Ethical Definition Of Leadership Essay

Leadership scholars are often at difference about the true definition of leadership. Post World War II, the study of leadership has grown significantly, yet in all of the scholarly texts on the subject, no two definitions are the same. Gary Yukl, a leading researcher in the field of leadership, often refers to leadership as power. To exhibit influence over an individual or group, you must hold some sort of power over them (Ciulla, 2003). There are many different types of power and each come from different source types, each with their own unique influence. Legitimate, positional, and financial are just a few examples of the various types of power that can be held over someone. Power can be used to control potential influence over things as well as people (Ciulla, 2003). What we should be asking instead of looking for a definition and the whole point of its increase in popularity is what is good leadership? Do leaders need to be the experts in …show more content…
My answer to this is yes and here are a couple examples to explain theory. The first example of using unethical methods to accomplish a good final outcome is President Harry S. Truman and the order to drop the atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Many consider this act unethical because Truman knew that this act would kill hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians. But the benefit of committing such an act was saving the lives of thousands of American service members, not to mention ending a war that could have continued for years, costing more lives and money that the country did not have. Mills, a famous philosopher, believes the intention of an action tells you about the morality of the individual and the consequences of the act tell you about the morality of the act (Ciulla,