Moral Leadership: Ethical Values and Behavior Essay

Ethical Values and Behavior

Moral Leadership: Batson vs. Tyler

Batson (Chapter 8, Rhode, 2006) is of the view that moral leadership is about getting people to uphold moral standards and to always act ethically. The underlying assumption is that when everyone acts within their moral capacities, the organization and society as a whole is deemed to benefit. Acting morally, according to Batson, means looking out for the needs and well-being of others, and acting in their favor whenever our interests and theirs are in conflict. Moral leadership is about getting the people around you to look out for others, and to always put the needs of others before their own. It is about motivating people to care for the needy, promote justice in society, conduct their businesses within ethical boundaries, pay their taxes, vote, recycle harmful substances, and contribute to charity programs, not because they derive benefit from doing so, but because doing so is what's best for society. Moral leadership, according to Batson, focuses on creating ethical organizational outcomes by promoting ethical decision-making at the individual level.

Tyler (chapter 9, Rhode, 2006) agrees with Batson that ethical outcomes can only be realized through ethical decision-making. However, rather than focus on instilling ethical decision-making at the individual level, Tyler is more concerned about ethical decision-making at the organizational level, and how it affects the way individuals act and behave in their individual capacities.

Tyler too appreciates the role of motivation in leadership. However, unlike Batson, who focuses on the leader motivating his followers to act morally because it is the right thing to do, Tyler discusses a situation where people act morally, not because it is right, but because organizational policy requires them to act that way. In this regard, Batson's view aligns more with the principle of utilitarianism, whereas Tyler's is more inclined towards deontology.

The principle of utilitarianism requires individuals to assess the morality of their actions on the basis of consequences, and to always select that option that yields benefits or utility to a higher number of people (Hill, 1996). Deontology, on the other hand, requires people to assess the rightness or wrongness of their actions, not on the basis of the number of beneficiaries, but on whether or not it is their duty to do so. We can, for instance, take the example of a company that uses recycled paper products in packaging its products --…