Ethics Found In Work Teams

Staying with the topic of ethics it is hard not to notice the lack of ethical behavior or poor judgement shown in organizations regarding ethics. It seems to me the common thread with this behavior is power. Leaders get used to the power in making decisions, controlling groups, making contributions to the organization or micromanaging situations. Leaders go from being part of the team and organization to being the sole leader or managing their team. The thinking goes toward controlling the group, or possession. Sometimes having power people forget that they can serve a team as well.

This got me to thinking that maybe the way to improving ethical behavior is through the development of work teams. I hear departments call themselves teams all the time but I mean true teams. My thought process is that a true team, or self running team, still needs a leader but that role becomes supportive instead of managing or controlling. The leader can serve as a check and balance for the team to make sure it maintains an organizational direction. Leaders can serve the this type of team by developing, mentoring, and even counseling. Taking away some of the leaders power may help improve the current ethical climate.

Ethics in Leadership

Today I start a new semester of class, ethics, to be specific. I've taken this course maybe 5 years ago but I think I'll be anything but bored. First I hear wonderful things about the instructor so I'm curious how he'll present the material. The other thing is it seems business and leaders have struggled with the topic of ethics. We have endless examples over the past decade where organizations and leaders have displayed poor judgement in ethical behavior, and I'm probably being kind in my description.

Whether you speak of WorldCom, Enron, KMart, the Bernie Madoff scandal, or the current AIG mess the topic of ethics comes crashing into our worlds. How many times have we heard of people losing their life's savings in the past decade? Too many times. Hopefully leaders and organizations start practicing with higher ethical standards.

My wife recently heard this saying that ethics can be defined as how people behave while others aren't watching. I don't know the original source of that saying but I like it! It is so true and I bet my semester is filled with examples of how leaders should act and how they haven't acted while other people weren't looking.