Leadership & Ethics: The Ethical Lens Inventory - Essay Sample

Introduction

Leadership is a skill and practical ability encompassing abilities by an individual to influence or guide other people in an entity or organization. Ethics refers to a philosophical branch that involves moral principles of determining between what is right and wrong. Ethical lens inventory refers to specific evaluations that get designed to help learners acknowledge or understand what values are important to them and their friends. It helps them avoid conflict by making responsible, ethical decisions and live integral lives.

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Ethical Traits Demonstrated by Jack Ma

Jack Ma is the executive chairman of Alibaba Group. He founded Alibaba and developed into a billion-dollar business through ethical and effective management strategies. Jack Ma demonstrates the following ethical conduct.

Integrity refers to practicing honesty and having consistent and unwavering strong ethical values and principles. It gets characterized by getting truthful and engaging in trustworthy financial or business deals. It entails a leader fulfilling their promises and what gets expected of them.

Justice and fairness, it refers to a fair selection of participants in any activity without discrimination or biasness. It gets characterized by the distribution of risks and benefits accordingly. It entails a leader avoiding having any favorites in their team despite their race, ethnicity, gender or nationality

Jack Ma's Exhibition of Ethical Conduct

Jack Ma demonstrates honesty since he states that decisions that get made on value basis guarantee success and profits as compared to those decisions related to money. During the 2002 internet bubble burst, Alibaba was experiencing some business setbacks and not making any sizeable profit. Most corporations opted for the common under table technique of offering bribes in order to conquer the website design business. Jack Ma and his team tabled meetings to decide on viable options to save the business and agreed on the good decision that they would rather shut down their business rather than paying bribes. Jack Ma upheld his integrity, and it later paid off since the business's reputation was protected, and it got profitable afterward. Jack Ma started Alibaba as a trading company that connected Chinese foreign trading companies to their overseas clients. After a year, the overseas businesses were not breaking even the annual fee charged by Alibaba. Jack Ma and his team spoke to their clients with utmost honesty to the point of offering refunds and understanding if they did not request for Alibaba's service the next year. Jack Ma choose not to lose the client's trust or create animosity and understood that the foreign client's transition to an online platform was gradual and would take time. Once at the end of year review Jack Ma realized that two employees generated almost 60% of profits made in the sales department that were offering bribes, he fired them and consequently introduced an employment policy that had stern warning and consequence for employees found to have engaged in bribing activities. Jack Ma built a system of trust. With the vast popularity and promising growth of Alibaba's online market, Jack Ma noticed that there were minimal transactions between online buyers and sellers. He created Alipay that provided for customers to give reviews and ratings about individual sellers. It promoted trust and curbed trading insecurities. Jack Ma started involving the company in various corporate social responsibilities that fostered societal development in china.

Deontological and Consequentialist Perspectives and How Each Perspective Would Approach the Dilemma From the Scenario

Deontological perspectives refer to the normative ethical theory that questions the right or wrong of particular action bases on some specific set rules and conditions rather than on the consequences resulting from the action. Views from this perspective will deem the company's action right since the company manufactured an artificial knee joint that is less expensive and reduces the healing time. It will help the majority of the patient's population, although it does not disclose that there might be a smaller patient population that might get infected with a lethal infection. The company only considers the broader patient population and disregards those that might get infected with the lethal infection.

Consequentialist's perspective is a normative ethical theory stating that the ultimate wrong or right of action gets based on the consequences of the act. Views from this perspective will deem the company's action as unethical since it does not disclose that the knee joint might result in some patients getting some lethal infections. The view expects the company to disclose all possible outcomes, including possible adverse outcomes.

Levels of Cognitive Moral Development

Cognitive moral development is a theory that explains development. It includes pre-conventional, conventional, and postconventional levels. The pre-conventional stage gets characterized by morality getting externally controlled; people believe and adhere to authoritative figures and their rules (McLeod, 2013). It involves people determining morality using consequences that may arise. The conventional stage gets characterized by a person's morality senses getting influenced by societal and personal or intimate relationships (McLeod, 2013). It gets characterized by people conforming and accepting rules so that they maintain societal order. Postconventional levels involve people's sense of morality getting determined by their principles. People believe some policies are unfair and need to get either adjusted or eliminated.

Which would most likely serve the greater good in society? It is a postconventional cognitive moral development since it involves a person's morality getting influenced by their specific principles. They do not first consider the law but determine what is wrong or right using their intuitive principles.

If this information gets revealed, will the worker get in trouble and lose the job? It is a pre-conventional cognitive moral development. It involves the employee conforming to the set rules and authority since employees signed a nondisclosure agreement and fears for what consequences may arise after that.

What do laws say, and what would law-abiding citizens do? It is a conventional cognitive moral development. The employee judges between wrong and right using their principles. They first determine their wants to conform to the authority in order to maintain societal order.

If the worker keeps quiet, will they get some sort of reward? It is a pre-conventional cognitive model. It involves the employee judging between wrong and right, depending on the consequences arising from the act.

Ethical Lens Inventory refers to evaluation techniques designed to help people understand how their moral principles and values influence their choices. It gets characterized by knowing the ethical values that they prioritize in making moral decisions and acknowledging those of others in order to curb conflicts and make improved decisions. The preferred ethics lens is the use of core values that include universal rights and duties, character and reputation, relationships in the community, and focusing on results. Ethics lens involves the use of virtues that emphasize a person's traits or characters that are imperative for ethical decision making and thinking.

Different settings necessitate for the different ethical lens. Work settings will demand people to get focused on the results, minding how they perceive reputations and professional work relationships. Personal settings will involve much of virtues or characters. It involves people's innate behaviors and actions when no one is watching them. Social settings will involve people minding less of their reputations and having fun-filled relationships that are less official.

Primary Values and Classical Virtues From the ELI

Ethical lens Inventory is a technique and evaluation tool that uses values and virtues in helping people make quality decisions and avoid unnecessary conflicts. Virtues are behaviours, qualities, and traits that get termed as morally correct and valued as principle foundations for always choosing right over wrong and portraying high morals (Tracy, 2016). Some imperative virtues include justice, benevolence, and prudence (Surbhi, 2017). Primary values are thinking stimuli or beliefs on what people term as ideal and helps people in making judgments on what is essential (Tracy, 2016). Values differ amongst different people. Some critical values include integrity, respect, honesty, compassion, passion.

The three of the top five values from the clarifying their values include honesty, respect, and perseverance. A person's wholeness characterizes integrity value and undividedness.it involves getting honest or sincere, respecting other's decisions, and perseverance since many will oppose honesty (Surbhi, 2017). Passion refers to people getting admired for their endurance and handwork towards something. Passion involves earning people's respect one has to persevere to make some life achievements, respect others, and must get honest in their dealings (Tracy, 2016). Justice is a critical virtue in upholding a moral life. It involves people getting just, righteous, and maintaining equitableness in their dealings (Surbhi, 2017). Justice involves getting honest in all dealings, respecting all parties, and perseverance in delivering fairness since it involves many challenges and temptations like getting bribed.

Ethical lens Inventory gets characterized by huge risks. Some risks associated with ELI include risking losing friends and popularity. Honesty and delivering justice involve avoiding discriminations and other vices like nepotism and favoring friends and family in delivering quality and fair decisions. It may result in friends and family deserting someone. Perseverance involves pursuing success despite its difficulty. It involves risking losing peace of mind and comfort since it involves engaging and strenuous activities.

People can mitigate risks by educating and encouraging people to get moral in their activities. It involves people upholding and using moral judgments before deciding on whether something is wrong or right. In order to avoid losing peace of mind in perseverance, people should seek partners or pursue success as a group. Policies and legislations upholding fairness and discouraging discrimination should get enacted to curb vices like gender or racial biasness.

Professionals, especially in corporate worlds, are to get ethical and use moral principles in hiring, motivating, promoting, or firing workers. Hiring should involve a fair and just process that does not discriminate against any gender, race, or ethnic group. Managers must possess upright principles and morals, such that they can resist corrupt deals. Motivating and promoting workers must involve integrity in using honest work appraisal techniques to determine people that will get promotions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, leaders are people that can govern influence or direct people in a specific direction or meet a particular goal. Effective leadership must involve an ethical and morally upright leader. Ethical lens inventory involves techniques or tools that help people in making quality decisions and choices that minimize conflict.

References

Surbhi, S.2017 July 15.Differences between Ethics and Values. Retrieved from https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-ethics-and-values.html. Accessed on 2019 December, 19.

Tracy, B. 2016 August 31.The difference between a value and a virtue. Retrieved from https://synergygroup.net.au/difference-value-virtue/#respond. Accessed on 2019 December, 19.

McLeod, S.2013 July 2...