Fundamentals of Management, 8th ed

Chapter 11: Leadership and Influence Processes

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Ethical Leadership

Most people have long assumed that top managers are ethical people. But in the wake of

recent corporate scandals, faith in top managers has been shaken. Perhaps now more

than ever, high standards of ethical conduct are being held up as a prerequisite for effec-

tive leadership. More specifically, top managers are being called on to maintain high eth-

ical standards for their own conduct, to exhibit ethical behavior unfailingly, and to hold

others in their organization to the same standards.

The behaviors of top leaders are being scrutinized more than ever, and those

responsible for hiring new leaders for a business are looking more and more closely

at the background of those being considered. And the emerging pressures for stron-

ger corporate governance models are likely to further increase commitment to select-

ing only those individuals with high ethical standards and to holding them more

accountable than in the past for both their actions and the consequences of those

actions.

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POLITICAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

Another common influence on behavior is politics and political behavior.