Ethical Leadership Development Flashcards
7 cards from real CEA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Ethical Leadership Development flashcards as text
A leader's decision benefits the majority of stakeholders but significantly harms a small minority. Which ethical lens would most challenge this decision?
Answer: Rights-based ethics
Rights-based ethics holds that individuals have fundamental rights that cannot be overridden simply because doing so maximizes overall welfare.
Which leadership behavior most directly combats groupthink in ethical decision-making?
Answer: Assigning a 'devil's advocate' role to challenge prevailing assumptions
Designating a devil's advocate introduces structured dissent, which counteracts the conformity pressure that causes groupthink.
A newly promoted manager inherits a team with a culture of cutting ethical corners. The most effective long-term approach is to:
Answer: Model ethical behavior consistently and reinforce it through feedback and recognition
Sustained behavioral modeling, paired with reinforcement, is more effective at shifting culture than punitive or surveillance-based approaches.
What distinguishes an ethical leader from a merely compliant one?
Answer: An ethical leader internalizes moral values and acts on them beyond minimum requirements
Ethics goes beyond compliance — ethical leaders are driven by internalized values and pursue what is right even when no rule mandates it.
When a leader fails to act on known misconduct, this is best categorized as:
Answer: An act of omission that carries ethical responsibility
Ethical responsibility includes acts of omission — a leader who knows about misconduct and fails to act is ethically accountable for that inaction.
The ethical principle of 'non-maleficence' in organizational leadership means:
Answer: Avoiding actions that cause unnecessary harm
Non-maleficence, borrowed from medical ethics, requires leaders to refrain from actions that knowingly cause harm to others.
Which of the following scenarios best illustrates the concept of 'ethical leadership under pressure'?
Answer: A leader refuses to manipulate financial statements despite executive pressure to do so
Ethical leadership under pressure is demonstrated when a leader upholds principles at personal cost, resisting coercive demands from authority.