What are some examples of ethical and unethical leadership? Can you think of any that are related to health care?
What can be done to increase ethical behavior and decrease unethical behavior?
Ethical leadership are the influential role models in organizations who shape attitudes and behaviors by demonstrating appropriate conduct in their own actions and interactions with others and by promoting ethical conduct by communication, reinforcement, and decision making (Neubert, Wu and Roberts 2013).Generally, ethical leadership is very important in the organization which provides benefit with the positive effects and positive relationship for both, the individual and organization. Examples of ethical leadership are providing a model ethical behavior to the community in the organization, building trust, creditability and respect both for individual and for the organization which leads to collaboration, good team-work and high morale within the organization (Community Box, 2010).
In opposite, some organizations prefer to use “Unethical leadership” which is defined as the behaviors conducted and decisions made by organizational leaders that are illegal or violate moral standards, and those that impose processes and structures that promote unethical conduct by followers. This leadership style is motivated by greed and involves harming others to make profit. However, unethical leadership style can benefit in seeking the accomplishment of organizational goals so that leaders can encourage corrupt and unethical acts within their organization (Thornton L, 2012).
Examples of unethical leadership are Abusive supervision: Subordinates’ perceptions of the extent to which supervisors engage in the sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors, excluding physical contact (Tepper, 2000). Supervisor undermining: Supervisory behavior that is intended to hinder, over time, the ability of subordinates to establish and maintain positive interpersonal relationships, work-related success, and favorable reputations (Greenbaum, Mawritz and Piccolo, 2012).Toxic leadership: Leadership approach that harms peoples and even the company as well through the poisoning of enthusiasm, creativity, autonomy and innovative expression by over-control (Wilson-Starks, 2003). These terms of leadership styles are oppressive, abusive, manipulative, and calculatingly undermining and in my opinion harmful.
One example related to health care in my experience as a nurse was the following: When I worked as a Psychiatric Nurse, the charge nurse of the unit is responsible for the assignment of patient to nurse ratio within a shift, for example if there are 8 nurses and 42 patients the nurse to patient ratio is 5 patients to one nurse, however, since there are 2 extra patients, one or two nurses must go 6:1. Some nurses who have worked on the unit for many years would actually arrive to work at 600am, one hour before their shift to check the board and protest verbally that they will only accept a 5:1 and to delegate the 6:1 to a nurse who is rotating or an agency nurse. In many cases, the charge nurse and the floor nurses have an understanding being not only co-workers, but they personally know each other or their working relationship may not be strictly professional therefore favoring the individual in question. So the ethical question is who should accept the extra patient although all nurses within the unit are protesting they will only accept 5:1? The issue is referred to the Nurse Manager and then referred back to the charge nurse because daily assignments are delegated by the (Charge Nurse) CN. When I was faced with this issue as a charge nurse, my interpretation as a leader in solving this ethical and/or unethical event always led to one conclusion I would think to myself, “You can’t make