Ethical and Unethical

Robert Nardelli Ethical or Unethical Actions as a Leader

James S. Hunter III

BUS 610

Dr. Shawna Wentlandt

February 25, 2013

Individuals in powerful leadership positions such as CEO are the centerpiece of most corporations. While in this position one should be the voice for ethical behavior that would captivate the corporation into adhering to higher ethical values. However, over time in several instances many CEO’s have received unfavorable reputations due to their shortfalls or lack of ethics that has appeared to dissolve. Many years ago while in a leadership position the human capital was not important unlike today. After extensive research, it has been discovered that people are very valuable with-in a company and should be treated with respect and are given the opportunity to be heard. A lot of leaders have reverted back to the old days of not treated their employees with respect and others simply just don’t care or they just don’t get it. Numerous successful companies have had a combination of unethical leaders that almost always abuse their employees thus resulting in their demise. If they only took a few moments to reflect on how they became successful and realized the significance of the human capital they would have a longer run at the positions they hold and the companies would be more successful. One could be optimistic and think that such bad CEO’s did not always act in such a manner.

Leadership involves influencing the behaviors of individuals and groups to work toward predetermined goals (Baack, 2012, 8.1). If one is in a CEO position, the top position in any company he/she should be a quality leader. After reading the article on Robert Nardelli it appears that his leadership style was totally opposite. Although he was the CEO and the leader of Home Depot his leadership style was questionable. While Robert Nardelli was head of Home Depot he clearly displayed a unique leadership style. His...