Ethical Leadership

I find that ethical behavior does pay. Regardless of whether the behavior is negative or positive, there will be some sort of reward an individual will obtain. If organizational or individual behavior is unethical, there will be severe circumstances that can create some costly ramifications for the organization as a whole. For example, if a police officer, pockets the money retrieved from a drug bust and Internal Affairs investigates the situation and finds out about it, his/her (the police officer) unethical behavior will reflect negatively on the entire department, his momentary lapse in judgment will attach a stigma to the whole department, thus making it difficult for law enforcement to do their job because now, they have lost the trust of civilians and/or peers. An organizations ethical behavior will either create significant problems in the long run (i.e. Enron) or establish a reputation as a credible source for business. Although, there are some good leaders in most organizations, there is an undisclosed amount of leaders who make wrongful decisions that will ultimately put an organization at risk. To be perfectly honest, good ethical behavior will add value to an organization for the reason that consumers play a major role in adding to the success of an organization, whereas unethical practices oftentimes are exposed quickly, and in some cases unethical behavior may linger on if consumers do not complain of wrongdoing.
Some consumers feel as though complaining about a situation is not worth the time. Consumers tend to retaliate by merely taking their business elsewhere, which is acceptable behavior for a consumer who is not getting their needs met. Unfortunately, unethical business practices will continue as a result of the lack in consumer complaints. If no one complains about unfavorable organizational practices, than the current way an organization conducts business will remain.