BUS 560 Module 8 Ethical Leadership Example

Being Seen to Be Ethical: A Ninety-Day Ethical Leadership Plan for a New General Manager at a Georgia Carpet Mill

Student Name

MBA Program, Aspen University

BUS 560: Business Ethics

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Being Seen to Be Ethical: A Ninety-Day Ethical Leadership Plan for a New General Manager at a Georgia Carpet Mill

Three weeks ago I was promoted from plant engineer to general manager of a carpet mill in Dalton, Georgia, which is a composite for this paper. The mill employs 620 people across three shifts making tufted carpet for homebuilders and retailers. My predecessor resigned after an audit found that quality inspectors had recorded tests they never performed to keep shipments moving, and after employees complained that a shift supervisor mocked workers who reported injuries. Many employees now distrust management and assume nothing will change. This plan describes how I will lead ethically in my first ninety days and beyond.

What Ethical Leadership Is

Brown et al. (2005) described ethical leaders as people whose own behavior and relationships set the standard, and who then spread that standard through open conversation, the behavior they reward and the decisions they make. Drawing on social learning theory, they argued that employees learn what is expected by observing leaders who are attractive and credible role models, and by seeing what those leaders reward and punish. Ethical leadership, in this view, is not private virtue but public example.

Being Seen as Ethical

Treviño et al. (2000) found, in interviews with senior executives and ethics officers, that a reputation for ethical leadership rests on two pillars. Leaders must be seen as moral persons, honest, fair and caring in their own conduct, and as moral managers, who make ethics visible by talking about it, setting standards and rewarding and disciplining accordingly. Because most employees never observe a senior leader's private behavior, a leader who is ethical but silent may be seen as ethically neutral. At this mill, after recent events, silence would be read as more of the same.

Leading Through Supervisors

Mayer et al. (2009), studying 904 employees and their supervisors in 195 departments, found that top management's ethical leadership influenced employees' misconduct largely through the ethical leadership of their direct supervisors. Employees experience leadership mainly through the person who assigns their work. At this mill, that means the 24 shift supervisors and team leads matter more to daily ethics than anything I say in a meeting.

The First Ninety Days

Strengths and Gaps for This Role

My main asset is credibility with the floor: I worked as an engineer on every shift for six years, and employees know I fixed problems rather than blaming operators. I lack experience managing managers, and I have never had to discipline a supervisor who outranks me in years at the mill. The plan relies on our human resources manager and on a mentor, a retired plant manager from another mill, to help me with the people decisions that will test it.

Communicating the Standards

Words will matter less than actions, but they still matter. I will explain the standards in plain language on every shift, not through posters: inspectors record only tests they perform, injured workers are treated with respect, and anyone who raises a concern will be protected. I will repeat the same three points in every shift meeting for the first three months, so that no one can say they did not hear them.

The First Hard Case

In my second week, three employees reported that the supervisor previously accused of mocking injured workers had again ridiculed a worker who reported a sprained wrist. This supervisor runs the mill's most productive shift, and several managers urged me to handle it quietly. I asked our human resources manager to investigate promptly and fairly. The investigation confirmed the reports. I removed the supervisor from his role, offered him a non-supervisory position with a clear warning, and told all supervisors, without naming him, that a supervisor had been removed for ridiculing an injured worker. I expect this decision to be noticed more than anything I say, because employees watch closely how leaders treat valuable people who break standards.

Pressure on Quality Records

The falsified tests arose because inspectors felt pressure to keep shipments moving. I will tell production managers, in writing, that no shipment is worth a false record, and I will review the first three late shipments caused by honest testing with their managers to show that the company accepts the cost of doing it right.

Working With My Own Boss

Ethical leadership at the mill also depends on the company's regional vice president, who set the shipment targets that pressured inspectors. In my first month I will show him the cost of the falsified tests, including customer claims and the audit, and ask that quality holds be excluded from the shipment measures used to judge my performance. If leaders above the mill keep rewarding shipments at any cost, supervisors will notice the gap between what I say and what the company pays for.

Measures

I will measure the plan's effect through an anonymous survey at ninety days and every six months, asking whether employees believe they can report concerns safely and whether their supervisors act ethically; through the number of reports to the outside line, expecting an increase at first as trust grows; through quality audits comparing recorded tests with independent retests; and through injury reporting rates.

Conclusion

Research shows that ethical leadership works through visible example, through being both a moral person and a moral manager, and through supervisors who carry it to every shift. My plan concentrates on what employees will see me do in the first ninety days, on the supervisors who shape their daily work and on decisions, like the first hard case, that show whether standards apply to everyone.

References

Brown, M. E., Treviño, L. K., & Harrison, D. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97(2), 117-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.03.002

Mayer, D. M., Kuenzi, M., Greenbaum, R., Bardes, M., & Salvador, R. (2009). How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2008.04.002

Treviño, L. K., Hartman, L. P., & Brown, M. (2000). Moral person and moral manager: How executives develop a reputation for ethical leadership. California Management Review, 42(4), 128-142. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166057