To Joy, I am really teaching fish to swim.
I agree with the above-stated opinion to the extent that high ethical standard is necessary to the effectiveness of leadership. But I don't think the highest ethical standards necessarily result in the most effective leadership.
Reasons:
1. Admittedly, high ethical standards are essential to effective leadership.
For example, business leaders with high ethic standarda are more likely to win trust and respect from employees and customers, promoting the morale and bringing in more revenues.
On the contrary, business leaders showing low ethic standards can have negative impact on the development of business, rendering their leadership ineffective or even illegal.
For example, Enron's fraud in financial statement is an example at point. The top leader of Enron are treated as
criminals responsible for this grave corporate scandle.
2. However, we shall naively think that the highest ethic standards automatically bring in the most effective leadership.
First, high ethic standard are necessary to, but not sufficient to effective leadership, which entails many other factors, such as expertise, management skills etc.
Second, high ethic standards may sometimes conflict with the goal of the business.
For example, at a time, the development of a business may entails cut back in budget of employee's health care or other benefits , or even necessitates laying off of employees. In such a situation, not taking the necessary measures in order to remain the highest ethic standards may not prove the leadership effective.
[此贴子已经被作者于2003-3-15 23:41:55编辑过] | 
