Transactional and transformational leadership styles influence the ways in which executives interact with subordinates. The views of three influential leadership analysts--Warren Bennis, Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jay Alden Conger--are considered in terms of the strategies they recommend for leaders. The ethical framework of organizations, including the various relationships that companies have, is then examined as is the development and importance of a values statement and evaluation of different rewards systems. Finally, the research considers ways in which leaders are educated about ethics, and ways that this education might be modified to produce improved ethical behavior in a corporate setting.
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 at the corporate level are also considered.
During the twentieth century, two primary approaches to leadership were developed: transactional and transformational. Transactional leadership suggests that leaders respond to lower level subordinate basic and security needs. Leaders and subordinates are viewed as bargaining agents where relative power regulates an exchange process as benefits are issued and received. Transformational leadership incorporates transactional leadershi...