Principle-centred Power
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Ethical leaders utilize abilities to impact the group in accomplishing various authoritative targets. However, there could exist situations that may influence the quality and type of leadership offered in an organization. When a leader’s status is threatened by current or potential motivated behavior, the individual tends to offer ethical leadership towards the subordinates (Zhang et al., 2020). Leaders who depend on the subordinate for status-relevant resources like loyalty, performance, and trust tend to exercise ethical leadership characteristics. The leader’s characteristic is modified to soothe the subordinates for continuity of their loyalty, trust, and performance. In such a scenario, the leader is likely to exercise the utility power.
On the other hand, if a leader has alternative options to status threats, their dependence on subordinates weakens (Zhang et al., 2020). Therefore, the study suggests that the situation or circumstance could influence an organization’s ethical leadership. Factors like status threats and dependence greatly influence and impact the type of leadership exercised in an organization. Predicting the type of leadership becomes simple, considering the existence of the influencing factors in an organization.
Unethical leaders often focus on what will benefit their wants, thereby acting selfishly in most cases. Such leadership traits create coercive power where employees are forced to work as per their leader’s demands, like the mentioned example of forcing employees to cover up losses and liabilities of the company through manipulation creates a psychological and emotional burden on the employees (Covey, 2020). The working environment becomes unfriendly since the employees will end up with harmful behavior like suspicion, deceit, dissolution, and dishonesty, which is harmful to the organization or business.
Coercive power with unethical leadership could positively impact an organization since the employees will be forced to work on achieving the aims and goals of the business. The leader’s demands in meeting the targets of the organization would be strictly adhered to (Landa et al., 2017). They are thereby bringing good results and a simultaneous benefit to the parties involved in the business.
Reference
Covey, S. R., & Covey, S. (2020). The seven habits of highly effective people. Simon & Schuster.
Landa, D., & Tyson, S. A. (2017). Coercive leadership. American Journal of Political Science, 61(3), 559-574.
Zhang, G., Zhong, J., & Ozer, M. (2020). Status threat and ethical leadership: A power-dependence perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 161(3), 665-685.