Assessment Task 1 Instructions

Provide answers to all of the questions below:

1. Discuss, in one paragraph, the concept of business ethics.
There are a few principles and grounding rules that one must follow in order to manage a successful
business; these grounding principles are referred to as business ethics. In this contemporary era, it could be
seen that most of the companies place high value on ethics, as it might damage their company’s goodwill
and overall performance (Rahaman et al., 2020). These business ethics helps company employees to
understand as to what is morally right or wrong when working in a corporate business setting. With this, it
can be concluded that business ethics is all about implementation of appropriate business practices and
policies within corporate business setting.

2. Discuss ethical leadership and its importance in supporting organisational values.

Ethical leadership can be defined as a leadership in which business leaders demonstrate and promote
normaltively or ethically appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relations. In
simplified terms, ethical leadership is about exhibiting strong moral princples which will point out
wrongdoings, and this is how, ethical leaders demonstrate as to what is right at the core of being an ethical
leader, and what is not. There is an empirical rol that is played by ethical leadership in business as it
supports organizational values. This is because, ethical leadership enables business ethical leaders to
promote ethical business practices that aligns with, or support organizational values.

3. Discuss three characteristics of an ethical leader.

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Although, there are many characteristics which are needed in an ethical leader, but three of the most
prominent ones are listed below-
 One leadership quality is to make fair decisions, as one must not promote favouritism, and leaders
must always symbolize justice
 Another leadership trait is of honesty wherein business leader must be honest for which they must
always remains transparent and fair (Alshammari et al., 2015)
 Respectful is yet another leadership trait which implies leader’s ability to show respect to
employees, even subordinates, which means leader must pay attention to others and value their
contributions

4. Give, and explain, three benefits of ethical leadership.

Three benefits of ethical leadership include,
- If leaders adopt ethical leadership style, then they will be less likey to face any company scandals,
ethical dilemmas and ethical issues
- It can help business leaders to gain more partnerships and customers as following ethical practices
will reflect company’s reliable and ethical standards which will lead in improved business
goodwill
- Another business benefit is that it will help company leaders to establish a culture of trust and
respect which would automatically impact employee productivity in a positive way

5. Explain the importance of leadership in ensuring that work health and safety legislation is met.

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An effective leader is the one who formulates adequate policies and procedures to build safe work
environment for employees, A good leader is the on who drafts safety policies, procedures and provides
adequate training (Van Gils & Van Quaquebeke, 2022). If adequate safety controls are employed, then
leaders will be more likely to ensure safety and well-being of staff, and this is how, they can ensure that
relevant work health and safety legislations are duly met.

6. Give five (5) reasons why it is important to follow anti-discrimination law and provide equal
opportunity, giving a short explanation of each.
5 reasons are briefly explained below-
- One possible reason is to promote diversity within company culture, as it everybody (means
members from different socio-cultural backgrounds) are treated fairly and in unbiased way, then
leaders will be able to promote diversity within company culture; this is how, better innovation
can be fostered
- Another reason to follow anti-discrimination laws is to promote equal development opportunities
amongst employees so as to foster continuous employee growth and development
- One prominent reason is to build good organizational reputation, as if company is paying due
attention to anti-discrimination laws, then it will help managers build a positive goodwill of the
company
- Elevated employee engagement is perhaps another prominent reason as to why, business managers
prefer to follow anti-discrimination laws, as it helps to promote equality which subsequently helps
business employers in increasing overall employee engagement levels (Waheed et al., 2018)
- Another prominent reason is to build healthy and conducive workplace environment, wherein
everybody is treated equally and in fair manner, and are offered respect they truly deserve; by
following anti-discrimination laws, company managers can build a healthy workplace
environment for staff

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7. Discuss at least 3 strategies that can be used to encourage employee participation in decision-making.
There are different strategies which are normally used by business leaders for encouraging employee
participation in decision-making, some of these strategies are outlined below-
- One strategy is to through the use of employee surveys, as it helps business managers to anticipate
as to what employees expect, and what they think
- Another way to encourage employee decision-making is by setting own performance targets and
goals,, which they will work towards
- Third way to foster active employee participation in decision-making is by using a suggestion box
as different team members who usually hesitate to put forth their ideas can easily present their
ideas, by providing a suggestion or idea in the suggestion box

8. Discuss three strategies that a leader can use for building trust and confidence with colleagues.
- One strategy is being honest and transparent with other members of the team, this can surely help
to build trust and confidence with colleagues, such that they will share their ideas and views
openly
- Second way that team members can adopt is by honouring the commitments, if a person honours
their commitments to others, then it will surely help in building a sense of trust and confidence
- Third way to establish trust and confidence with colleagues is by extending empathy to others, as
it will help them to emotionally connect with that person; this is how, one can establish trust and
confidence with others (Cheng et al., 2019)

9. Explain two research methods an organisation can use when considering leadership skills and best
practice for their workplace and culture.

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2 research methods which an organization can make use of, when considering leadership skills include
surveys and questionnaire. This is because, these survey and questionnaires will provide insights to team
members’ views and perspectives about leadership skills and best practices which could be adopted in the
workplace. Also, these two are most commonly used research methods used by business managers when
considering leadership skills and best practice for their workplace and culture

10. For your two research methods discussed above, describe a method of how this can be implemented in
a workplace.
As specified earlier that there are basically two research methods which are commonly adopted by
business managers, these include surveys and questionnaires. Business managers conduct surveys within
companies by creating agoogle form in which there are open ended and closed ended questions. These
survey questions are then shared with team members, on their respective emails, and then survey responses
are gathered. Theswe survey responses provide insights about leadership skills and best practices.

11. Explain the key phases of a change management process.

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Change management is basically a five step procedure in which five different steps are followed in a
sequential order. These steps which are typically considered in change management process are outlined
below-
- The first step is related to preparation of organization for change, it requires organization to be
ready culturally and logistically. Business leaders must consider cultural preparation aspect before
bringing the change (Jalagat, 2016)
- Second step is concerned with creation of a plan, in which leaders must clearly define the vision
and plan or series of steps to be followed for successful change implementation
- Third step is related to change implementation in which changes which were planned in the
previous step will not be practically implemented
- In the next step, leaders will embed newly introduced changes within company’s culture and
practices and this will be done through introduction of new structures, controls, and reward
systems
- In the lst step, business leaders will review progress, and accordingly analyse results as to whether
business is able to reap expected benefits with change implementation or not

12. Explain the organisational change process using Kotter’s 8-step change model.

Kotter has defined an 8 step change model in which business leaders will need to follow eight series of
steps for successful change implementation. These eight steps are outlined below-
- Step 1- create urgency: Business managers will need to develop a sense of urgency for change
which is to be implemented in the organization
- Step 2- form a powerful coalition: The second step is concerned with conving business people to
support business changes, and thus, management support will be acquired for successful change
implementation
- Step 3 – create a vision for change: In this step, a vision will be created and shared with the team
so that they can analyse as to why there is a need for change
- Step 4 – communicate the vision: The newly set vision will now be explained to team members,
so that they anticipate as to why there is a need for change, and key decisions which must be made
to solve problems
- Step 5 – remove obstacles: There is a need for business leaders to introduce new structures,
processes and change in business models that support new processes
- Step 6 – create short term wins: Make members aware of the early benefits that could be attained
with the succefsul implementation of desired change within the company
- Step 7 – build on the change: Identify key areas that require improvements while introducing
business change in the workplace setting
- Step 8 – anchor the changes in coporate culture: Business leaders will now have to mkake some

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efforts to ensure that newly introduced change is seen in every aspect of the business.

References
Alshammari, A., Almutairi, N., & Thuwaini, S. F. (2015). Ethical Leadership: The effect on

employees. International Journal of Business and Management, 10(3).

[Link]

Cheng, J., Bai, H., & Hu, C. (2019). The relationship between ethical leadership and employee voice:

The roles of error management climate and organizational commitment. Journal of

Management & Organization, 28(1), 58–76. [Link]

Jalagat, R. (2016). The impact of change and change management in achieving corporate goals and

objectives: organizational. . . ResearchGate.

[Link]

Management_in_Achieving_Corporate_Goals_and_Objectives_Organizational_Perspective

Rahaman, H. M. S., Camps, J., Decoster, S., & Stouten, J. (2020). Ethical leadership in times of

change: the role of change commitment and change information for employees’ dysfunctional

resistance. Personnel Review, 50(2), 630–647. [Link]

Van Gils, S., & Van Quaquebeke, N. (2022). Ethical leadership. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of

Psychology. [Link]

Waheed, Z., Hussin, S., Khan, M. I., Ghavifekr, S., & Bahadur, W. (2018). Ethical leadership and

change: A qualitative comparative case study in selected Malaysian transformed schools.

Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 47(4), 624–639.

[Link]

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