Effective leadership, decision making and ethical management are linked both in theory and in practice.How may leaders ensure organisational decisions are made ethically? Use examples to illustrate your argument from organisations with which you are familiar.

Cowardice asks Is it safe?Expediency asks Is it politic?Vanity asks Is it popular?But, conscience asks, Is it right?And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because ones conscience tells one that it is right.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Duffy, 2006)INTRODUCTION:

The above mentioned quote of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. highlights how important it is to be ethical while making any decision.Decision making is not an easy task for anyone, there are many factors which includes in making one decision and among those factors there is conscience, whether is it right or not, whether is it ethical or not. The paper does not claim that every decisions are made on the basis of conscience but the essay does claim that the conscience do play its role in decision making process, some may ignore it but an ethical management and an effective leader do pay attention to the conscience.Ethical standards lay the foundation, the basis for every action of a person. Applying the same on business management; the ethical standards will set down the foundation and will provide a frame work on which the business decisions will be made. Every business is started with the aim of making profit but what differentiate it with others is not only its product or services but also the foundations it posses, the standards it has and so on.Any person can start a company, hire employees to work but the principles are the basic foundation which expands the priorities whether individual or corporate. Ethical principles are the factors which are major impact on institutes and corporation. This paper discusses how does effective leadership, decision making and ethical management are linked both in theory and in practice? EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP AND DECISION MAKING IS LINKED WITH ETHICAL MANAGEMENT:

Ethics is concerned with the study of integrity and the implication of fair management, principles to differentiate right from wrong. The philosophy of ethic is of three types i.e. virtues, morality and utilitarianism (BusinessBalls, 2006-14). Virtues are largely based on ideas of Aristotle; including justice and generosity providing benefits to the person as well as society. Morality is considered as the core crust of ethics. Whereas utilitarianism is a principle that says any act is conducted basically for the happiness or benefit for the great number of people. (Angelia, 2003)Corporate Social Responsibility, Compensation plans and increments do have a foundation of ethical management and fair judgement and decision making.According to Charles D. Kerens ethics is about the behaviour. According to him there are six classes which are involved in effective leadership and ethical management and those six categories are; wisdom and knowledge, self control, justice and fair guidance, transcendence, love and kindness, courage and integrity. These six classes when combined form a friendly environment for work. For example the aptitude to manage the resources fairly and efficiently and providing proper guidance to sub ordinates is maintained by the courage and integrity (Kerns, 2003). A leader is not necessary the CEO or the Owner of the organization. Leaders do not require any title. Leaders are the one who convinces others to follow and inspires them to work in synchronized manner to achieve the common goal. The supervisor and manager should posses the leadership qualities because their interaction with employees is greater than the CEO of the Organization. A bad behaviour of supervisor/ manager leads the employee to resign the company whereas the ethical attitudes not only make subordinates comfortable but also improves the performance of subordinates. To inspire and to convince others one has to be trustworthy and this is the point where effective leadership and ethical attitude intervene. The management requires a better decision making quality and one the quality of good decision making is supported by ethical attitude of management then the management not only become ethical but the manager or supervisor is considered as an effective leader to his sub ordinates. Making difficult decisions is a hard task especially with in the limited resources. And it is easier to accept those difficult decisions when they are accompanied or based on fair judgements and integrity (Kerns, 2003).To be ethical a leader has to be engage in righteous acts or activities that offer advantages to others. And most importantly these activities should be unselfish and philanthropic instead of selfish and self centred insensitive motives (R. N. Kanungo, 2001).Ethical management and effective leadership together make ethical leadership. And the decision making is the most significant act of the management/ leader. Decision making is a process which involves identification of the problem, analysing the problem, identification of the possible solutions, selecting the best solution, implementation of the decision of best solution and then the evaluation.

(Akrani, 2010)R. C. Davis has defined management as a decision making process. As according to R. C. Davis the effectivity of management is totally based on the quality of decision making. Decision making is a rational process which is defined above. It is the process which helps management for further planning and the implementation of the plan pursued by organising, expressing, coordinating, domineering and motivating (Akrani, 2010).Management is basically about decision making, leadership is about effective ethical management. Hence the link between the three factors i.e. Decision making, effective leadership and ethical management is obvious. The research conducted by Kalshoven suggests the positive connection between ethical leadership and the behavioural dimensions (Kalshoven, 2009). The quote of Dr Martin Luther which is mentioned in the beginning has just given the idea where ethics stand in the decision making process for an effective leader. During the process of decision making leader foresees the expected effects of the final decision. An effective leader will forecast the impacts of the decision on the subordinates/ employees/ followers. There are the situations where the hard decisions are made by the leaders but still accepted just because it was the right decision on fair merit foundation. But if the decision is made by unfair judgement then leaders must have to prepared to face the consequences which could bring negative publicity to the company/ organization that will not only damage the good will but also add negative brand image to the consumers.Ethical leader do not only made ethical decisions but also encourage and promote ethical conduct in organization. Ethical leadership is about the balance in the organizations short term aims with long terms objectives in a systemic manner to achieve a positive result. It is all about doing right thing in right way. Basically ethically leadership is related to value-based leadership style but still strong ethics can make any leadership style stronger.

EXAMPLES OF LEADERS ENSURE ORGANIZATIONAL DECISION MADE ETHICALLY:

The following leaders are known for their effective leadership style in decision making with ethical management (Schwaltz, 2012). Nelson Mandella Dr Martin Luther King Jr Walt Disney Barack Obama. Mahatma Gandhi John Bilbrey from Hershey Howard Schultz of Starbucks Greg Stienhafel from Target Tony Hshiek of Zappos Jim Skinner of McDonalds Micheal Hershman from the Fairfax Group Casey Sheahen of Patagonia Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farms Kenneth Chenault from American Express Mike Duke of Wal-Mart Don Amos of Aflac

Case # 01:Whereas with the objective of discussion a case study The Corpsman by Shaun Baker, PhD, Elizabeth Holmes, PhD, ABPP and Rose Ciccarelli, MA is included. The case study is basically presenting a scene where reader is given the role of a captain in command who later face a situation where he has to take a decision to save a young victim who is in severe gangrenous condition but saving that victim means sending the victim to medical facilitation along with the only person of medical expertise left in battalion. Letting the medical asset go with the victim means the battalion/ marines will be more vulnerable without medical presence. At this stage reader of the case is asked to make a decision, to decide what is the right thing to do? The case later presents a four stage model in which it describes the stages one goes through in making any ethical decision, those decisions are (The Corpsman , 2008); Moral Awareness (I Feel) Moral Judgement (I Ask) Moral Intention (I Think I Will) Moral Action (I Act)HCL Technologies India:Furthermore the example of HCL Technologies from India is added in for discussions. The case states how Vineet Nayyar takes a charge of HCL technologies in the year 2007. HCL technologies was the company which was in necessitate of large scale change, having fallen into self-righteousness which was the main reason behind the failure of company in comparison than its local and foreign competitors (Nayyar, 2010). As soon as he took the charge he wins the trust of his employees as he starts engaging the employees in open and honest discussions about the company performance. He involved all employees in evaluating the company performance, to find where company lacks, where the company is standing at that time and where they all want to see it (Nayyar, 2010). By the transparency in all the decision making processes, Nayyar was succeeded in creating the need for change. The results which were obtained by his action of switching powers to employees from CEO were absolutely remarkable. He was not only succeeded in making the change in companys position and performance but also winning the trust of the employees. The loyalty of employees was boasted by his attitude and style of leadership as well as the companys rate of employee retention was also increased. The employees really appreciated his act of transference of the responsibility for change to the employees (Nayyar, 2010).In the result of his leadership style the company HCL Technologies, in the year 2009, was voted Best Employer in India. The company was ranked among the top twenty five companies in Asia and the United Kingdom. HCL Technologies was listed by the Business Week as one of the five global companies (Nayyar, 2010). At that time the company employed approximately 60,000 people around the world and possessed revenue and operating income of approximately 2 billion US Dollars, which was tripled from the previous years. The growth in result of Nayyars ethical leadership was obvious even in the period of recession. The CEO has emphasized that the business leaders should pay attention to build the trust among employees. Nayyar has highlighted the fact that the business leaders failed to bring organizational change because of the lack of the trust of employees towards them (Nayyar, 2010). REVOLUTION IN SWEDISH BANKING:In the year 1970, revolution in Swedish banking occurred. This was the time when Jan Wallander takes the charge of the bank Svenska Handelsbanken AB as a CEO. The bank was in terrible condition with the continuous decrease in the profitability. The leader closed the central marketing department as well as discarded all the long term strategies, annual plans and the budgets. Wallander transferred the responsibilities of running the bank and the decision making powers to the branch managers of the bank. This point justifies that the leaders is not necessarily a CEO, even the manager can be a leader to the subordinates. Wallender introduces the share scheme due to which the employees of the bank became the owners of the bank. The trust he gained through this actions was obvious in terms of the willingness and satisfaction of the employees ( Decentralisation why and how to make it work. The Handelsbanken way. , 2003). Wallender served the bank as CEO for approximately 30 years and during this time period the bank was able to achieve the cost to income ratio of 45%.. The performance of the bank was obvious which built the brand image stronger than ever. The bank was able to surpass the Swedish competitors in terms of customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction as well as the financial stability of the bank. The profitability of the bank was increased remarkably ( Decentralisation why and how to make it work. The Handelsbanken way. , 2003).Wallender actions of transferring the powers to the bank managers, creativity, creating trust within employees and converting them into shareholder of the bank were succeeded remarkably which was noticed by the Swedish competitors as well as media. There was the time when banks performance was very poor and bank was facing losses, but Wallenders actions helped the bank to succeed.According to the experts the reason of this success is hidden in strategies of Wallenders made by understanding the human nature. He boasted the satisfaction level of employees as well as provides them the sense of ownership which made the enthusiastic and more committed to the bank ( Decentralisation why and how to make it work. The Handelsbanken way. , 2003). The Wallenders philosophy also indicates the point of ethical leadership and effective management goes hand in hand in making decisions. And the three of these when merged makes history.CONCLUSION:Effective leader using ethical management style with decision making process is effective in many ways i.e. boasting employee satisfaction, employee loyalty and increasing the rate of employee retention. Happy employees mean the better quality of work is provided which eventually add up to the corporate success. Effective leadership, ethical management and decision making process when merged creates a special irresistible, authentic bond which is seen in the quality of performance of the employee as an individual and in the companys performance in terms of its profitability and growth and public image.The ethical code of management is not fixed; leaders have to decide in comparison of the companys vision and mission to form the certain ethical standard through which the decisions can be made easily. And if the employees are involved in the forming those standards then it is itself a hint of an effective leadership.Works CitedDecentralisation why and how to make it work. The Handelsbanken way. (2003) Kristianstads Boktrykeri . Akrani, G., 2010. Decision Making Process In Management - Problem Solving. [Online] Available at: http://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2010/06/decision-making-process-in-management.htmlAngelia, K., 2003. Ethical Approach To Success. Business Ethics, Issue 25, pp. 136-138.BusinessBalls, 2006-14. ethical leadership, decision-making, and organizations. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessballs.com/ethical_management_leadership.htm[Accessed 2014].Duffy, F. M., 2006. Power, politics, and ethics in school districts: Dynamic leadership for systemic change. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.. s.l.:s.n.Kalshoven, K. D. H. D. N. &. D. H. A. H. B., 2009. Ethical leadership at work: Development and validation of a multidimensional measure. The questionnaire. International Journal Of Leadership Studies, .5(2).Kerns, C. D., 2003. Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture. Garizadio Business Review, 6(3).Nayyar, V., 2010. Employees first, customers second. Boston. Harvard Business Press. R. N. Kanungo, 2001. Ethical values of transactional and transformational leaders.. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences,, Volume 18, pp. 257-265.Schwaltz, J., 2012. onlinemba. [Online] Available at: http://www.onlinemba.com/blog/10-most-ethical-ceos-in-corporate-america/The Corpsman (2008) Shaun Baker, PhD, Elizabeth Holmes, PhD, ABPP and Rose Ciccarelli, MA .