Critically read – “The Bathesheba Syndrome: The Ethical Failure of Successful Leaders” and “The
Toxic Triangle in Academic (2019).
(a) Critically discuss with examples from the journal, the principles of ethical leadership.
Ethics can be said to be an attitude, a cultural orientation, an ambition and a model. In simple
definitive terms, ethics is character and conduct. It governs the grim space between what is
legal and what is illegal. The single way to guarantee ethical conduct is to found ethical
principles as a fundamental part of individual and professional culture.
Ethical leadership can be stratified into 5 viewpoints; these includes; Honesty, Justice, Respect,
Service to others and Builds Community/Society. These 5 key perspectives are discussed
below; all examples sited are from “The Bathesheba Syndrome: The Ethical Failure of
Successful leaders” journal.
Exhibits honesty: to be good, means one must be truthful and honest. To be a good leader, one
must be honest. Dishonesty (misrepresentation of reality and lying) gives us a clearer and
important reasons as to why leaders ought to be honest. Dishonesty breeds distrust and which
could also lead to diminish of respect for the dishonest leader. Honesty as an ethical principle
of leadership can be related to the story of the prominent CEO of southern savings and loans
in “The Bathesheba Syndrome: The Ethical Failure of Successful leaders” journal. This CEO
was recognized to be ethical and a man of integrity but he fell prey to a conspiracy to defraud
the company due to deceit and dishonesty on his part.
Respect for Others: It is always refreshing to treat others with respect, to do this means to
always handle others as ends to one’s self and not as a means to end. Leaders who respect
others also allow them to be themselves, with creative wants and desires. Again, the case of
the CEO of the savings and loans company could be sited as a good example; he lost his grip
and conspired with others to defraud the organization which he runs.
Service to Others: The instance of the mayor of Midwestern city is a perfect example of a
leader who serves others. It tells of a leader who was “humble, fought for minority rights and
a model for minority aspirations”. An ethical leader should have the interest of others at heart
and always in mind.
Ethical Leaders are Just: A leader who is justice is also well disciplined. This concerns of
fairness and justice. Treating everyone equally and justly is the hallmark of a just leader. When
some people within an organization are treated differently, the reasons for that special treatment
should be clearly embolden and rationale and based on moral values.
Lastly, ethical leaders are community builders: Let us take a look at the example of the
religious leader who was said to be a flagrant leader who help the poor in the community and
also aided people to deal with addiction. This is a clear case of a community builder. One who
help the people in the society to grow and develop the community at large.
Finally, in a perfect world, we would commit ourselves to live ethically since doing the right
thing is the right thing to do. “We don’t need to be pious, we need to be smart, if we are smart,
we will recognize that acting ethically is in our own best interest” (Rabbi Yisroel Meir Kagan).
(b) From the two broad domains (their conduct and their character) perspective, how would you
describe the ethics of the CEO of the prominent savings and loan company?
Conduct and Character are two general purviews of ethical theories where, the former has to
do with the repercussions of leader’s actions and those that reiterates the rules that governs
leaders’ actions whereas the later deals with the repercussions of a person’s actions determine
the goodness or badness of a particular behaviour. The CEO of the savings and loans
company by character was an ethically honest leader but by conduct, he was a dishonest. The
consequence of his character made people recognized him as an astute, clean and honest
person. On the other hand, the consequence of his conduct which involved the conspiracy to
defraud destroyed his reputation and integrity.
The two (conduct and character) must always be parallel in its actions. This is because, a
leader’s character informs his/her choices and hence the conduct.
(c) Using the idea of “the dark side of leadership” in relation to the journal, would you say
David was engaging in political behaviour?
Political behaviour as explained by Martin and Fellenx (2010), are behaviours that fall outside
the conventional norms and practices of a particular setting, aimed at furthering the position of
a person or group/team at the detriment of others.
Success always come with reward, being personal or organizational and that is why we all
working hard to be successful. Success leads to increasing levels of power, influence and
others. Ideally, rewards from success should be positive. In the instance of King David, his
success filled his sense of ego which exposed him to an extreme show of negative emotions.
He felt he had seen and done it all and hence he could do and have whatever he desires. He
believed in his own abilities. He had privileged access and for that matter lost his sense of
ethics. King David’s case could not only be termed as a political behaviour but also an ethical
failure since his actions and decisions displayed a large sense of personal interest, loss of
integrity, moral and norms. His doings led to a lot of troubles and tribulations for him and his
kingdom.
(d) What does this reading tell us about the leadership and organisational behaviour?
Leadership is the process where an individual member of a group/team influences the
interpretation of events, the choice of objectives and organization of work schedules.
Organsitional behaviour is concerned with the systematic study of formal organisations, the
behaviour of people within the organization.
According to the story, The Bathesheba Syndrome: The Ethical Failure of Successful leaders;
a great deal of knowledge is acquired from the story and cases or examples mentioned in the
journal.
Every individual or group or organization’s main goal is to succeed at whatever they do.
Success always come with reward in one way or the other. It is for this reward that everyone
is striving to be successful. The story in the journal highlights that being successful alone is
not enough but how one manages the him/herself or the organization after success has been
chalked is what matters the most. This is what the story labels as the “dark side of success”.
The story teaches that, in an organization, when leaders become successful they gain expansive
privilege to information and more control of resources among others. These if not managed
ethically well, could lead to inflated belief in personal ability and loss of strategic focus. As
such, the journal implores all leaders to be ethically discipline especially when they achieve
their target. It emphatically suggests that many manager or leaders are poorly prepared to
handle success when it comes their way and for that matter the preparation of ethical principles
in organisations should give attention to that aspect in our organisations.