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March 2023 – Question Of The Month
March 30, 2023 - By Wendy Lambourne, Director, MA Industrial and Organisation Psychology, Registered Psychologist with SA Medical & Dental CouncilShare by Email
Question: Is Legitimate Leadership an ethical framework?
Answer: Legitimate Leadership is an ethical framework because it argues for values- rather than needs-driven behaviour by all those at work, but particularly by those in leadership roles.
Every time a leader acts appropriately, arising out of being values-driven, trust in the individual leader and the leadership collectively increases an increment. Every time the opposite happens, trust decreases commensurately.
Being ethical means to act consistently with the value (like honesty) which is operative in any given situation. It means to do the right thing even if it does not appear to be the most expedient or workable thing to do at the time.
In any situation leaders’ actions can be informed by only one of two things: by their needs or by their values. When leaders act on the basis of their needs they are essentially putting their self-interest first. When they behave on the basis of the value which is operative in the situation they are acting for reasons higher than self-interest. They are concerned with doing what is right rather than with what is expedient.
This only happens when leaders deliberately and consciously CHOOSE to put their self-interest second. That is, when they elect to suspend their own agenda for what is right.
