Ethics in Public Leadership
Leadership in public service involves a social contract between the leader and citizens. Ethical leadership entails demonstrating appropriate conduct in decision-making, reinforcement, and communication (Yıldız et al., 2016). Wart (2011) asserts that ethical leadership must be concerned with good intent, proper means, and appropriate ends. Wart (2011) further, provides five ethics models which are based on leading with integrity and good character.
Wart’s Five Ethics Models
The first model involves the basic integrity model of the virtuous leader. Any person who deems themselves a leader must have a high degree of unquestionable integrity, consistent with their words, actions, principles, thoughts, and social setting. The attributes of this model include honesty, trustworthiness, courtesy, and fairness. Being truthful entails admitting one’s mistakes and not evading taxes (Wart, 2011). The tenets of trustworthiness are consistency with own principles, credibility, and trust. Ethical leaders must also be fair in how they treat their followers and taking time to listen to all sides. Such leaders also exhibit candor, astuteness, and conscientious follow-through.
Another model is the ethical leaders as moral manager, which emphasizes stating expected mores explicitly, clearly, and consistently enforcing them. Statutes provide workers with the delegation of authority, which requires leaders to avoid self-serving behavior and conflict of interest. The attributes of this model include moral management, which describes the functions of the leader to make the expectations of the organization as clear as possible (Yıldız et al., 2016). Further, duty approach or ethics training is a crucial aspect of moral leadership. The model exposes the weaknesses of the compliance approach in leadership, for example, poor implementation, problems of executive corruption, and focus on prohibition. Ethical leadership focuses on compliance and doing the right thing and doing things right (Wart, 2011).
The ethical leader as authentic, on the other hand, involves self-awareness for emotions, cognitions, and values. The attributes of the model include accountability, fairness, respect for others, credibility, and trustworthiness. Authenticity in leadership is attributed to controlling of ego drives and defensiveness to spur openness and genuine communication. Self-awareness and self-acceptance are crucial tenets of ethical leadership, which help leaders improve their transparency. This model stresses the positive aspects of leadership and enhancement of moral awareness and the emotional health of followers.
The ethical leader as spiritual mentor to followers, clients, and constituents model is based on the premises that the leader must serve the followers. The attributes of this model include moral development, which include obedience and punishment, self-interest, and conformity. The need for leader humility is a crucial aspect highlighted in this model advocating altruistic love and values. It also entails putting the needs of the constituents first, as well as, emotional labor in showing compassion, empathy, and sensitivity.
The ethical leader as a transforming agent of change for the common good, which involves transformational leadership ideals and desire to do good. Such leaders understand the need for change coming from the people creating transformational change to society. This model’s attributes include balancing personal needs for success and fame with the good of the community (Wart, 2011). Leadership adaptive model is also a critical feature of ethical leadership which emphasizes hard work in consensus building when dealing with complex problems.
The Spiritual-Servant Leader in Public Service
In public service, a spiritual-servant leader is an individual who serves first then leads. It involves leading by integrating one’s spiritual beliefs into their personal and professional motives. It also entails using specific virtues as a leader when values compete (Shakeel et al., 2018). A spiritual-servant leader is concerned about the welfare of other, concern for their community, righteousness, and concern for one’s environment. An example of a spiritual-servant leader is the Dalai Lama, whose teaching are based on selflessly serving others. This kind of leadership proposes a positive relationship between one’s spiritual practices and their servant leadership behaviors, spiritual beliefs, ad their effectiveness in the eyes of their followers. It involves adding faith and hope in leadership leading to servant leadership behaviors, such as caring for, listening to, treating others fairly, respecting, and submission to followers.
The important aspect of spiritual-servant leadership is formation of behaviors and values based on service to a higher purpose or God. A spiritual-servant leader engages in prayer, meditation, and reading scripture to improve their effectiveness. It is also about taking time for self-reflection and communication with God for direction through prayer and journaling. As such, higher spiritual practice levels among leaders lead to higher leader motivation, improvement in leader resilience, stronger leader-follower relationship, and increased leadership effectiveness. Spiritual-servant leadership, further, involves religiousness, interconnectedness, sense of wholeness, and clarity of purpose, which inspire followers’ trust as they perceive that the leader is concerned about them (Sendjaya, & Pekerti, 2010).
However, the spiritual-servant leader must deal with workplace spirituality, where a distinction exists between religiosity and encouraging transcendence of metaphysical purpose and selfishness. The leader will also be caught up between following the spiritual path and personal principles and looking out for the interests of their political bosses. Additionally, the spiritual-servant leader faces the challenge of the concept of normal organization functions and procedures. The leader must deal with the religious and secular in non-offensive ways or endorsing inconsistent social goals that do not align with the public sector mission. The leader may face resistance from workers who do not subscribe to their spiritual notions, further complicating the leadership process (Yukl, 2010).
Are Ethical Codes Enough for the Christian Leader?
Ethical codes are not enough for the Christian leader since the Word of God and wisdom must guide them to provide leadership, especially to people from diverse backgrounds. This indicates that they must serve all people equally without fear or favor and without looking at their differences. They must be slow to anger and quick to make informed choices. They must also show understanding of professional and personal challenge involved in leading people with divergent opinions (Yasir, & Mohamad, 2016). Ethical codes provide direction when a leader faces a dilemma in a situation according to professional conduct and personal behaviors. However, for Christian leaders, they must act according to the word of God and do as Jesus would have done without looking at the ethical dilemma. In addition to following the codes of conduct, Christian leaders must also adhere to the rule of law. Christian leaders are known by their fruit and the decisions they make and execute.
Do Christian Leaders Have a Higher Biblical Moral Obligation?
One would argue that Christians have a higher biblical moral obligation to love their neighbors as they love themselves, which translates into ethical leadership devoid of corruption. Following the teachings of Christ leads to servant leadership since spirituality moves an individual to greater depths of perfection (Gill, 2020). Further, spirituality as taught in Christianity entails fellowship of Chris and living in Him. As such, ethical leadership emanates from spirituality and knowing God. According to Christianity, display of ethical leadership involves cultivating a personal spirituality, which leads to spiritual, emotional, and philosophical sustenance to ethical leadership. Christian leaders who do not subscribe to biblical ethics are more likely to surrender to situational pressures (Marquardt et al., 2018).
Biblical moral obligation of Christian leaders originates from the foundation set forth by Jesus Christ. The foundation entails dealing with ego and being conscious of one’s actions. servant leadership personifies what Christian leaders ought to look like (Gill, 2020). Jesus Christ commanded Christians that if they wanted to become great among people, they must be people’s servants, just like He came not to be served, but to offer His life as a ransom for many. Further, Christian leader must have the desire for learning and a teachable heart, as well as have faith in God’s plan.
Application of Biblical Passage to the Concept of Ethics in Leadership
The Bible stresses the idea of service to people when one is tasked with leadership roles. This is resonated in Matthew 20:27-28 where Jesus Christ instructs Christians that whoever seeks to be a leader must start by being a servant, and whoever wishes to be first among people must be a slave, following in His footsteps. This passage advocates for servant ethical leadership, which empowers one to serve and indicates that serving others motivates followers toward virtuous behavior. Further, Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Corinthians warns leaders against influencing followers by improper means or manipulate and control those who they lead (2 Corinthians 10:3). Paul asserts that leaders must exercise authority only for constructive aim. Paul uses the language of servanthood in his letters to Christians and leaders in different parts of Europe.
The passages from Apostle Paul and Matthew are crucial in leadership ethics since they emphasize looking to God’s word for direction on leadership. Servant leadership is all about leading people by walking personally with God and working together to help followers do the same (Gill, 2020). As such, Godly leaders are tasked with leading people and refraining from influencing them using improper means. This is true in public service where temptations for corrupt deals are rampant and civil servants face pressure from politicians to cater to their selfish wishes instead of serving the citizenry or taxpayer (Voegtlin, 2016). Further, Christian leaders are directed to lead in a godly example and by God’s teachings. This entails leading by example and be able to motivate followers using sound doctrine.
Matthew and Apostle Paul want Christian leaders to maintain a blameless conscience before their followers and God by leading in an ethical manner as people’s servants. The best way to do that is to walk in obedience to the Word of God. Justice and equity must show in every leader’s actions. A leader must show that they are incorruptible and their principles uncompromised by dissenting voices if they are following what is just in the eyes of the Lord (Crowther, 2018). However, holding firmly to biblical truth could lead to attacks. The spiritual-servant leader must rise above criticism and do what is right for his followers without influencing others by improper means just as Apostle Paul advises leaders.
Conclusion
This paper examines the five ethics models as provided by Wart (2011), which include the basic integrity model of the virtuous leader, the ethical leaders as moral manager, the ethical leader as authentic, the ethical leader as spiritual mentor to followers, clients, and constituents, the ethical leader as a transforming agent of change for the common good. It also analyzes ethical leadership with an emphasis on spiritual-servant leadership which encompasses aspects of servant leadership and spiritual beliefs and spiritual practices. It is by exercise of tact, justice, and love by prayer, sound wisdom, and spiritual power that spiritual-servant leaders can lead and serve in the civil service, which is often characterized by pressures from corrupt political leaders.
References
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