Transactional and transformational leadership

Recent corporate scandals, including the implosion of Enron and the restating of earnings by WorldCom, have renewed attention on the issue of corporate ethics. President Bush has called for jail terms for those involved in corporate wrongdoing, and his rhetoric targets those at the highest levels of the organization--in short, its leaders. The ethical stand of an organization may well be shaped by the ethical positions of its leaders as well as the corporate culture that they establish and reinforce. This research considers various types of leadership strategies, the role of ethics within organizations, and ways in which leadership strategies influence corporate ethical behavior. In addition, changes in the ways in which leaders are educated about ethics

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the values statement should be required of all employees, including those at the director level. If employees perceive that only line staff are held to the value statement while decision makers are not, ethical behavior is not likely to result ("Corporate America," 2002). The Reward System Pay for performance, whether at the sales representative level or the chief executive level, can encourage unethical behavior. Sales representatives may lie to customers, while chief executives may encourage accounting practices that effectively result in lying to shareholders. In both cases, individuals are rewarded for short-term performance at possible long-term detriment to the firm (Strout, 2002). The Role of Leaders in Ethical Organizations Leaders provide the standards by which those within the organization make decisions. If the leaders lack strong ethics, the organization as a whole is likely to, as well. Leaders can put into place controls which encourage ethical behavior or punish unethical behavior, but their own influence on the organization is critical (Rothschild, 2002). Incorporating Ethics in the Education of Leaders Fred Luthans maintains that the nature of leadership within organizations is changing as companies embrace i
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Corporate Relationships, Financial Executive, Alden Conger, Fred Luthans, Business Week, Administration Review, Transactional Transformational, Public Administration, Management Report, Statement Grundstein-Amado, ethical behavior, codes ethics, secondary source, 2002 august, fred luthans, 2002 july, public administration, values statement, relevant current, article relevant, leaders educated ethics, et al 2002, mahoney noonan 1999, implementation codes ethics, formulation implementation codes,
Approximate Word count = 2860
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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