Free Custom «Morally Intelligent Organization» Essay Paper

An organization, in which cultures are infused together with worthwhile values and where there is a consistent action by the members in alignment with the values, can be said to be morally intelligent. Such an organization will have morally intelligent people. On the other hand, selection and leadership are considered to be strong functions of organizational culture. Research shows that the extent of moral intelligence in leaders will greatly affect the success of a business. Humility and ambition are strongholds for great leaders. These virtues are there for a purpose, cause, mission, and their personal growth. Such leaders are said to be ‘level 5’, and their driving force is the desire for producing results through morally intelligent means. Such leaders are believed to move the company to greater heights, component in the black box. Inside the black box, there is another black box, which constitutes inner maturity of a person up to level five. Therefore, level 5 is believed to be essential in any organization’s leadership (Trevin%u0303o & Katherine, 2007).

Development and Nurturing of Moral Intelligence

It is important to understand that leadership takes the first position in moral intelligence development. Efficiency in leadership starts with personal management, which is facilitated by the self-awareness, and which eventually leads to living in alignment. Personal reality should be aligned with organizational goals and moral compass ideas; for instance, thoughts should be aligned with the principles (Trevin%u0303o & Katherine, 2007).  

Self-awareness creates responsiveness towards ones personality, goals, and gaps. It enhances personal evaluation of the strengths and weakness. This will create an interest on the ‘riders’ of your bus and will enhance trust culture through self-disclosure, self-awareness and discovery of other people. Through one’s ideals, moral intelligence will be reflected, and this reflection to the values is likened to fabric that has various types of fibers which are embedded on it. Some fibers are moral; others are social, while still some are professional. The examination of the values for the company is also compared to such a fabric. Personal reality can be voluntary or involuntary. It is exercised through personal choice, emotions, what one thinks, and even what one says. Personal reality awareness can lead to self-management (Trevin%u0303o & Katherine, 2007).

Freeze Game

Momentarily, the pause button is pressed, and personal reality is evaluated in terms of thoughts, feelings, actions, and awareness of the facial expression, tone of voice or even the body language. After pausing and evaluation of personal reality, assessment of the extent of the alignment of experience reality is done; thoughts, actions, and emotions alignment with each other and checking whether the moral compass and the goals of a person are in alignment with reality of experience (Lewis, 1985).  

A proper alignment indicates a success while a misalignment calls for re-evaluation. There is always room for change. The alignment or misalignment is not of critical importance; most important is ones’ recognition of the influence on those around, because leadership is all about the influence on other people (Lewis, 1985).

Correlation between Personal Reality and Ideality, and the Moral Integrity, Compassion, and Responsibility Principles

According to Lewis (1985), individuals are fallible human beings (FHB), so that perfection will tend to escape them. Therefore, for people to be morally intelligent, a need to embrace the moral principles arises. For leaders, the personal values should be in harmony with their moral principles. If the latter fail, re-examination should be carried out.  Leaders’ evaluation should encompass the alignment of goals with a moral compass, and of behaviors with the goals.

 Imperatively, there is always a weakness in the choice of moral principles. They are usually free from our acceptance. In addition, emotions cannot be chosen. However, the choice of values, beliefs, goals, thoughts and actions depends on an individual. To align with the principles, then leaders can decide to change either all, or some of the choices (Lewis, 1985).

Importance of Moral Intelligence

Moral intelligence is vital in sustaining personal and organizational achievement. Its application is critical for the success of any organization, and it requires nurturing throughout a person’s life and the life of the organization. The enhancement of the abilities in honoring the principles is thus achieved through focusing on the competence that is related to certain principles. Such principles and competencies include:

• integrity; a person acts in accordance to the principles, beliefs and values. It includes standing up for truth and telling what is true;
• responsibility; a person is usually accounted for every action that leads to repercussions. Failure of taking responsibility may lead to failures and mistakes when serving others;
• compassion; is an active care of other people;
• forgiveness; is letting go of mistakes done.

Many organizations have been known to hire and maintain workers they believe are the best. This is contrary to the expectations by employees, who are mainly attracted to ethical organizations. There is a common belief that when people are working for a noble purpose, they are expected to demonstrate loyalty and dependability. The ethics of a particular organization affects the employees and the performance of the duties. Examples of ethics include honesty in communications, respect towards the employees and ethical corporate behavior (Lewis, 1985).

Managers’ Caring for the Ethics

Managers tend to care little about the ethics due to fear of management of unethical behavior. The management in every organization is liable to any criminal activity by the subordinates. On the other hand, workers may be torn between the ethical and the unethical. Some behaviors like abusing of competitors, fudging of sales figures or even shortchanging customers is considered unethical. Thus, managers should cultivate ethical behavior even in aggressive competition (Trevin%u0303o & Katherine, 2007).

Business and Social Responsibility

Business ethics is believed to affect the society. Use of power responsibly refers to the concern for the stakeholders’ interests. The stakeholders include the shareholders, the employees, the suppliers, the government, the media, and the activists, among the rest. The employees may strike, protesters can make bad publicity, customers may fail to buy the products, and the government may regulate the activities of a firm. Therefore, of great importance is the consideration by the organization of all the stakeholders. In other words, organizations need to carefully deliberate on their expectations and requirements before any decision is made. If it fails to do this,   it will experience financial damage, as well as criminal liability and reputation loss risks (Trevin%u0303o & Katherine, 2007). 

The business landscape varies and is usually dominated by people who are good and at times heroic. Therefore, managers need empowerment in addressing ethical conducts, and organizations should portray good examples by doing things the right way. Some of the ways of leader recognition include his purpose in leading people and his role in resource management, along with the awareness that the decisions made will affect people related to the enterprise, either directly or indirectly (Trevin%u0303o & Katherine, 2007).

The management should, therefore, be handled with care and loyalty, refrained from any acts of corruption or unfair business practices with a focus on protecting human rights and the dignity of every shareholder in the company, so that any form of exploitation or discrimination is opposed.  It should also protect rights of the future generations and advance their living standards, enhance accurate and honest reporting of performance and any risks facing the organization. Additionally, it should invest in personal and societal development in order to create sustainable and inclusive prosperity (Trevin%u0303o & Katherine, 2007).

Conclusion

The universally accepted principles in moral development include integrity, humility, forgiveness, responsibilities, self-discipline, compassion, wisdom, and commitment to transcending power, facilitating decision making and self-assessment, acting free of monitoring or sanctions in any organization. In achieving a morally intelligent organization, Kyosei and human dignity are crucial. “Kyosei” is a Japanese word describing cohesion for the people working and living together with one commonality, which enhances cooperation and the coexistence of mutual prosperity and is accompanied by fair and healthy competition. On the other hand, Human Dignity describes the sacredness and the value of every person towards the fulfillment of unique purposes.