Ethics in a Global Workplace

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Northhouse (2013, p.428-430) state that ethics is central to leadership because of the influence/power exercised by leaders, and the impact of leaders on organisational values. Of course, where followers perceive that the leader is unethical, they emulate this behaviour, which cam spread like a cankerworm, and soon define the organisational culture and value. He identifies five principles of ethical leadership to be:

- Respect for others

- Service to others

- Just

- Honesty

- Community Building.

CONCLUSION

There is a fervent global call for moral leadership today, organisations that do not heed this call may find themselves out of business, or facing heavy sanctions and fines. In establishing ethical standards in emerging economies, the focus should be on cross-cultural economies and not cross-cultural ethics, as globalisation demands a high degree of cultural intelligence, and attempting to force the western concept of ethical standards on the strength of economic prowess across the globe may not completely succeed, especially as the economic giants today may be overtaken by emerging economies tomorrow.

References:

McPherson, D. (2013) ‘Vocational virtue ethics: prospects for a virtue ethic approach to business’, Journal of Business Ethics, 116 (2), pp.283-296 (Online) Available from: Accessed September 19, 2015

Michaelson, C. (2010) ‘Revisiting the global business ethics question’, Business Ethics Quarterly, 20 (2), April, pp.237-251. (Online) Available from: Accessed September 19 2015

Michalos, A (2013) ‘The business case for asserting the business case for business ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics,114 (4), pp.599-606.Macpherson 2010 (Online) Available from Accessed September 19

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Northouse, P., G. (2013). “Leadership Theory and Practice”; (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE pp.423-445.

Resick, C.J., Martin G., S., Keating, M., A., Dickson, M., W., Kwan H., K., & Peng, C. A., et al. (2011) ‘What ethical leadership means to me: Asian, American, and European perspectives’, Journal of Business Ethics, 101 (3), pp.435-457 (Online) Available from Accessed September 19

Vongthong, X. (2013) Organisations and Leadership: APMG8100