ETH 2200 Module 1 Final Project Part 1: Reflection on Leadership Example

The Foreman Who Would Not Sign: A Reflection on Leadership From a Road Crew

Student Name

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Thomas Edison State University

ETH-2200: Leading the Way: A Path Towards Ethical Leadership

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

The Foreman Who Would Not Sign: A Reflection on Leadership From a Road Crew

What I Believe Leadership Is

I have led a road crew for the township for three years. Before that I spent nine years on the crew myself, patching potholes, plowing snow and clearing storm drains. At the start of this course, my definition of leadership was getting the job done safely and on time. I still believe that, but writing this reflection has made me see that it is not enough. A leader decides what "done" means, and the crew watches how those decisions are made. Brown et al. (2005) describe ethical leaders as people others see acting with integrity and who also make ethics part of how they manage, using rewards, discipline and conversation. That second part, making ethics part of the job, is what I want to get better at. The course materials frame this first reflection as a look back at an ethical challenge the writer actually faced (Thomas Edison State University & Alverson, n.d.).

The Leader Who Shaped Me

The leader who shaped my thinking most was my first foreman, Walt. In my second winter, a supervisor from another department asked Walt to sign a report saying a stretch of road had been treated with salt before a storm, so the township would be covered if anyone crashed. The road had not been treated; we had run out of salt that afternoon. Walt refused. He said he would sign that the road was scheduled for treatment and that the salt delivery was late, which was true. The other supervisor was angry, and Walt was passed over for a promotion the next year. He never complained about it to us.

What stayed with me was not only that he told the truth. It was how calmly he did it, and that he did it in front of us. Every one of us knew after that day that our paperwork had to match what we did. Treviño et al. (2000) argue that a leader's reputation for ethics depends on being both a "moral person" and a "moral manager," someone whose ethical behavior is visible to others. Walt was both, and he made his standards visible without making a speech about them.

My Core Values

Three values guide me as a crew leader.

Honesty. Our work is checked by the public every time someone drives over a road. If our records say a job was done and it was not, people can get hurt and the township can be sued. I will not sign for work that was not done, and I do not ask the crew to.

Fairness. Overtime is the most valuable thing I hand out. Snow callouts pay time and a half, and crew members notice who gets called first. I keep a rotation list posted in the garage, and when I break it for a reason, such as needing a certified plow driver, I say why.

Care for the crew. Road work is dangerous. Drivers speed through work zones, and fatigue during a long storm causes mistakes. Caring for the crew means sending people home after 16 hours even when the roads are not finished.

Testing a Decision Against the Frameworks

Last February, during a two-day storm, the public works director asked me to keep the crew working through a second night because the main roads were not clear. Two of my drivers had been awake for nearly 20 hours. I sent them home and drove one route myself.

The module presents three ways to judge a choice like this. Consequentialism asks which action produces the best results. Keeping tired drivers on the road risked a crash that could have killed a driver or a motorist; sending them home delayed clearing by about three hours on two routes. On balance, the consequences favored my choice. Duty-based ethics asks what obligations apply regardless of results. I have a duty to follow the director's instructions, but also a duty, written into our safety policy, not to let fatigued drivers operate heavy equipment. When duties conflict, the duty not to put people in danger seemed stronger. The virtue question is simpler to ask and harder to answer: what would someone of good character do here? I thought about what Walt would have done, and I think he would have done the same thing and then explained it to the director directly, which I did the next morning.

What I Want to Learn

I am good at making these decisions in the moment. I am less good at explaining them in advance so the crew and my director know what to expect. Through this course, I want to build a set of principles I can state plainly, the "philosophy" this project ends with, so my crew can predict how I will decide and hold me to it.

References

Brown, M. E., Treviño, L. K., & Harrison, D. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97(2), 117-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.03.002

Thomas Edison State University, & Alverson, K. (n.d.). Leading the way: A path towards ethical leadership. Thomas Edison State University.

Treviño, L. K., Hartman, L. P., & Brown, M. (2000). Moral person and moral manager: How executives develop a reputation for ethical leadership. California Management Review, 42(4), 128-142. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166057