Earlier this semester, I spent a week nearly immersed in the leadership of Elon Musk. Between an analysis essay and a blog post, I looked at Musk’s leadership through the lenses of path-goal and transformational leadership theories. With the latter, I left off by noting the following:
In spite of all this, the strongest distinguishing factor between Musk and his vision and the standard transformational leader is the reliance on ethical standards, values, and moral convictions. Northouse speaks of one of the strengths of transformational leadership being its “strong emphasis on followers’ needs, values, and morals,” its attempt “to move people to higher standards of moral responsibility,” and its being “fundamentally morally uplifting” (2013, p. 201). In fact, it is this quality that allows for distinction between transformational leaders and pseudotransformational leaders, such as Adolf Hitler and Jim Jones, who rely on “coercive uses of power” to enact changes (2013, p. 201). As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20; understanding of Musk’s leadership as having a moral quality or not will likely not be solidified until it is able to be analyzed as hindsight. Considering the magnitude and rate of change he is initiating in various industries, a strong argument could be on made both sides.
This week, I have been immersed in another concept–this one huge in the world of I/O psychology and surprisingly relevant to my previous discussion of Musk’s leadership–that of ethical leadership. As you can see, when I tried to analyze Musk through the lens of transformational leadership, I was left wanting, due to its heavy focus on ethics and morality. That is, I had a hard time identifying ethical concerns in Musk’s leadership style that would allow me to more effectively label him as a transformational leader. After delving more deeply this week into the principles and perspectives of ethical leadership, I am more certain than ever in my hesitance.
Ethics, at its simplest, refers to “the kinds of values and morals an individual or a society finds desirable or appropriate” (Northouse, 2013, p. 424). Through deeper exploration of the concept, ethics covers the concepts of virtuousness and motives and the process of situational decision-making based on moral perspectives (Northouse, 2013). Ethical leadership theory functions on the assumption that “the choices leaders make and how they respond in a given circumstance are informed and directed by their ethics” (Northouse, 2013, p. 424). Furthermore, “because of their influence, leaders play a major role in establishing the ethical climate of their organizations” (Northouse, 2013, p. 428).
Burns approaches ethical leadership as an umbrella for his theory of transformational leadership, emasizing “followers’ needs, values, and morals” and their leader’s attempt to move them “to higher standards of moral responsibility” (Northouse, 2013, p. 429). With his centralization of ethics in the leadership process, based on the earlier thoughts of Maslow, Rokeach, and Kohlberg, Burns understands leadership and ethics as intrinsically bound (Northouse, 2013).
Northouse tries to bring specificity and grounding to this understanding by listing five principles on which ethical leadership is to be based (2013):
1. Respect: shown by allowing others “to be themselves, with creative wants and desires,” inclusive of affirming others as human beings (PSU WC, 2015).
2. Service: shown by putting followers’ welfare at the top of the priority list, inclusive of the responsibility “to attend to others, to be of service to them, and help them achieve their goals” (PSU WC, 2015).
5. Community: shown through leader-follower agreement “on the direction to be taken by the group,” inclusive of taking into account “the purposes of everyone involved in the group” (PSU WC, 2015). Most notably in this principle, the leader cannot impose his or her will on others (PSU WC, 2015).
Musk’s entire motivation and, subsequently, that of his organizations is his ultimate vision of the future. Whatever that vision may be, what is important is that it is his. While he adeptly motivates others through emotional appeal to work ceaselessly toward his vision–as is typical of a transformational leader–he does not accept the input of others in regards to his vision. In many cases, working toward someone else’s vision has left “some of the hardest working and brightest people in the world…universally defeated” (Anonymous, 2014). Some workers argue that Musk sees a “version of reality that is highly skewed” and that he places little value on other’s work if it does not fit in with his vision: for example, he is know to not “hesitate to throw out six months of work because it’s not pretty enough or it’s not ‘badass’ enough” (Anonymous, 2014). In examples like these, Musk shows that he has little interest in the creative wants and desires of others if they do not align with his own.
3. Justice: shown by treating all followers “in an equal manner” (PSU WC, 2015).
When given the space to speak anonymously and openly, employees generally all speak about their time working under Musk as being incredibly hard work–so, in that way, it might be easy to say that Musk treats his followers equally. He sets the bar high, and he sets it high for everyone. Singh, a former employee, contemplates, “he is never really satisfied with himself, so he is never really satisfied with anyone around him. He pushes himself harder and harder, and he pushes other around him the exact same way” (2013).
4. Honesty: shown by being “open with others and representing reality as fully and completely as possible,” inclusive of finding balance between openness and appropriateness in the disclosing of information (PSU WC, 2015).
In this principle, Musk may be considered to succeed if one notes that Musk’s honesty comes from reality as he understands it. Furthermore, Musk shows great discretion with the sharing of information: for example, Jacoby describes the first launch at SpaceX to have been heartbreaking for the crew, due to its initial failure (2011). However, Musk waiting until that moment of crisis to share with his team that he planned ahead and had secured funding for at least two more launches (Jacoby, 2011). His timing for sharing this information made it such that his workers maximized their efforts up until the first launch, believing that it would be their one chance, and afterward, were re-energized by the unexpected opportunity to overcome their failure.
All this being said, I still hesitate to apply the label of transformational leader fully and completely to Musk’s style, due to his limited morally-conscious behaviors. Lucky for Musk, research shows that morality can be taught; so, he may yet earn the title (PSU WC, 2015). I have no doubts, based on his successes so far, that, should he put his mind to it, he certainly could adopt ethical leadership behaviors that would benefit his followers, his organizations, and himself.
References
Anonymous. (2014) What is it like to work with Elon Musk? Quora. Retrieved from http://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-work-with-Elon-Musk
Jacoby, O. (Producer & Director). (2011) Bloomberg Risk Takers: Elon Musk [Television Broadcast]. United States: Bloomberg Television.
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2015). PSYCH 485 Module 14: Ethics and Leadership. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1486679/modules/items/15963959
Singh, D. (2013) What is it like to work with Elon Musk? Quora. Retrieved from http://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-work-with-Elon-Musk