1. I found decision-making and ethical leadership the most interesting in the application of business management theories.
Decision-making is the major process in the management of the business and the continuation of the business procedures. I analyzed that the choices are made in the business context by identification of the decisions, gathering information, assessment of alternative solutions, and more. The step-by-step maintenance of the Decision-making process is helpful in the continuation of more deliberate as well as thoughtful decisions by the management as the organization of the relevant information and definition of the appropriate alternatives are made efficient. Decision-making has become the most integral part of business management. According to Shrestha, Ben-Menahem & Von Krogh (2019), the organizational and managerial activities along with the work practices of the employees are determined through the effective Decision-making procedures of the management.
I personally feel that Decision-making is mandatory as this is a course of action that is chosen by the CEO by considering the opinions of the other stakeholders purposely from a set of alternative options for achieving the organizational as well as the managerial goals and objectives. I feel that Decision-making makes business performance better with better profit margins. As stated by Duan, Edwards & Dwivedi (2019), Decision-making has a necessary part in problem-solving as well as the combating of the challenges and issues faced by the company in their business activities. As a management head, Decision-making is a rational process that incorporates the organizational behavior, stagy, and elements of the business environment for achieving success among the industrial competitors. Decision making process also influences the leaders of their practices towards their team members.
Ethical leadership is an important aspect that has contributions to employee engagement, enhancement of brand reputation as well as an increase in organizational productivity. In the view of Sharma, Agrawal & Khandelwal (2019), the leaders that demonstrate ethics and principles of leadership in their personal actions, interpersonal relations, and professional activities promote ethical leadership. I gained knowledge that the business entities that engage in ethical behavior are effective and efficient in the attraction of customer loyalty by staying committed towards the organizational mission and values. Ethical leadership is a mandatory element for training employees and retaining potential employees that can promote business productivity and performance as well. In the application of the management theories of business, the organizational values, organizational vision, organizational voice, and organizational virtue are the most focussed on by the organizational leaders for displaying ethical leadership in the business context.
Strukan, Nikolić & Sefić (2017) opined that the 4 Vs are the characteristics that create a strong and ethical leader. I believe that ethical leadership is important as it influences the employees and their behavior in a positive and ethical manner. In addition, the employee relationship along with the retention of the potential employees and attracting the potential customers are managed efficiently by demonstrating ethical leadership. The leaders are required to act ethically as the employees follow in the footsteps of the leaders in the organizational structure. The employees are capable of making better actions and decisions and meet the deadlines as they follow business ethics as their guiding principles. Ethical leadership is therefore effective in the improved business productivity and overall business performance, as well as ethical leaders, is capable of being accountable.
2. mDecision-making is interesting as this is the major element in the business context that is capable of the accomplishment of organizational goals and objectives. The very first reason that I found Decision-making the most important is that Decision-making processes define the value drivers and the company business practices are continued based on Decision-making by the management heads. Oliveira et al. (2021) stated that Decision-making is effective in the establishment of objectives, classification, and prioritization of the objectives and implantation of the selected decisions regarding the organizational structure, activities, culture, and changes needed in the company. I strongly believe that the Decision-making process is beneficial to the business organizations, as the staff in the process of accomplishing the tasks allocated will make fewer mistakes.
This is beneficial towards the achievement of the objectives and completion of the organizational goals. The employees get a stress-free environment when they feel that the judgment and decisions of the magnet and leaders can be trusted. In addition to all these, Decision-making promotes strategies into the business model and practices that provide direction to the company, improves business performance, gains competitive advantage among industry rivals, and services the threats of the industry as well.
Ethical leadership is effective in business management as this is the most useful and necessary way of combating the toxic workplace culture and management of the employees with zero conflicts. Nguyen, Nguyen & Hoai (2021) stated that remaining transparent and incorporating values during change introduced by the ethical leaders effectively influence the employees positively towards the business organization and the tasks assigned. I believe that the leaders in their practices of the business boost employee morale with the applied ethical leadership. Ethical leadership has the capability of preventing company scandals, ethical issues as well as ethical dilemmas in the long run. More partnerships and potential customers are gained by the displaying of ethical leadership along with retention of the loyal customers. The leaders, which demonstrate ethics and principles in their leadership practices, reap long-term benefits for the organization.
Ethical guidance and integrity can be observed in the organizations that possess ethical leaders and the improvement of the business performance can be seen as a result. Customer orientation, coordinated teamwork, achievement of goals, and efficient change management can be seen in organizations that have leaders who practice ethical leadership.
3. Decision-making is a required skill that is effective in the choice of alternative options present and is beneficial for improving organizational performance. I focussed on the fact that Decision-making is effective in the business context as it can resolve the problems and issues that are being faced by the organization in the consumer market. According to Corbett-Davies et al. (2017), teamwork and meeting are efficient by effective Decision-making by the leaders and the team members in the tasks that have been assigned to them as well. I suggest that the Decision-making process by the management is effective and useful for the leaders in their leadership practices. The application of the Decision-making process is useful in the reasoning of a particular workplace activity and tasks that have been chosen by the management. Decision-making can be applied in successful business performance as emotional intelligence and creativity during and after the Decision-making process are effective in the accomplishment of the tasks set up.
The achievement of the organizational goals and objectives are done effectively by the mandatory step of Decision-making. As suggested by Liu et al. (2020), Decision-making is an approach of making choices and continuing with the allocation of the tasks by the management head for solving the problems and combating the challenges with feasible solutions. In business management, the application of the Decision-making process is necessary for making better use of the human as well as the financial resources. In addition, I also believe that the use of technological resources and digital techniques in business productivity is decided through the Decision-making process of the managers. The benefit of the Decision-making process is that the commitment is stronger towards organizational productivity.
Ethical leadership is effective in the professional career as ethical leadership is capable of promoting employee engagement, brand reputation enhancement, and increase organizational productivity. As opined by Singh (2018), customer loyalty and retention of potential employees can be achieved by displaying ethical leadership in business practices. Ethical leadership promotes fairness in the management of the team members and allocation of the tasks to the employees. Positive employee behavior can be gained by the application of ethical leadership as the employees feel that their opinions matter and are valued. Organizational growth and effective accomplishment of the tasks are achieved by the leaders by the ethical leadership that is stimulating the employee minds and employee engagement towards the organizational objectives. I believe that positive customer demands and support are gained along with effective customer loyalty if ethical leadership and professional ethics are displayed in the accomplishment of the organizational objectives.
As followed by Budur & Demir (2019), ethical leadership is beneficial in organizational success as the ethics and principles of the leaders are displayed in the cooperation and communication between the employees during teamwork. Collaborative and coordinated teamwork increases the performance and productivity of the organizational business. As a result, improved profits, sales, and brand awareness can be observed through the application of ethical leadership in the organizational structure and culture. I assessed that ethical leaders are the best example that demonstrates the qualities of a noble leader, leads by ethics, and communicates ethically. In addition, it can be seen that the ethical leadership have positive effects in the process of training and induction as well. The training sessions by the ethical leaders requires leaders who can influence the employees and motivates them with ethics and principles.
References
Decision-making
Clift, R., Sim, S., King, H., Chenoweth, J. L., Christie, I., Clavreul, J., ... & Murphy, R. (2017). The challenges of applying planetary boundaries as a basis for strategic decision-making in companies with global supply chains. Sustainability, 9(2), 279. Retrieved from: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/2/279/pdf [Retrieved on: 24 May 2021]
Corbett-Davies, S., Pierson, E., Feller, A., Goel, S., & Huq, A. (2017, August). Algorithmic decision making and the cost of fairness. In Proceedings of the 23rd acm sigkdd international conference on knowledge discovery and data mining (pp. 797-806). Retrieved from: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.08230.pdf?source=post_page--------------------------- [Retrieved on: 24 May 2021]
Duan, Y., Edwards, J. S., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2019). Artificial intelligence for Decision-making in the era of Big Data–evolution, challenges and research agenda. International Journal of Information Management, 48, 63-71. Retrived from: https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/38080/1/Artificial_Intelligence_in_the_era_of_Big_Data.pdf [Retrieved on: 24 May 2021]
Oliveira, A. S., Gomes, C. F., Clarkson, C. T., Sanseverino, A. M., Barcelos, M. R., Costa, I., & Santos, M. (2021). Multiple Criteria Decision-making and Prospective Scenarios Model for Selection of Companies to Be Incubated. Algorithms, 14(4), 111. Retrieved from: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4893/14/4/111/pdf [Retrieved on: 24 May 2021]
Shrestha, Y. R., Ben-Menahem, S. M., & Von Krogh, G. (2019). Organizational decision-making structures in the age of artificial intelligence. California Management Review, 61(4), 66-83. Retrieved from: https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/mtec/strategic-mgmt-and-innovation/img_news/cmr.pdf [Retrieved on: 24 May 2021]
Ethical leadership
Budur, T., & Demir, A. (2019). Leadership perceptions based on gender, experience, and education. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 6(1), 142-154. Retrieved from: http://eprints.tiu.edu.iq/18/1/ijsses.v5i4p184.pdf [Retrieved on: 24 May 2021]
Liu, X., Baranchenko, Y., An, F., Lin, Z., & Ma, J. (2020). The impact of ethical leadership on employee creative deviance: the mediating role of job autonomy. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. Retrieved from: https://dro.dur.ac.uk/32507/1/32507.pdf [Retrieved on: 24 May 2021]
Nguyen, N. T. T., Nguyen, N. P., & Hoai, T. T. (2021). Ethical leadership, corporate social responsibility, firm reputation, and firm performance: A serial mediation model. Heliyon, 7(4), e06809. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844021009129 [Retrieved on: 24 May 2021]
Singh, A. (2018). e-Governance and Ethical Leadership. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amita_Singh15/publication/321304129_E-governance_and_ethical_leadership/links/5a1b01b0aca272df080f149e/E-governance-and-ethical-leadership.pdf [Retrieved on: 24 May 2021]
Strukan, E., Nikolić, M., & Sefić, S. (2017). IMPACT OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE. Tehnicki vjesnik/Technical Gazette, 24. Retrieved from: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/91992612.pdf [Retrieved on: 24 May 2021]
