Contemporary ethical challenges and Leadership Essay

Contemporary ethical challenges and Leadership - Essay Example Things which people perceived as wrong in the past are now viewed as tolerable and acceptable. This change in the way people think has brought about numerous challenges which leaders have to face. Moral behaviour was initially judged on the basis of religious teachings. Irrespective of which religion an individual belonged to, the human life was focused on the religious teachings. However with the passage of time, the human focus has shifted from religion. With secular societies and nations being on the rise, religion is not viewed as the fundamental basis of how one should act. Consequently, the error theory and the meta-ethics have developed over time. In the present times, age old principles are not used as the basis of governing a situation. Be it an issue in economy or a problem faced in the business, people consider the present situation and weigh their pros and cons before terming an action as either ethical or unethical. It is believed that times have changed so immensely, th at the age old principles do not apply any longer to the issues faced by the people today (Mackie, 110). In a world, where people often do not abide by the rules of religion, it is very important for national leaders to be ethical. Similarly it is very important for business leaders and the executive managers to be ethical. Businesses are run on the basis of trust and ethics. An increasing number of business schools now teach philosophy and ethics as a part of their curriculum so as to avoid their graduates from following prey to scandals and breach of ethics in the real world (Fulmer, 308). The ethics of leadership have been analyzed time and again using the disciplines of science and humanities. While scientific scholars aim at providing people with descriptions and explanations, the humanities scholars deliver an understanding of the topic (Ciulla, 304). Every leader has to face his personal set of ethical challenges. These challenges may differ from one leader to another. In the case of national leaders, there are situations where their moral luck is to be blamed. Certain leaders are not unethical, but the situations that they have to face might lead them to make certain decisions which may look immoral. The decisions which leaders have to make on a daily basis are very sensitive and risky. At times they do not have complete information or may lack the time to gather the required information. When it comes to national decisions, leaders may often have to opt for a strategy which will cause the least amount of damage, but will cause damage nonetheless. Kant’s argument holds true in these situations. The argument was that since humans cannot guarantee the results of their actions, the judgments should be based on the right principles which a certain individual follows and not on the outcome (Ciulla, 309). The business scenario today is changing almost too rapidly. In such situations leaders have to be constantly on their toes, in order to keep themsel ves updated and be a step ahead of their competitors. Every business leader has numerous stakeholders to think about when making a decision. Every single decision made by the CEO of a company affects either the employees, vendors, consumers and shareholders or in certain cases all of them. Numerous companies today operate globally. They are not owned by a single person or family, but are publically owned companies. Multinationals like Unilever and Johnson & Johnson are