how leaders develop their ethics?

Many people today fail to understand the differences between ethics, morals, values and character. Sometimes, people think all these things all explain the same concept, but have different names. However, this is not the case because all these things are different from each other though they all work together to make an effectively moral and upright leader. While Values is an individual’s beliefs, morals is their perception of right and wrong, Ethics is a universal and globalized rule of right and wrong and character is the individuals personality and identity. A leader without ethics cannot be an effective leader. This type of leader is a toxic leader. Where do leaders attain their ethics from? How do their affect their decisions as a leader.

                A leader can develop ethics from numerous sources but I believe the top three sources of a leader’s ethics are: their family, their environment, and Religion. A person’s family has an immense impact on their lives from birth till adulthood. As we grow from a young age, we learn the things that our parents do, what they say, and how they act. On a more personal perspective, there are some ethics and values that I still maintain and that I got from my family. An example of one of these ethics is the fact that I grew up with the notion that I could never call an older person without using a title of respective in front of it; also that I could never call an older person by their first or maiden name. I also learned the value that a woman was virtuous and honorable and there were certain behaviors that a woman wasn’t supposed to possess.  These value and ethic I learned from my family has taught me to show respect and be a respectable individual and this would help to become a better leader. It will teach me to respect towards all and this is an important leadership quality.

                Also, most individuals learn their ethics and values from their environment and who they surround themselves with. We all grow up and learn that stealing is wrong and there are legal precautions for it. We also learn that there are certain actions and things that aren’t acceptable in society and there are certain punishments for each of these “illegal action”. These are all things that we gather from the media and from society that help us to become moral and upright citizens and it impacts our judgments and behaviors as leaders.

                 An important ethic and value shaper is the religious systems. Our different religious systems control out outlook and behavioral patterns in society and as leaders. We grow learning from our pastors and the bible’s directions. Our religious faith is what controls our life priorities; many Christians like me put God and the church as our first priority because we learn that “God is a jealous God”. An example of how my religious system impacted my ethical values in life is the fact that I don’t use profanity because I find it unchristian and against the bibles message. Another example is the Jehovah’s Witness religion that doesn’t celebrate Christmases or birthdays because they are taught that these actions defy the bibles message.

The White Privilege Vice

This week’s topic was Social injustice and it was correlated with the reading, “White privilege: Unpacking the knapsack” by Susanne McIntosh. In this paper Susanne McIntosh explains that there are certain privileges that are attributed to whites because of their skin color. She explains that these individuals who receive these privileges are unconscious of it because it comes to them not as a result of their will power but due to their ethnicity. In this paper Susanne lists all the privilege she is receives not because of merit but because she is Caucasian and also some things that she doesn’t worry about encountering.

                This topic was a very interesting one to me partly because it was a familiar topic that I had discussed in my 101 (I was excited to see how the discussion will resemble or differ from the previous one). This topic was also interesting to me because I am a girl of color and I have had such conversations with friends of different races. I strongly believe and accept McIntosh’s point, I believe that there are still some privileges that a white girl of equal status as me will receive that I won’t necessarily receive or maybe I will receive it but in a lesser amount. These privileges are not to be correlated with discrimination because they are not. The individuals who give out these privileges do so unconsciously, just like the receiver of these privileges are mostly unaware of these privileges and don’t see them as privileges.  Sometimes the individuals who are the givers of these privileges are of a different race; usually the minority race. An example of this is the story a fellow classmate of mine told about her experience at Walmart with her boyfriend. Raven explains that while walking out of Walmart, she wasn’t stopped to be checked while her boyfriend who was a Latino was stopped. I also noticed she mentioned that the service guy who stopped her boyfriend was also a Latino. After hearing these stories, something dawned on me: we all participate in some way, intentionally and unintentionally, to the continuation of these unearned white privileges.

                While also participating to this discussion in class, I thought of a famous, yet controversial scene form Paul Haggis’s Crash.  This scene was the scene between Ludacris and his friend, where they discussed the unfair privilege the waitress who was an African American had given to the white individuals. She had unfairly handed out more privilege to her white customer by pouring out more coffee to the white customers than she had to the black customers. This was an act that she had performed unintentionally because she had been acting under the power of what I just termed “the white privilege vice”. This further proves that each of us are influenced by this subtly hand that controls us all called “the white privilege vice”.

the importance of Group cohesion

Five years ago, when I was back in Cameroon, I was a member of the dance team at my old high school (which is known as secondary schools in Africa). We were a very close knit tin this time, team spirit, and love for another was our first goal. Our motto was “win together, lose together”, and as cliché as that may sound, this meant more to us than winning any competition.  I never really understood the amount of cohesiveness that was present in this group till when my father took ill. He was diagnosed with temporary paralysis of the right side of his body and this condition was coupled with loss of speech. I was only 13 years old and I hadn’t developed a coping mechanism yet for such situations so all I could do was c=sob and isolate myself. It was surprising to me how much my team was present for me at this time. We had been a family in competition, but during this time we became a family beyond that realm. This united force and group attraction helped me get through this time.

                Every group needs some aspect of cohesiveness in order to make it and become successful. I believe cohesiveness is the bond that exists between groups or group members that helps them in achieving their ultimate group goal. Every relationship needs some form of cohesiveness: families, groups, sisters, students, etc. The different aspects of cohesion include: cohesion is teamwork, cohesion is attraction, and cohesion is unity. Collective efficacy which is “the strong belief of all or most group members that the group can attain its goals” is also very important for every group and it ties in with a group’s cohesion (Powerpoint notes). This cohesive force and bond between groups is what enables them to successfully resolve conflict and last for many years. A group in which there is a lack of cohesiveness usually faces a lot of conflict because there wouldn’t be any bond between its members, a lack of unity within the group and most importantly a lack of team work. Each member will be more concerned with their individual goals and how to promote themselves and there would this will also to lead to a lack of collective efficacy and a massive failure for the group.

                The concept of group cohesion relates to a country’s patriotism. Patriotism is ones deep love/attraction to their country and the willingness to die for it (like a group member’s willingness to go beyond in order to achieve the group’s goal. A good example was the situation with Egypt’s presidential protests. Though they fought against Mubarak who had the entire army on his side, the people were still united as Egyptians. The army refused to kill any civilians because they believed that “they are all family” (bbc.co.uk) and was only willing to carry out non-violence defenses.  They had different opinions but they all fought still maintaining that cohesiveness as a nation. This is what differs Egypt from Libya and why the situations in Libya are very different.