An Academic Opinion

What is the correlation between leadership, trustworthiness, and ethical stewardship?

An academic opinion

What is the correlation between leadership, trustworthiness, and ethical stewardship? The problem to be investigated in this paper is to provide evidence of a correlation between these three ethical concepts. This paper will discuss each of the three concepts and then attempt to show an existing correlation.

Leadership is the ability to lead. There are no definitive definitions for leadership as leaders will develop individual styles. To be a leader one must have people to lead which assumes a leader is in a position of power. But position does not make a leader. There are several models of leadership that present characteristics of effective leadership. Caldwell (2010) describes a three-factor model of leadership originally provided by Chemers. This model is composed of three critical tasks for leaders.

The first task is relationship development. To be a leader, one must establish good relationships with individual contributors. There is a saying in the military, “Take care of your soldiers and they will take care of you.” Leadership requires one to know subordinates, ensure they understand what is expected, and then provide them with the essentials to accomplish the task. It is important for the leader to maintain and demonstrate a high level of personal commitment to the subordinates while expecting the same level of commitment in return.

The second task is resource utilization. In addition to managing human resources, leaders must be able to determine financial and equipment requirements and then be able to procure these assets. They must be able to prioritize requirements in order to use resources effectively to ensure efficient completion of requirements. Leaders must be able to demonstrate competence in effective and efficient use of resources. Subordinates will observe the leaders’ abilities and will make judgments based on...