Ethical leadership in the modern business market Essay

Ethical leadership in the modern business market - Essay Example Although seeking to understand each and every aspect of the way that ethics have shifted and changed in the years that make up the XXI century would require a thesis length response, this brief analysis will seek to understanding and briefly enumerate upon the key differentials that have come to exist within ethics of the XXI century as opposed to those that existed earlier. Furthermore, the analysis will give a particular level of discussion with regards to the means by which the recent global financial collapse was ultimately precipitated and aided by the complete disregard for ethical standards. Perhaps the most salient and important aspect of ethics that have changed within the XXI century is the level to which ethics have come to be differentiated upon the terms of both personal and systemic. If one briefly considers the way that a large company handled business back before the turn of the XXI century they would come to note that the company placed a high degree of emphasis on honesty of the employees and/or shareholders as a fundamental requirement that might be espoused (Brenkert, 2010). However, namely missing from such an ethical interpretation of company needs would be the reciprocal understanding that it was the sworn duty of the form to exhibit such a level of ethical responsibility with regards to both the employees as well as the end consumer. In this way, ethical considerations of the previous era were more focused on profitability and how the company may wish to safeguard its assets, inclusive of employees, while completely disregarding the ethical responsibilit ies that management/leadership espoused with relation to the rest of the system (Cuillla, 2011). This should of course not be understood to mean that all firms during this time were disrespectful to the ethical considerations that they must necessarily espouse to the customer or to the shareholder/employee. Rather, the level of emphasis, as it exists today was not to such a highly evolved, regulated, and legislated mandate that it has subsequently reached within the past several decades. Says the textbook that was used for this class, â€Å"An organization is concerned with regulating the behavior and performance of its employees to ensure safe, uniform, and effective conduct in the performance of duties† (McLachlan, 2009). This level of ethical understanding of as a function of profitability is perhaps the single most important reality that must be considered with regards to the global economic collapse 2007/2008. Rather than the shareholders of the situation paying particul ar attention to the ethical ramifications of their actions, profitability was ultimately championed as the greater good in each and every situation. Although it is oftentimes been convenient for individuals to point to the upper management of firms such as Lehman Brothers, the reality of the situation is that middle management as well as the line employees of such institutions bore as much ethical culpability as those at the top. Due to the fact that they were fully aware of the situation was taken place and did absolutely nothing to bring these concerns to light, these individuals are ethically and morally culpable as well. Although it is not the determination of this particular analysis to shed blame with regards to global financial collapse of 2007/2008, it must be understood that an ethical interpretation of the event demands that all parties be analyzed in an unbiased manner. This shared form of responsibility has become a fundamental hallmark of the ethics of the