Leadership Ethics

Comparison Matrix Paper: Leadership Ethics

Marco C. Conners

Grand Canyon University

LDR 800, Ethical Dilemmas and Stewardship

May 16, 2012

Introduction

This paper compares three studies on ethical leadership. The first study, Implementing Ethical Leadership: Current Challenges and Solutions (Thompson, K. J., Thach, E. C., & Morelli, M. 2010), explores the connection between organizational policy and leaders’ ethical behavior. The second study, Ethics and Leadership: Enablers and Stumbling Blocks (April, K., Peters, K., Locke, K., & Mlambo, C. 2010), explores the impact of ethical dilemmas on leadership behavior. The third study, Demonstrating Ethical Leadership by Measuring Ethics (Kaptein, M., Huberts, L., Avelino, S., & Lasthuizen, K. 2005), examines the value of using surveys to encourage leadership ethics.

The purpose of these three studies focus on the influence of organizational ethics on leaders, and explores how leaders can learn to use surveys to recognize ethical dilemmas and resolve them in an appropriate manner. The study by Thompson, et al. (2010), quantitatively examines the ethical conduct of leaders, and the influence that organizational ethics and trends have on those leaders. The second study by April, et al. (2010), quantitatively explores obstacles that prevent leaders from acting with integrity and ethical certitude. The third study by Kaptein, et al. (2005), quantitatively investigates using surveys for gauging leader’s ethics in organizational settings.

The importance of the studies by Thompson, et al. (2010) and April, et al. (2010), is that they add to the body or research while seeking to identify ways to educate leaders to recognize unethical acts so they can learn to model appropriate ethical behavior. Further, April et al. (2010) strives to establish the correlation between ethical decision-making and obstacles that hinder that process. The study Kaptein, et al. (2005) is important as the authors...