Why Ethics and Strategic Thinking Enhances Leadership Effectiveness?

People often believe that leadership and their decisions can be void of ethical considerations. Leaders are people who can balance the needs of society and their organizations to achieve goals in an ethical way. I sometimes use the words moral conscious to describe the broader moral implications beyond the business world. i.e. civics and leadership. While we sometimes envision strategy in isolation, one would leave a serious hole in strategy formation if they did not include ethics/moral conscious in their process.

The key point that I'm trying to bring forward is that ethics and strategic thinking can enhance each other in a way that guides leaders to stronger decisions that help their organizations thrive in the long run. Many businesses have closed doors because leadership was not considering ethics/moral conscious in their decision making. In other words, a day came where they had to pay society back for their poor choices and the harm they caused.

For example, imagine if you made a short term lucrative strategic choice to sell products that are dangerous or unsafe to children. I might think of paint on toys we know causes cancer or selling products that are likely to be harmful or not of equitable value with consumer expectations. [On a civics level one might use an example stating one is serving public interest while making decisions that serve a smaller group of stakeholders.].

A lack of ethics in strategy decision making creates risks to the public/customers and could seriously damage the organizations reputation and interests in the long run. i.e. lower trust, more lawsuits, regulation, PR disasters, lost customers, fines, social calamity, etc. Thus, ethics/moral conscious and decision making work to enhance each other by balancing out self-interest with moral interests.

The study below helps highlight how strategic thinking may perform a moderating role between leadership style and ethical decision making. The Impact of Leadership Style on Ethical and Strategic Thinking. If one was very interested in this topic they can go out there and do a literary search and begin reviewing research studies to formulate their own conclusion on the value of ethics/moral conscious for organizations and society.

Balasubramaniam, Vishalni & Salamzadeh, Yashar & Richardson, Christopher & Plakhin, Andrey. (2021). The impact of leadership style on ethical decision-making, the moderating role of strategic thinking: a study among Malaysian managers. SHS Web of Conferences. 116. 10.1051/shsconf/202111600056.