Ethics of the head: the basics of business communication, staff motivation and service relations

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

To understand what the managerial ethics of a leader is, you need to be able to clearly articulate what the essence of the work of such a person is. Leadership is a concept that includes organizing activities and coordinating the activities of hired personnel by one person or a group of people specializing in solving managerial issues.

What is it about?

The ethics of business communication "manager - subordinate" is due to various aspects of cooperation between such persons. The person entrusted with the control of the work process must form tactical features, the organization strategy of the firm, the policy of interaction with other employees. You need to be able to properly manage the work of each individual person, to contact with the employed. The manager's task is to calculate and formulate forecasts of the success of the introduction of some working form or method.

There are several approaches to solving the problems of a manager. Some prefer democratic style,others are more authoritarian. Another variant of the management process, which is distinguished by its peculiarities of the ethics of relations between a subordinate and a leader, is called liberal. The first and the last have many similarities, while the liberal is implemented through meetings where a decision is made that satisfies everyone. Democracy within a particular firm is an approach in which all staff work together to solve emerging work difficulties.

About terms and processes

To understand the ethics of a manager, you must first turn to the key terms. So, it is customary to call a labor post a status that implies a set of obligations, privileges inherent in a particular employed person. This includes the possibility of promotion in the career hierarchy. A person, receiving a new position, along with it acquires a status. The possibility of promotion is determined by the personal qualities of a person, the degree of responsibility and the level of professional skills received by education. Responsibility for managing employees and making decisions in favor of promotion of a particular person rests with the manager.

The relevance of the ethics of business communication of a leader is not only that the stability of the work process and the interest of employees in the performance of their tasks depend on the ethics of a person. In many ways, the manner and appearance of the management personnel determine the impression of the enterprise in general. Every leader must undergo special training, have an idea about mental processes, and apply such knowledge in practice. The task of management personnel is to quickly resolve conflicts, get out of any difficult situation as efficiently as possible and with little loss. A leader must be able to manage people.

Base and quality

The ethical foundation of management personnel is the moral foundations of a person, the level of responsibility, the ability to support the professional part. In many respects, the ethics of relations between a leader and a subordinate is determined by the ability of the first to relate himself to a certain professional group. The ethics inherent in the management team is manifested through an understanding of the tasks and goals facing the enterprise. The leader must understand the means of action. Its task is to observe the behavioral and relationship-related culture within the enterprise. His personal qualities should be correlated with the position received.

Speaking about the ethics of a leader, one must remember the moral qualities and psychological characteristics of a person applying for such a post. All leading personnel must show tolerance for the inherent weaknesses of subordinates. He must personally set an example for the audience, which becomes a priority for those who work. An important aspect is the mutual respect of the leading and subordinate personnel. Managing an enterprise, a person must adequately perceive criticism, support the initiative of various employees and set clear requirements for each production task. This extends to the time frame for the execution of the given. Among the important qualities of a leader is the ability to adequately assess how great the contribution of a particular person is.in the work of the firm in general.

Objectives and ethical overtones

The ethics of a leader is not just a set of rules, qualities that make a person better than others. This is primarily a tool that simplifies the achievement of success in solving the problems facing the management of the enterprise. Any manager is obliged to optimally divide obligations between subordinates. His field of activity is staff training, and, if necessary, retraining and advanced training. Ethical qualities and features simplify the organization of the workflow in terms of determining priority areas for the development of the enterprise.

Ethics of the leader is necessary to maintain the high authority of this person. To be respected, a person must possess significant qualities. These include the culture of communication, expressed through ethical standards. At the moment, the main norms are the ability to form a trusting relationship with colleagues as comrades, as well as a polite appeal to all subordinates. The task of the leader is to be precise, to be responsible for everything said and done, to be attentive, accessible to the audience. Democratic interaction with employed, all colleagues is currently considered one of the standards.

What to look out for?

The modern understanding of the ethics of the leader includes the accuracy of the person. Anyone in a leadership position must be organized. His job is to act and speak clearly. It is important to keep track of allbehavioral manners, reactions, so that every act, action, word were under detailed control. The external side must be in harmony with the moral convictions of the management personnel. If this state of affairs can be achieved, the norms of ethics will become a means of building an effective, productive dialogue with subordinates, which means that mutual relations will benefit the enterprise. As noted long ago, if the management personnel constantly interacts, communicates with the persons entrusted to him, they trust him more, and the authority of such an official is stronger. On average, according to analysts, a manager should spend up to 75% of his working time communicating with employees, including management above and below him.

Sociability

To comply with the ethics of the relationship between the leader and the subordinate, it is important that all participants in the communication are sufficiently sociable, but this is more relevant for the management team. Sociability is a personal characteristic that implies the simplicity of forming communication with other persons. A sociable person is not characterized by isolation in society, he is not characterized by isolation. The personal quality of sociability for a leader should be accompanied by a positive emotional plan for building a dialogue. A person who easily starts communication, business interactions with others, should evoke a positive response from the opposite side. Contact and sociability should not be confused: having the firstmentioned quality, a person can show the absence of a second. A person becomes a contact when circumstances force him to do so. The reason may be production conditions. At the same time, it is noticeable that the person communicates as needed.

The communication ethic of a leader does not allow for lack of sociability. This quality is opposed to that discussed in the previous paragraph. It is akin to being closed. The researchers organized experimental work to determine the requirements for the personality of the leader. It was revealed that many enterprises set unlawful requirements formulated in a general way.

In particular, many modern companies require senior staff to be highly sociable. At the same time, it was noted that only a sufficiently significant level of sociability is a guarantee of increased efficiency of the management process. Sometimes a high quality level of work is inherent in a low-communicative leader, but this is possible only in a situation where the specifics of the subordinate contingent require the manifestation of just such a personality trait.

Situations and norms

The work carried out to assess the difference in acceptable ethics of the head of the organization in different enterprises showed that the lowest level of sociability is required in a company whose staff works well together. For some of these firms, a low degree of sociability of the leader is an acceptable quality, for others it is desirable. Not too high organizational level and weak coherence of the staff force the leading person to besociable, show their organizational qualities and abilities. Only a low level of sociability is not a negative factor for the work of management personnel. There are cases when over-sociality was detrimental, since an excessive number of contacts distracted from the work process itself.

Research on the ethics of leader behavior and the influence of the level of sociability on the quality of solving managerial tasks was carried out with the involvement of a fairly large number of subjects. Brigades and production facilities, industrial territories - and all the personnel who manage them were studied. It was assumed that the growth of sociability should have a positive effect on the results of activities, psychological and social performance of managers. Based on the results, it was determined that the majority of managers have a moderate level of sociability.

Why is this important?

One cannot underestimate the importance of the ethics of the relationship between the manager and the staff. If a certain person lived on a secluded island in splendid isolation, for him the ethics of his actions would be relatively unimportant (with the exception of an ethical attitude towards the environment). When it comes to interaction in society, the correct attitude and etiquette towards colleagues is the key to successful and effective work. Ethics is a set of rules by which colleagues coexist effectively and comfortably within the workplace. The universal ethical rule, learned in childhood, forbids to behave withothers in a way that you would not like to feel in relation to yourself. If a person ignores ethical standards, she acquires a negative image that greatly affects life. A shape is formed, which is primary in assessing the personality by other people. If this may be relatively unimportant for line personnel working in lower positions in the hierarchical level, but the manager cannot afford such an oversight.

The business ethics of the leader helps a person to create a good reputation. If, due to any previous mistakes or failures, the reputation has suffered, following the etiquette will help stabilize the image in the eyes of the public and improve your position. According to many, ethics is one of the strongest tools for managing a team. Ethical norms, laws of coexistence - all this keeps the society in which we live in balance.

General rules

Speaking about the work ethics of a leader, it is necessary first of all to mention the importance of sincere conduct. For the person managing the team, lying is an absolute ban. Some believe that in specific situations it can be beneficial, but in fact the long-term consequences always outweigh it. According to psychologists, any person subconsciously feels that he is being deceived, although he does not speak out loud. However, this remains in the memory, and when obvious evidence of the falsity of what was said by the boss appears, the person finally loses confidence in the manager.

If for some reason the management team at the current time cannot opensubordinate to the truth, should remain silent. The work ethic of a manager allows such behavior in a number of situations. In any case, this looks more ethical and reasonable than a lie that will sooner or later be revealed and undermine the manager's reputation. On the other hand, telling the whole truth to the staff is also not worth it. Individual line workers do not have the whole picture available to the manager, so they will not be able to adequately assess the knowledge provided to them. The task of the manager is to correctly determine what information needs to be conveyed first, what to voice later, and what to keep silent.

Promises and deeds

Professional ethics of the leader allows for the distribution of promises to staff. But the neglect of their execution is strictly condemned and prohibited. If a person promises something to someone who is weaker than him, the fulfillment of the promised will be expected with a vengeance. Disappointed in the manager, the person to whom the promise was given will most likely lose faith in all the leaders of the enterprise, and this will violate discipline in the workplace. The more such people appear within the walls of one company, the more the work process and its results suffer. As many say, it is better not to say anything if it is assumed that promises will not be kept. And to talk about what, in principle, is not planned to be done, is completely unethical and wrong, it is not allowed by the codes of ethics.

Professional ethics of the leader does not allow the distribution of promises to staff in aspects that do not depend on the will and authority of this person. If athe process is determined (at least in a small percentage) by chance, there is a possibility of failure, which will undermine the position of the manager, the risk is considered unacceptable, therefore, such a provision is included in the ethical standards for the work of managerial personnel. If a person firmly promises to those who are subordinate and trust him the performance of some action, he must fulfill everything said, otherwise the speech will be regarded as a deliberate lie.

Fix everything

Not every person holding a managerial position understands the ethics of a leader and a subordinate. To make it easier to navigate this issue, the company usually introduces a code of ethics (EC), which regulates the main features of the mutual work and behavior of people. Using the provisions of such a document, any person can behave correctly, correctly. Compliance with the code allows you to eliminate important errors that can reduce the effectiveness of the enterprise as a whole.

The ethics of the leader and subordinate are based on corporate standards. These are considered the foundation for the formation of the reputation of the enterprise, they are repelled by positioning themselves in the market, they are guided by creating a brand. At the same time, the EC defines the principles, rules of work, and standards of conduct. It strengthens the image of the enterprise, makes managerial work more efficient, and simplifies the orientation of employees in difficult situations. The adoption of the code helps to reduce the dangers, the likelihood of violations, improves corporate culture and increases the overall performance of the company. With code you can doteam loyal.

Code Features

In the history of our world there are many examples of the application of ethical codes that regulated the work of managerial positions. As is known from history, one of the first documents devoted to this problem was created in the 24th year in America. It was dedicated to employees of local government structures and was revised at least five times. At present, codes governing the ethics of senior personnel usually include provisions related to financial interests. In particular, personal funds cannot conflict with service obligations, and income must be consistent with professional affiliation. Ethics involves doing only lawful actions, clearly guided by the provisions of federal and local laws. The head of an enterprise is a person who should be especially responsible for the problem of legality.

Most ECs contain a requirement to keep business information strictly confidential from anyone who does not have access to it due to their official position. But personal cash investments should be extremely transparent. This applies not only to the leader, but also to his close relatives.

About principles

The principles declared by ethical codes oblige the parent to be resolute. A person holding a managerial position should make only important and significant decisions, and not all the many small ones that are relevant in the work of the enterprise. It is equally important to be an expert in the chosen field. Norms obligesenior staff to have diplomatic skills, as well as be able to select only the best, forming a team of adherents.

An important principle of the management staff is the absence of any political games and the suppression of such games in the bud, if something like this starts inside the enterprise. It is important to be obligatory, excluding any false obligations, as well as provoke others to trust themselves. This is achievable through moral qualities. The leader must be tolerant and decent. His area of responsibility is to help staff develop and improve. The leader must form the motivational system of subordinates.

About regulations

Among the ethical norms that the work of a leader must obey, one of the most important is that requiring a person to admit mistakes made, even if they were made by someone in a very high position. Another important principle is respect for everyone who works, regardless of what he does. Here one should recall the ancient traditions of shooting messengers who brought bad news to kings. In today's world, this behavior is unacceptable.

About justice

Any person wants to be treated fairly. There will be no exception and anyone employed at some enterprise, whether it be management personnel or line workers. A single person within the framework of work can act fairly towards his colleagues of the same level, but for any manager the task is more difficult. Such a person mustbehave correctly, honestly and fairly in relation to all who are subordinate to him, regardless of personal interests and sympathies.

Errors occur in one way or another within the framework of the workflow, which sometimes lead to unpredictable and serious consequences. Those responsible for the original violation deserve to be punished. If a person is really guilty, he himself realizes that the punishment will be fair, although he does not always admit it out loud. The task of the leader is to clearly identify the perpetrators and victims by accident, as well as those who have been shadowed due to the irresponsibility or dishonesty of a colleague. Unfair punishment will lead to a loss of reputation, because no one will keep silent about what happened. Moreover, the mere fact of wrongful and unfair punishment is unethical - not only within some enterprise, but also in any other context.