Leadership is often defined as the ability to influence people. An effective ethical leader guides an organization and its employees to accomplish organizational goals. In the same vein, an unethical leader can guide an organization and its employees to act unethically, harming both the organization and the stakeholders. Being a leader is an exploration, a reflection, and a test of your leadership values. Seeking understanding of how you resolve ethical dilemmas, taking inventory of where an ethical weakness may lie, and examining the traits of an ethical leader helps you define, shape, and apply an ethical decision-making framework, while also taking into consideration all stakeholders who may be affected by your decisions.
For this task, you will respond to an ethical situation as well as analyze the results of the Ethical Lens Inventory (ELI), which should be completed in the course. This task focuses on you as a leader by helping you to define, refine, and test your ethical boundaries through self-reflection and analysis.
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The similarity report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.
You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.
Tasks may not be submitted as cloud links, such as links to Google Docs, Google Slides, OneDrive, etc., unless specified in the task requirements. All other submissions must be file types that are uploaded and submitted as attachments (e.g., .docx, .pdf, .ppt).
Write an essay (suggested length of 6–8 pages) in which you do the following:
A. Select a nonfictional leader who you feel has exhibited exemplary ethical conduct and do the following:
1. Discuss two ethical traits your chosen leader has demonstrated.
2. Explain how your chosen leader has exhibited ethical conduct.
Note: The chosen leader can be someone you know personally or someone famous.
B. Compare the deontological and consequentialist perspectives and how each perspective would approach the dilemma from the scenario.
C. Identify and explain which level of cognitive moral development (i.e., preconventional, conventional, or postconventional) is represented in the scenario for each of the following questions:
• Which action would most likely serve the greater good in society?
• If I reveal this information, will I get into trouble and possibly even lose my job?
• Which action best aligns with my long-held belief in the principle of justice?
• What do the laws say, and what would a law-abiding citizen do?
• If I keep quiet, will I get some sort of reward?
D. Reflect on your Ethical Lens Inventory (ELI) by doing the following:
1. Explain your preferred ethical lens, relevant to the ELI.
a. Analyze whether you have the same preferred lens in different settings (e.g., work, personal, social).
2. Explain one of your primary values and one classical virtue from the ELI.
Note: If you are a Center Perspective, choose any primary value.
a. Compare your primary value from part D2 with one of your own self-identified or personal values. Then compare your classical virtue from part D2 with a different self-identified or personal value.
Note: Examples of personal values can be found in the attached “Clarifying Your Values” chart.
3. Describe one of the following from your ELI:
• blind spot
• risk
• double standard
• vice
a. Discuss two steps you can take to mitigate the blind spot, risk, double standard, or vice described in part D3 in order to make better ethical decisions in the future.
4. Discuss how the information from your ELI could be applied to an ethical situation in the workplace.
E. Submit a copy of the PDF file with the results from your ELI as a separate document.
F. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
G. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.