weakness while helping others improve. Besides the societal morals, individual morals will provide a purpose in life. Therefore, it becomes easier to enhance the quality of daily life.

References

Curry, O. S., Mullins, D. A., & Whitehouse, H. (2019). Is It Good to Cooperate? Testing the Theory of Morality-as-Cooperation in 60 Societies. Current Anthropology, 60(1), 47-69. doi: 10.1086/701478

Genc, Olcay & Erdis, Ercan. (2016). Occupational Ethics -Civil Engineering Perspective. Researchgate, 3, doi: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1861.7842.

Han, H. (2014). Analyzing theoretical frameworks of moral education through Lakatos's philosophy of science. Journal of Moral Education, 43(1), 32-53. doi:10.1080/03057240.2014.893422

Hitlin, S., & Vaisey, S. (2013). The New Sociology of Morality. Annual Review of Sociology, 39(1), 51-68. doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-071312-145628

Hoke, T. (2017). A Moral Lapse Creates a Scandal. Civil Engineering Magazine Archive, 87(6), 40-41. doi: 10.1061/ciegag.0001204

Jia, F., & Krettenauer, T. (2017). Recognizing Moral Identity as a Cultural Construct. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00412

Kruepke, M., Molloy, E. K., Bresin, K., Barbey, A. K., & Verona, E. (2017). A brief assessment tool for investigating facets of moral judgment from realistic vignettes. Behaviour Research Methods, 50(3), 922-936. doi: 10.3758/s13428-017-0917-3

McGavin, P. A. (2013). Conversing on ethics, morality and education. Journal of Moral Education, 42(4), 494-511. doi:10.1080/03057240.2013.817330

Quapp, U. (2016). Professional Ethics for Civil and Structural Engineers under the German Law Governing the Profession of Engineers. Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction, 8(4), B4515001. doi:10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000173

Stappenbelt, B. (2013). Ethics in engineering: Student perceptions and their professional identity development. Journal of Technology and Science Education, 3(1). doi: 10.3926/jotse.51