Leadership: Jack Ma Model of Ethical Leadership - 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. A good leader must possess the necessary values and be ethical in their undertakings. Ethical leaders are effective managers who unfearfully always do what is right whenever needed with. Jack Ma is an ethical Chinese leader and founder of Alibaba, who portrays the necessary ethical leadership skills and techniques in his business undertakings. 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 ensures people 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 and developed Alibaba into a billion-dollar business through ethical and effective management strategies. Jack Ma's success is attributed to integrity, justice, and fairness as his core ethical traits (Surbhi, 2017). Integrity, justice, and fairness are necessary ethical traits for successful leadership.

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

Justice and fairness refer to a fair selection of participants in any activity excluding discrimination or biases. It characterized by the distribution of risks and benefits accordingly. It entails leaders avoiding favoritism amongst their team members irrespective of race, ethnicity, gender or nationality

Jack Ma's Exhibition of Ethical Conduct

Jack Ma demonstrates honesty by making decisions on a value basis. It guarantees success and profits as compared to decision making based on monetary gains. 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 to conquer the website design business. Jack Ma and his team tabled meetings to decide on viable options to save the business and agreed they would rather shut down their business than paying bribes. Jack Ma upheld his integrity which later paid off since the business's reputation was protected and 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 subscribe to 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 of his employees that generated most of the company's profits made in the sales department were offering bribes, he fired them and consequently introduced an employment policy that had stern warnings and consequence against employees found engaging 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 trustful business dealings 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 right or wrong of particular actions based on some specific set rules and conditions rather than on the consequences resulting from the action. Views from this perspective 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 lethal infections. The company only considers the broader patient population and disregards those that might get infected.

Consequentialist's perspective is a normative ethical theory stating that the ultimate wrong or right of actions 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 post-conventional levels. The pre-conventional stage is characterized by morality getting externally controlled and people believing and adhering to authoritative figures and their rules (McLeod, 2013). It involves people determining morality using consequences that may arise from their choices. The conventional stage involves a person's morality senses getting influenced by societal, personal or intimate relationships (McLeod, 2013). It is 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 either get adjusted or eliminated.

The expensive knee joint that does not cause lethal infections serves society better. 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 laws but determine what is wrong or right using their intuitive principles.

If the information gets revealed the worker will get in trouble and lose the job since they signed a non-disclosure agreement. 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 fear for consequences may arise from their actions.

The law is against the less expensive knee joint that causes the legal infection and a law-abiding should not support the company. 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 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.

Preferred Ethical Lens and a Center Perspective Relevant to the Ethical Lens Inventory

Ethical Lens Inventory refers to evaluation techniques designed to help people understand how their moral principles and values influence their choices. It's characterized by identifying ethical values they prioritize in making moral decisions and acknowledging those of others 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. The Ethics Lens involves the use of virtues that emphasize on people's traits or characters that are imperative for ethical decision making and thinking.

Different Settings and Their Preferred Ethical Lens

Different settings necessitate for the different ethical lens. Work settings will necessitate people to get focused on attaining perfect results, mind how their reputations get perceived and maintain professional work relationships. Personal settings will involve much of a person's virtues or characters getting analyzed. 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 help people in making judgments and determining what is essential (Tracy, 2016). Values differ amongst different people. Some critical values include integrity, respect, honesty, compassion, passion.

A Comparison of Two Primary Values and One Classical Virtue With Three of the Top Five Values From the Clarifying Your Values Exercise

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.

Describing Risks Associated With ELI

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 the challenges and setbacks involved. It involves risking losing peace of mind and comfort since it involves engaging in strenuous activities.

Three Steps to Mitigate Risk to Make Better Ethical Decisions in the Future

People can mitigate risks associated with ELI 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. 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 biases.

Ethical Lens Approaches in Professional Lives

Professionals, especially in corporate worlds, are to get ethical and use moral principles in hiring, motivating, promoting,...