Assignment: Utilizing Emotional Intelligence Building To Enhance Organizational Ethics
The 2nd module of the course began with an examination of ethical leadership and then turned its attention to the building and implementation of emotional intelligence in positions of influence and decision-making. Scholarly Paper #2 serves as the synthesis of those two concepts.
Research has continually shown that stress can have a variety of detrimental influences on organizations and leader decision-making. For instance, situations perceived to be higher in stress have led to increased cases of unethical organizational behavior (Selart & Johansen, 2011). Therefore, failing to appropriate manage stress undoubtedly represents the potential for severe healthcare service-quality and organizational failures at the hands of good leaders making dumb and ethically compromised decisions. With this in mind, we can turn to Thompson's (2010) proposal of a pathway to effectively handle stress and make better decisions. This pathway is contingent upon the development and utilization of stress-resilient emotional intelligence.
Proposed as a new collective intelligence that encompasses cognitive, moral, social, and emotional intelligence, Wickham and O'Donohue (2012) coined the term ethical intelligence. Ethical intelligence is considered a skill essential to the agency leader hoping to develop an ethical organization. The "ethically intelligent" leader is highly process-oriented, personally introspective, and critically retrospective in their analysis of prior organizational choices, decisions, and interpersonal communications. Specifically, the authors noted that:
While all organizations may publish codes of ethics and conduct, the ethically intelligent type will see the advantage in going beyond such traditional and generalized responses to incorporate in their learning and development activities an emphasis on discussion about important decision-precedents within the organization, and the philosophy behind why each might have been considered ethically justifiable or otherwise. (p. 15)
Considering this ethically & emotionally intelligent leadership approach, in order to foster new ethical exchange in a health services organization, your task for Scholarly Paper #2 is to lead a new series of leadership and staff training and development exercises whereby you work to:
a.) Examine historically-significant organizational decisions/behaviors according to ethically and emotionally intelligent principles;
b.) Examine your own actions and decisions as a leader via the same ethical paradigm; and
c.) Identify two key emotional intelligence-building activities (from the Lynn, 2000 attachment) that you recommend be utilized to buildethical and emotional intelligence in all organizational leaders, en route to overall enhanced organizational ethics.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.
References:
Huhtala, M., Kangas, M., Lämsä, A., & Feldt, T. (2013). Ethical managers in ethical organisations? The leadership-culture connection among finnish managers. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 34(3), 250-270. doi:10.1108/01437731311326684
Lynn, A. B. (2000). 50 activities for developing emotional intelligence. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, Inc.
Selart, M., & Johansen, S. T. (2011). Ethical decision making in organizations: The role of leadership stress. Journal of Business Ethics, 99(2), 129-143. doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0649-0
Thompson, H. L. (2010). The stress effect: Why smart leaders make dumb decisions-and what to do about it. (1st ed.) San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978-0-470-58903-8
Wickham, M., & O'Donohue, W. (2012). Developing an ethical organization: Exploring the role of ethical intelligence. Organization Development Journal, 30(2), 9-29.