110. The most effective business leaders are those who maintain the highest ethical1 standards.
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
The assertion at issue is that business people who uphold the highest ethical standards are the most effective leader. I strongly agree with this statement. For a while , unethical behavior might seem effective. But a few examples from the investment banking2 industry keenly illustrate3 how dishonesty and corruption4 in leadership can bring a business to its knees, shattering the trust of its employees and ruining its reputation with clients.
Consider the cases of Michael Milken, former head of junk bond trading at Drexel Burnham Lambert, and Paul Mozer, formerly5 in charge of Salomon Brothers government bonds trading. Each of these men engaged in double-dealing and other illegal acts, reaping tremendous profits for their companies, and winning the admiration6 of subordinates and superiors alike. However, their successes were relatively7 short-lived . Securities Exchange Commission investigations8 in each case revealed massive wrongdoing. As a result, Drexel went out of business. And Salomon Brothers barely recovered, after suffering the forced resignations of its TOP executives, a financially devastating9 loss of reputation, and the exodus10 of many valued employees.
Moreover, Salomons survival is probably owing entirely11 to its subsequent leadership under Warren Buffett. Buffett, who was on the Salomon Brother board of directors at the time of the scandal, was brought in to save the beleaguered12 company. His success in keeping it afloat at all can be directly tied to his sterling13 ethical reputation in the international business community at the time. Buffetts reputation restored at least some lost confidence among clients and investors14, and probably prompted some employees to reconsider their decisions to leave the company.
While not every case of unethical leadership is quite so public or devastating as these, they do illustrate an important point. In any business, once corruption at the TOP becomes known, the predictable outcome will be damaged reputation, lower worker morale15, and, along with them, lost productivity.
In conclusion, unethical conduct at the leadership level in a company might go unnoticed and serve ones interests in the short-term. However, in the long run it will work against ones effectiveness and may even prove ruinous.
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