Week 7 Discussion 1: Analysis of Ethical Leadership Style
This week 7 discussion focuses on the analysis of ethical leadership styles. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring what my personal ethical leadership style is and the corresponding values that will help shape my nursing practice. Northouse defines values as ideas, beliefs, and modes of action that people find worthwhile or desirable (Northouse, 2018, p.285). In relation to this week’s discussion, we learn that personal values can contribute to understanding our own ethical leadership styles. Ethical leadership is the influence of a moral person who moves others to do the right thing in the right way for the right reasons (Northouse, 2018, p.274). After taking the Chapter 12 “Ethical Leadership Style Questionnaire” in Northouse, I discovered that my dominant ethical leadership style is justice ethics with a score of four. Justice ethics came in second place with 3 points. Duty, utilitarian, and caring ethics tied for third place with one point each. Lastly, I received 0 points for egoism ethics. Because I scored highest on justice ethics, this means that I focus on treating others fairly when faced with ethical dilemmas. I am most concerned with the benefits and burdens of what the final decisions are, and I like to be fair to all those involved. I am not surprised that this is my dominant style, as I often seek ways to make decisions that seem to have a positive effect on all parties. I don’t like to decide on what is best for personal gain, which is clear with my score of 0 for egoism ethics. In dealing with ethical dilemmas, we learn in Huber that health care professionals commonly refer to various principles, rules, and standards for making moral decisions (Huber, 2018, p.98).
Drawing from the questionnaire results, I can learn how I deal with ethical dilemmas and refer to my own personal core values in making moral decisions. In a cross-sectional and quantitative article by Grobler, the authors suggest that ethical leadership affects employee behavior and organizational functioning (Grobler, 2021, p.21). This study particularly looked closely at the relationship between ethical leadership and productive energy to demonstrate that leadership has a direct effect on employee behavior. With a productive energy instrument, a comparison took place between private and public sectors in South Africa (Grobler, 2021, p.25). Results show that 18% of the variance in productive energy is explained by ethical leadership. In other words, ethical leadership has a positive effect on productive energy in the workplace (Grobler, 2021, p.27). In relation to the weekly discussion, this article can help me realize that my practice with justice ethics will have direct effects on the energy in the workplace. I can further understand how I handle decision-making with fairness, and how this will have direct effects on the outcomes of all members and how they react to my
leadership qualities. In planning for my future role as a family nurse practitioner, I can reflect on these values and understand my personal philosophy on resolving dilemmas. The first step in becoming a better leader is to become self-aware and notice how one will personally handle situations. Now that I am aware of my ethical style, with a focus on justice, I can provide better care for my patients through fairness and faithfulness. In my current and future practice, I will provide care using justice ethics by treating every patient fairly and with respect. I will not practice favoritism or decide to provide less care to another. I will treat each patient as I would my own family members and loved ones. I will also listen to all members of the interdisciplinary health care team and value their ideas, while considering how to be just in my care planning. This weekly discussion is valuable to my current and future practice as a nurse. Understanding personal ethical leadership styles and underlying core values will enhance my professional practice in making health care decisions.
References:
Grobler, S., & Grobler, A. (2021). Ethical leadership, person-organizational fit, and productive energy: a South African sectoral comparative study. Ethics and Behavior, 31(1), 21-37.
Huber, D. (2018). Chapter 6. In Leadership and nursing care management (p.85-99). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Addressing Ethics in Leadership. In Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice (4th ed., pp.273-291). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
Important information for writing discussion questions and participation
Welcome to class
Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to
I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.
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Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.
Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.
I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!
Hi Class,
Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.
Contact me if you have any questions.
Important information on Writing a Discussion Question
- Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
- There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
- Include in-text citations in your response
- Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
- Follow APA-7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor
- A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
- Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
- Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
- Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
- Follow APA 7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
- Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
- Here are some helpful links
- The is a great resource
Value: 100 points
Due: In an effort to facilitate scholarly discourse, create your initial post by Day 3 and reply to at least two of your classmates, on two separate days, by Day 7.
Grading Category: Discussions
Note: In this type of discussion, you will not see the responses of your classmates until after you have posted your own response to the question below.
Initial Post
Complete the assigned readings and the “Ethical Leadership Style Questionnaire” (Northouse, Chapter 12).
In an initial post of 450–500 words, respond to the following:
- Based on your responses to the questionnaire, what are your core values?
- In planning for your future role, how will your values influence what you do?
Replies
Reply to at least two of your classmates. In your reply posts, in a well-developed paragraph (300–350 words to each peer), provide evidence-based support to increase your peers’ understanding of ethics and the APRN role.
Please refer to the for details on how this activity will be graded. The described expectations meet the passing level of 80%. Students are directed to review the Discussion Grading Rubric for criteria which exceed expectations.
Posting to the Discussion Forum
- Select the appropriate Thread.
- Select Reply.
- Create your post.
- Select Post to Forum.
The results of my survey were as follows: Duty ethics=3, Virtue ethics=3, Justice ethics=2, Caring ethics=1, Egoism ethics=1 and Utilitarian ethics=0. According to these scores, my predominant ethical leadership style is both Duty and Virtue. Northouse (2018) states that virtue ethics means that you pull from who you are (your character) when facing an ethical dilemma, you act out of integrity and you are faithful to your own principles (p.295). I find this to be true and it reminds me of a time when I was coming onto a shift and noticed that a patient who was receiving blood, but the pump was shut off. Half of the unit was still hanging but too much time had elapsed to infuse the remainder of the blood. The nurse before me accidently entered half the volume of blood into the pump. I did not want to get this nurse in trouble, but the patient still needed to receive the remainder of that blood. I had to call the physician to tell him what happened so he could order another unit of blood for this patient. I had to act in the best interest of the patient even though I knew this nurse would suffer consequences of her mistake. This scenario demonstrated virtue ethics as I remained faithful to my own principle of doing what is best for my patients.
Northouse (2018) describes duty ethics as meaning that you follow a set of rules, and do what is expected of you when facing an ethical dilemma. You focus on fulfilling your moral obligations and doing your duty (p.294). An example of a nursing situation involving duty ethics reminds me of a time working on a busy med-surge floor in a hospital. I had 5 stable patients who were not requiring an excessive amount of care. It was my 3rd day in a row with the assignment which made for an easy shift since I already know about them. The nurse in the assignment next to me was going to have a very heavy assignment with 5 very sick and needy patients. Those patients may not have gotten the safest care possible because their nurse would be spread too thin during her shift. Although I was excited to have what I thought would be an easy shift, I felt a moral obligation to swap two of my easier patients with my coworker to take on two of her heavier patients to lighten her load. It was my duty as a nurse to do what was right for not only my patients, by those of my floor and to help my fellow coworker, demonstrating duty ethics.
The results of this questionnaire reflect my core values of always acting with integrity and being faithful to my own principles, I follow a set of moral rules and adhere to my moral obligations as well as always treating others fairly when facing an ethical dilemma. Markey (2020) describes Moral judgement as the ability to reason correctly about what ought to be done in a specific situation, and moral motivation as the personal commitment to moral action and requires an acceptance of responsibilities for the outcome (p.3). In my future role as an APRN, I will be presented with new and challenging ethical dilemmas, however I feel I am grounded in my moral judgement and moral motivation to guide my decision making and it will be my responsibility to my patients to always act with the utmost respect and beneficence.
References:
Huber Huber, D.L. (2018). Leadership and Nursing Care Management (6th ed). St. Louis:
Elsevier.
Markey, K. (2020). Moral reasoning as a catalyst for cultural competence and culturally
responsive care. Nursing Philosophy. 2021;22:e12337.
Discussion Question Rubric
Note: Scholarly resources are defined as evidence-based practice, peer-reviewed journals; textbook (do not rely solely on your textbook as a reference); and National Standard Guidelines. Review assignment instructions, as this will provide any additional requirements that are not specifically listed on the rubric.
Note: The value of each of the criterion on this rubric represents a point range. (example: 17-0 points)
| Criteria | Exemplary Exceeds Expectations |
Advanced Meets Expectations |
Intermediate Needs Improvement |
Novice Inadequate |
Total Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality of Initial Post | Provides clear examples supported by course content and references.
Cites three or more references, using at least one new scholarly resource that was not provided in the course materials. All instruction requirements noted. 40 points |
Components are accurate and thoroughly represented, with explanations and application of knowledge to include evidence-based practice, ethics, theory, and/or role. Synthesizes course content using course materials and scholarly resources to support importantpoints.
Meets all requirements within the discussion instructions. Cites two references. 35 points |
Components are accurate and mostly represented primarily with definitions and summarization. Ideas may be overstated, with minimal contribution to the subject matter. Minimal application to evidence-based practice, theory, or role development. Synthesis of course content is present but missing depth and/or development.
Is missing one component/requirement of the discussion instructions. Cites one reference, or references do not clearly support content. Most instruction requirements are noted. 31 points |
Absent application to evidence-based practice, theory, or role development. Synthesis of course content is superficial.
Demonstrates incomplete understanding of content and/or inadequate preparation. No references cited. Missing several instruction requirements. Submits post late. 27 points |
40 |
| Peer Response Post | Offers both supportive and alternative viewpoints to the discussion, using two or more scholarly references per peer post. Post provides additional value to the conversation.
All instruction requirements noted. 40 points |
Evidence of further synthesis of course content. Provides clarification and new information or insight related to the content of the peer’s post.
Response is supported by course content and a minimum of one scholarly reference per each peer post. All instruction requirements noted. 35 points |
Lacks clarification or new information. Scholarly reference supports the content in the peer post without adding new information or insight.
Missing reference from one peer post. Partially followed instructions regarding number of reply posts. Most instruction requirements are noted. 31 points |
Post is primarily a summation of peer’s post without further synthesis of course content.
Demonstrates incomplete understanding of content and/or inadequate preparation. Did not follow instructions regarding number of reply posts. Missing reference from peer posts. Missing several instruction requirements. Submits post late. 27 points |
40 |
| Frequency of Distribution | Initial post and peer post(s) made on multiple separate days.
All instruction requirements noted. 10 points |
Initial post and peer post(s) made on multiple separate days.
8 points |
Minimum of two post options (initial and/or peer) made on separate days.
7 points |
All posts made on same day.
Submission demonstrates inadequate preparation. No post submitted. 6 points |
10 |
| Organization | Well-organized content with a clear and complex purpose statement and content argument. Writing is concise with a logical flow of ideas.
5 points |
Organized content with an informative purpose statement, supportive content, and summary statement. Argument content is developed with minimal issues in content flow.
4 points |
Poor organization and flow of ideas distract from content. Narrative is difficult to follow and frequently causes reader to reread work.
Purpose statement is noted. 3 points |
Illogical flow of ideas. Prose rambles. Purpose statement is unclear or missing.
Demonstrates incomplete understanding of content and/or inadequate preparation. No purpose statement. Submits assignment late. 2 points |
5 |
| APA, Grammar, and Spelling | Correct APA formatting with no errors.
The writer correctly identifies reading audience, as demonstrated by appropriate language (avoids jargon and simplifies complex concepts appropriately). Writing is concise, in active voice, and avoids awkward transitions and overuse of conjunctions. There are no spelling, punctuation, or word-usage errors. 5 points |
Correct and consistent APA formatting of references and cites all references used. No more than two unique APA errors.
The writer demonstrates correct usage of formal English language in sentence construction. Variation in sentence structure and word usage promotes readability. There are minimal to no grammar, punctuation, or word-usage errors. 4 points |
Three to four unique APA formatting errors.
The writer occasionally uses awkward sentence construction or overuses/inappropriately uses complex sentence structure. Problems with word usage (evidence of incorrect use of thesaurus) and punctuation persist, often causing some difficulties with grammar. Some words, transitional phrases, and conjunctions are overused. Multiple grammar, punctuation, or word usage errors. 3 points |
Five or more unique formatting errors or no attempt to format in APA.
The writer demonstrates limited understanding of formal written language use; writing is colloquial (conforms to spoken language). The writer struggles with limited vocabulary and has difficulty conveying meaning such that only the broadest, most general messages are presented. Grammar and punctuation are consistently incorrect. Spelling errors are numerous. Submits assignment late. 2 points |
5 |
| Total Points | 100 | ||||
