Unit 8 Building an Effective Ethical Group - Developing Leadership for Sustainable Business

Overview

In this unit, we reflect on how to build an Effective Ethical Group. A group’s success or failure is highly dependent on the behaviors of its individual members. The job of the leader is to foster ethical accountability, to encourage followers to live up to their moral responsibilities to the rest of the group. A critical moral duty of group members is to pursue shared goals–to cooperate. Creating a cooperative climate is also difficult when group members fail to do their fair share of the work.

Learning Outcomes

When you have completed this unit, you should be able to:

  • Describe how sustainable development represents an excellent values-based framework for viewing the world.
  • Identifying risks and opportunities of using a values-based framework for improving decision making.
  • Determine how to make the most of the small-group advantage,
  • Describe some strategies leaders can use to foster individual ethical accountability among group members.
  • Identify some approaches leaders can implement to ensure ethical group interaction, avoid moral pitfalls, and establish ethical relationships with other teams.

Topics

This unit is divided into the following topics:

  1. The Leader and the Small Group
  2. Fostering Individual Ethical Accountability
  3. Promoting Ethical Group Interaction
  4. Avoiding Moral Pitfalls

Activity Checklist

Here is a checklist of learning activities you will benefit from in completing this unit. You may find it useful for planning your work:

Learning Activities

  • Read & Reflect: Read Chapter 9 from your Meeting the Ethical Challenge of Leadership text.
  • Read & Reflect: Read Chapter 15 from your Responsible Leadership text.
  • Read & Reflect: This reading from The Journal of Business and Professional Communication looks at the importance of communication within an organization.
  • Read & Reflect: This article from The Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies discusses the importance of modelling ethical accountability.
  • Read & Reflect: Read this article from The Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies where narcissism, and its impact on an organization, is discussed.
  • Watch & Reflect: Here, we watch a video that discusses how a leader can promote ethical group interactions.
  • Watch & Reflect: This Learning Activity presents two videos - both of which present a more philosophical, global perspective about the importance of content from Unit 8.
  • Learning Lab: This Learning Lab will, once again, focus on a Case Study. After reading the Case-Study, you will share your thoughts with the rest of the group. Please take a look at the guiding questions prior to arriving.

Assessment

  • Discussion Forum Post: Unit 8 will also ask student’s to submit a post on the Discussion Forum. For more information, select the Assessment tab for this unit.

Resources

Here are the resources you will need to complete this unit.

  • Johnson, C. E. (2021). Meeting the Ethical Challenge of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow. 7th Ed, Sage Publication Inc. - ISBN: 9781544351643 (alk. paper)
  • Maak, T.& Pless, N. M. (2006). Responsible Leadership. Routledge. - ISBN: 978-0-415-35581-0
  • Other online resources will be provided in the unit.

8.1 The Leader and the Small Group

We begin Unit 8 by highlighting an important point: it is teams, not individuals, who typically make the most important organizational decisions. This is an important distinction to make as many people believe that it is the leader’s “job” to make the decisions for the organization - as a result, leader’s will often misdirect their focus and emphasize the end result of their decision. By recognizing the importance, and role, of small group’s tasked with making organizational decisions, leader’s can shift their focus and give attention to the task of guiding (leading) the small group through the collective process of making positive decisions for the organization.

Group Size

The ideal characteristics according to (Nahavandi & Aristigueta, 2015) is to determine the size and composition of a group or team is one of the first decisions managers make when forming a group. While there is no ideal group size, groups larger than either to twelve members are less likely to function smoothly. Generally, teams that have homogeneous membership, meaning members who are similar to one another in a number of different ways, are able to get along better.

The video below explains more:

Learning Activity - Read and Reflect

We begin with our first reading from our Meeting the Ethical Challenge of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow text. Read Chapter 9 and think about how it connects to some of the concepts and examples discussed in the video above.

Learning Activity - Read and Reflect

Take a moment to read through Chapter 15 in your Responsible Leadership text. Again, as you read through this chapter, try to think of experiences in your own life and how this content relates to our study in Unit 6.

8.2 Fostering Individual Ethical Accountability

In the last section, we introduced the idea that a primary function of a leader, within an organization, is to guide the decision-making process of a small group. As you might imagine, a group’s success or failure is highly dependent on the behaviours of each individual within the group. This, in turn, means that a responsibility of a leader is to encourage ethical accountability and ensure that individual’s are living up to their responsibilities to the rest of the group. In the video, for this unit, we will explore ways leader’s can facilitate this level accountability.

Social Loafing

In their capacity as a leader of a decision-making group, one of the challenges leader’s must be alert to is the tendency for some individuals to reduce their efforts when placed in group. Social psychologists describe this as social loafing.

Explanations for Social Loafing

When people work in a group, they may feel that their efforts will have little impact on the final result. Karau and Williams believe that “individuals will be willing to exert effort on a collective task only to the degree that they expect their efforts to be instrumental in obtaining outcomes that they value personally. The motivation in this theory relies on expectancy, instrumentality, and valence.

The video for this topic will examine these issues in greater detail:

Learning Activity - Read and Reflect

Above, we introduced the idea of social loafing and why it is a challenge for leaders. This article from The Journal of Business and Professional Communication looks at the importance of communication and cohesion in order to reduce social loafing within groups. Click on the link:

Learning Activity - Read and Reflect

As a leader fostering individual ethical accountability, it is incredibly important that it is also modeled for the member’s of the group. In this article from The Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, you are presented with research highlighting the perils of deception. Read more:

8.3 Promoting Ethical Group Interaction

Building upon the last two section, a central focus of leaders should be establishing, and supporting, productive communication patterns. By focusing on ethical communication skills, and cultivating positive bonds among group member’s, a leader encourages productive communication patterns that allows group member’s to make wise, ethical decisions.

In the video below, you will be introduced to some strategies that can be incorporated to create the conditions necessary for ethical group interactions. In particular, it is necessary to reflect on the positive role conflict, and dissent, play when engaging in ethical decision-making. As you watch, think about your own experiences and how you, as a leader, might incorporate this into your own practice.

Learning Activity - Read and Reflect

Chances are, in your experience, you have interacted with someone in a position of leadership who has behaved narcissistically. Think about this experience - did this trait promote ethical group interactions? Was it productive? How did group member’s respond? In the article below from The Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, research is presented on the affect this behavior has on organizations. As you read, consider the implications this has on your own practice:

Learning Activity - Watch and Reflect

As we discuss the promotion of ethical group interactions, it is important to continue expanding our capacity to model these qualities in our own practice. The video below discusses the importance of considering how we promote this behaviour in our organizations. Take a look:

Watch: Sustainable business: It’s not just about the why | Jeremy Moon | TEDxScottBase

8.4 Avoiding Moral Pitfalls

Finally, we begin our study of some of the moral pitfalls that are common to group decision-making. By highlighting these challenges, leader’s can develop a sense of awareness and take corrective action when these pitfalls are identified.

One of the major challenges a leader will face is avoiding groupthink. In the video below, we will define groupthink and develop a sense why it is a moral pitfall that needs to be avoided. The video will also look at preventative strategies a leader can (and should) incorporate to ensure these situations are avoided altogether. Take a look:

Learning Activity - Watch and Reflect

As we approach the end of this unit, we attempt to pull our studies together. The following videos present opportunities for a more philosophical reflection of why the content of Unit 8 is important from a more global perspective. Hopefully these videos provide some ideas for your consideration as you think about how you will implement these conditions into your own practice.

Watch: Why sustainability is central to business education | Tiiram Sunderland | TEDxLondonBusinessSchool

Sustainable Business | Frank Wijen | TEDxErasmusUniversityRotterdam

Learning Activity - Case Study

The focus of our Learning Lab for this unit will be a Case Study that we will discuss as a group. Prior to arriving for this week’s Learning Lab, you are expected to read the following case-study:

During the Learning Lab, your Facilitator will be leading a discussion that investigates that following questions:

  1. Can you think of other well-publicized examples of successful collaboration that produced extraordinary results?
  2. Have you been on teams that succeeded because of a high degree of cooperation? What factors encouraged group members to work together?
  3. Why do you think the parents waited to be reunited with their children until all of them had been rescued? Could you have made a similar decision if this involved your child or family member?
  4. What character virtues do you note in the rescuers, the Wild Boars, their coach, and their parents?
  5. What leadership ethics lessons can we take from the Thailand soccer club rescue?

Be sure to arrive ready to discuss the above!

Assessment

Discussion Forum

Formal assessment of the content discussed this unit will take place in the form of a Discussion Forum. For this assignment, you will be asked to draw upon your understanding of the content from Unit 8, as well as any insights you gained during our Learning Lab for this unit.

Your Discussion Forum response will address the following:

Our Discussion Response for this Unit focuses on the content from Topic 3. Using the ideas discussed in video and Learning Activities, respond to the following question:

Describe what it means for a group to engage in productive conflict and why this type of conflict is essential to a group’s ethical performance.

Your response should include direct references and connections to the readings, notes, videos, discussions provided throughout the unit. The rubric below provides more information.

Grading Rubric - Click to expand
Exceeds expectations Meets Expectations Minimally Meets Expectations Does Not Meet Expectations
Addresses the questions or problems that are posed in an insightful manner Addresses the questions or problems that are posed Addresses some the questions or problems that are posed Does not address the questions or problems that are posed
Clear, precise and well-reasoned responses Mostly clear, precise and well-reasoned responses Some clear, precise and well-reasoned responses Responses lack clarity, logic and/or precision
Demonstrates independent thought, insight, and creativity (applies course concepts, raises questions, recognises competing perspectives, and evaluates implications) Demonstrates some independent thought, insight, and creativity Demonstrates a minimal amount of independent thought, insight, and creativity. Response lacks independent thought, insight, and creativity
Spelling and grammar are accurate. Minor and/or few spelling or grammatical errors. Several spelling or grammatical errors.

To submit your response, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on the “Unit 8 - Discussion Forum” dropbox.

Checking for Learning

Before moving on to the next unit, be sure you are able to:

  • Describe how sustainable development represents an excellent values-based framework for viewing the world.
  • Identifying risks and opportunities of using a values-based framework for improving decision making.
  • Determine how to make the most of the small-group advantage.
  • Describe some strategies leaders can use to foster individual ethical accountability among group members.
  • Identify some approaches leaders can implement to ensure ethical group interaction, avoid moral pitfalls, and establish ethical relationships with other teams.