Back in March, results from a study on women and ethical dilemmas was released. We identified yet another reason that women are hesitant to become business leaders. Kray and Kennedy sought to find out why women tend to gravitate towards law and medical schools as compared to seeking their MBAs. Through three studies, they found that women felt very strongly about the ethical dilemmas that business presents. (Kray&Kennedy, 2013)
In their first study, the researchers found that women had moral outrage and found less business sense in decisions that may be required in the course of a higher level career in business. In their second study, they found that women were not interested in jobs where the position description included terms indicating the employee would need to get ahead by any means possible. In the third study, they found that women found business to be implicitly immoral.
Principles of ethical leadership outlined by Northouse include respect, justice, honesty, service, and community. (2013) Northouse also says that effective leadership is a mix of traits including intelligence and social skills and he suggests that as women enter the business world they will make changes necessary to accommodate future women. (2013) If women are reluctant to get into business in the first place, however, change will not happen.
This prediction may also not be so, as demonstrated by Yahoo’s Marissa Meyer and her decision to do what was right for the business instead of the employees by ending telecommuting. Many critics of this policy spoke of how this policy particularly hurt women. (Guynn, 2013)This shows that if women are to get ahead they will have to make the tough decisions that the women in these studies found to be immoral.
Kennedy, JA and Kray, LJ: Who Is Willing to Sacrifice Ethical Values for Money and Social Status?: Gender Differences in Reactions to Ethical Compromises Social Psychological and Personality Science published on March 28, 2013 retrieved from: http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/03/28/1948550613482987.full.pdf+html
Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Guynn, J. (2013, 02 26). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from Los Angeles Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/26/business/la-fi-yahoo-telecommuting-20130226