Cultural Dimensions of Leadership
February 12, 2025
In the previous article, we have already seen what reinsurance brokers are and why they are so important to the reinsurance market. There are a large number of reinsurer companies that only deal with reinsurance brokers. These companies do not provide any direct service to their clients. The number of reinsurance brokers is increasing day […]
In 2017, Forbes magazine named #MeToo movement as the “person of the year.” This is because the #MeToo movement has shaken the corporate world to its very core. It is a sad fact that sexual harassment still remains a reality in the workplace. For instance, it is estimated that at least one in three women […]
Conflict of interest scenarios are common in businesses where multiple parties are involved. In many cases, these conflicts are small and harmless. However, when it comes to insurance, some of these conflicts turn out to be serious. In this article, we will have a look at the various situations in which the different participants related […]
Team Building and Experiential Learning In order to be effective, team building strategies must focus on building cohesion, unity, discipline, reliability, and above all, the need to maintain clear channels of communication and to establish the chain of command in the hierarchy. To start with, team building strategies have to focus on building cohesion within […]
Corporate dressing helps an individual to dress formally according to his/her work culture. Dressing sensibly not only helps an individual to earn respect and appreciation but also makes him/her a source of inspiration for others. An individual who is dressed correctly finds acceptance everywhere and he does not have to try too hard to impress […]
It is often the practice in organizations that whenever new recruits are being on-boarded, they are required to attend sessions on ethics and values. These sessions cover the need for ethical and transparent behavior by the employees and usually, someone from the compliance team or the senior management addresses them to impress upon them the ethical imperative and the importance of values.
However, when we considers the situation that has manifested itself in the recent past with several top management and business leaders being implicated in scandals, we wonder what the new recruits are being told in these sessions.
When the senior management themselves are implicated in wrongdoing, it becomes difficult to preach to the middle and entry-level employees about following ethical standards and practicing values.
In other words, when senior leadership does not practice what they preach, the ensuing hypocritical situation resembles chaos and confusion in the organizations.
Indeed, the ethical imperative must come from the top and the values must be inculcated by the senior management through personal example of honesty and transparency.
The point here is that when business leaders themselves become implicated in unethical practices, we can only speculate what would happen to those lower down the hierarchy who see no point in being ethical or transparent and practice values.
The examples of companies like Apple, Google, and Infosys are illustrative of how the senior management ought to lead by example. In all these companies, the founders of the companies ensured that they were setting high standards of ethical behavior for the other employees to follow.
As the tagline of Google, Do No Evil, and that of Infosys, Powered by Intellect and Driven by Values, shows, the founders in these companies set the benchmark for ethical behavior and hence, these companies are often cited as examples of how ethics and values can be actualized in the practice of organizational behavior. Of course, another matter once the management changes in many companies, it becomes difficult for those who succeed them to emulate or follow their examples and this is an example of how ethics and values must be part of the organizational DNA and not limited to individuals.
The point here is that the senior leadership must first raise the bar for ethical and value based behavior and then ensure that the organizational structures and processes are established where any deviation from the norm is dealt with strictly.
In other words, the ethics and values must be institutionalized so that they become part of the organizational culture and are not person dependent. After all, no individual is bigger than the organization and hence, the objective must be to establish leaders at all levels of the hierarchy who act as benchmarks for ethical and value based behavior.
Returning to the main theme of the article that is what happens when the senior leadership becomes unethical. In that case, the organization loses its mojo or the motivation and the sense of purpose and as we have seen in the case of Enron in the US, Satyam Computers in India, and other companies in Asia, they either are wound up or become part of another company so that at least the organization in some basic form survives.
Indeed, this is a sad state of affairs where the organization suffers because of the senior management and this situation must be avoided at all costs. Hence, the need for top management to institute and inculcate ethical and value based behavior becomes that much more important.
Finally, though ethics and values depend to a large extent on the personality of the individual, the fact remains that organizational structures can help in fostering a sense of purpose and ethical attitudes.
The key theme here is that when ethical behavior is rewarded and incentives exist for the same and when unethical behavior is punished and the organizational culture has zero tolerance towards the same, it is possible for organizations to follow lofty ideals.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *