Business

Ethical leadership is essential in any organization. An ethical leader will always accept responsibility of his action and try to promote an ethical culture in the organization. Ethics in an organization ensures that the organization is stable where good leader not only preach good morals but also exhibit them. Lack of ethical leadership led to ultimate failure of the organization.

Introduction
Good and ethical leadership is core for the success of any organization. It is human nature to have leadership. A good leadership sets the tone and the rest follows and therefore the leader is responsible for the failure or success of the organization. If a particular organization succeeds, the leadership of the organization is considered successful. Consequently, a failed organization indicates poor leadership. Therefore, although the leaders do not partake directly in the achievement of the organisations goal, they are fully responsible for the outcome. The performance of individual worker in an organization or the overall culture of the organization is determined by how the leaders inspire the workers to take the right action. This paper discuses the importance of ethical leadership in an organization and how the leaders are fully responsible for the failure or success of their organization.

Ethical Leadership  
A leader who is ethical takes the responsibility of the well being of the organization. He is fully aware of the importance of positive relationships between the leadership and the workers in the success of the organization. A good relationship between the leadership and the workers in an organization is based on mutual respect and trust between all the parties involved. This good relationship is the most essential determinant for the success of the organization. An organization where respect and trust does not exist will probably not achieve its goals. Therefore the leadership of any organization should endeavor to ensure that they create the right environment for the growth of a good working environment. Sincerity and respect should be the guiding principle for every ethical leader who aspires to excel in his or her organization. Ethical leader are therefore advised to adopt the act of service and practice servant leadership. For a leader to be effective in his leadership, he should be ready to serve others which is not in any sense an indication of inferiority. Through serving other people in the organization, the leader is able to empower them towards achieving the objectives of the organization by paying more focus on the most appropriate actions. An ethical leader accepts that every one in the organization needs the other and therefore they are all interconnected by the goals of the organization and by serving others the potential of everyone is used for the success of the organization (Berghofer and Schwartz, n d).

An ethical leader has the ability to foster positive relationship between him and the employees as well as between employees which is essential for the success of the organization. To any individual, good working relationship in the workplace is both fulfilling and rewarding. It is the responsibility of the team leader at all levels to promote good relationship between the team members. The only way to promote good relationship in the team is leading by example. In any organization, ethics promote the well being of individuals, the team and the whole organization. An ethical team can only be lead by an ethical leader who promotes mutual respect among the team members. An ethical leader endeavors to maintain a good working relationship between him and the team members, suppliers, customers and contractors at the benefit of the organization. The leader should therefore take responsibility if the relationship between the organization and the suppliers, contractors, customers or even workers is poor. A good relationship between the leader and the workforce translates into a satisfied workforce which in turn will promote the relationship between the workforce and the community. A socially responsible leader will adhere to the ethical principles of the community and improve the reputation of the organization. Bad reputation can be directly attributed to unethical leader in the organization. Ethical leader leads to economic success where the workforce takes their work possessively while the good will of the organization is improved in the community.

In the modern world, the need for more ethical leadership in organization has become inevitable. Todays leaders need to be sensitive to the outcome of their actions. The need for ethics in any organization which is important in maintaining good relationship between the organization and the stakeholders has led to formulation of code of ethics by different organizations. Every group in any organization has principles which guide the activities of the organization. The leader of the group is however the first member of the group. Whether the group follows the ethics or not is the responsibility of the leader. Ethical leaders therefore view the team members as stakeholders in the organization rather than followers. He sees them as people whom they should work together with to attain the common goal. It is the leaders responsibility to ensure that the autonomy of each member of the team is respected if morality has to be maintained (Covey, 1991).

Ethical leadership requires the leader to represent the values and vision of the team and the organization at large. The leaders connect the objectives of the whole organization with the stakeholders and employees and are therefore responsible for the achievement of these objectives. Ethical leaders are a channel of communication where they maintain a mutual understanding between different employees and departments by giving room for individuals opinion and creating a two way conversation. They are aware of the role of a variety of ideas in solving problems related to the goals of the organization.

Ethics in an organization creates stability and ethical leaders must therefore ensure that there are set codes of ethics in his or her organization. To create value in their organization, leaders and managers have struggled, devoting much of their time and energy in ensuring that the principles of the organization are met by trying to lead by example. The concept of ethical leadership has encouraged leaders in many organizations to incorporate their values and principles and be explicit about their ethics. The results of this have been the empowerment of the leaders to live up to the principles and ethics of the organization to set an example. The ethics of the organization are observed if the leader doe not just tell the moral story but also exhibit morals. In many business organizations today, it is not easy for a leader to hide his or her unethical acts as in the political field. Many politicians are unable to live up to their moral stories they give during their campaigns. The case of business leaders preaching water and drinking wine is not common. The fact that in a given organization the leaders are able to follow the code of conduct and exhibit ethical leadership stabilizes the organization. Moreover, the leaders themselves are able to lead morally since unethical leadership has no room in the modern world of business. However, there are various scandals where business leaders have been accused of unethical acts where they are assumed to be fully responsible for their activities. A very good example is the case where several Citygroup executives were fired in 2004 for unethical acts. The executives have accepted the responsibility publicly and apologized to the Japanese. This event was a wake up call for ethical leadership in any organization where any leader is responsible for any decision he or she makes regarding the organization.    

Unethical leadership in an organization may have negative impacts on the performance of the organization. There are many individuals who hold executive positions in large organizations and are unaware of the powers they have to influence the success or failure of the organization. Many of the failures in organizations that have been experienced in the recent past could have been prevented if only there was ethical leadership where all the stakeholders are given opportunities to express their dissatisfaction. Many organization fail because of insensitivity of the leadership which leads to development of unethical culture in the organization (Freeman and Stewart, 2006).

Conclusion
The need to develop ethical leadership in any organization is inevitable. It is important for any leader in an organization that has a code of ethics to develop a culture where the codes are not just a set of rules that should not be broken but an integral part of being a stakeholder in the organization. The leadership should therefore take responsibility of their actions and know that their lack of ethics will result into failure of the organization.