Running head: LEADERSHIP IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONS

Leadership in Emergency Management Organizations

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1. Harassment and Discrimination

The globalization trend expects leaders in organizations to offer people equal

opportunities for employment. Globalized workplace systems require leaders to create a diverse

workplace in terms of culture, racial backgrounds, physical capabilities, and gender. However,

workplace diversity in globalized workplaces has exposed leaders to the ethical issue of

harassment and discrimination. Cases of workplace harassment and discrimination occur on the

basis of age, disabilities, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Employees in the workplace

harass their colleagues physically, sexually, or psychologically (Manning & Curtis, 2015).

Numerous studies have indicated that harassment and discrimination is a costly ethical issue for

an organization. It is an ethical issue that inhibits the internal business processes because of the

reduced welfare of the employees. Notably, reduced employee welfare can reduce their

productivity and discourage their participation in team activities.

Leaders, therefore, should be committed to protecting the welfare of employees by

protecting them from harassment and discrimination. Fortunately, organizational leaders have

different options for dealing with this ethical issue in the workplace. Firstly, leaders should

recognize that harassment and discrimination exist as a workplace issue capable of reducing the

competitiveness and profitability of the organization. Leaders should understand that this ethical

issue can make it hard for the organization to retain and motivate employees (Thompson, 2019).

They should further understand the severity of various harassment and discrimination

circumstances and their respective policies. Understanding harassment and discrimination enable

leaders to develop different sensitization programs. They should also nurture the development of

an organizational culture that discourages discrimination and harassment. Ethnic-based

discrimination, for example, can be eradicated through the development of cultural competence
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in the workplace. Additionally, gender-based discrimination can be eradicated through the

emphasis on the importance of gender equality in the workplace. Leaders can eliminate sexual

harassment in the workplace by emphasizing on the associated legal frameworks for ensuring

accountability among employees.

Secondly, leaders should always ensure an open communication channel between them

and their subordinate employees with regards to reporting of harassment and discrimination

incidences. They should nurture a workplace culture that encourages employees to report these

incidences. This culture is designed to ensure that employees who willingly report harassment

and discrimination incidences affected them, and their colleagues are treated with the utmost

respect. Leaders should ensure that all employees are held accountable for their harassment and

discriminative actions irrespective of their gender, age, positions in the workplace, and ethnicity.

The strategy will ensure that all employees have equal protection rights within an organization.

Finally, leaders should assume a leading role in eradicating discrimination and harassment in the

workplace. These leaders should lead to acquiring cultural competence and respecting other

workers irrespective of their age, sexual orientation, and gender. Leaders should respect and

protect their subordinates by avoiding stereotypes, prejudice, and familiarity heuristics-based

dispute resolution in workplaces.

2. Nurturing Two-Way Communication between Leaders and Subordinates

Communication significantly influences the internal business processes. Effective

communication enhances teamwork performance, employees’ satisfaction, leadership

effectiveness, and innovation integration. The competitiveness and profitability of business

organization today is determined by the nature of communication between leaders and their

subordinates and team members. Leaders, therefore, are encouraged to nurture the two-way
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communication path between them and their subordinates to promote the sharing of ideas

(Manning & Curtis, 2015). Studies have shown that trust is an important factor in encouraging

communication in a business organization. Trust in an organization is developed through an

emphasis on transparency, respect, and integrity. Leaders instill the above-mentioned values to

their subordinates through a unifying culture. The development of an organizational culture

ensures that leaders and employees are united by common goals and purpose (Hassell, 2019).

Studies have shown that organizational cultures are capable of aligning individual goals with

those of their organization. At this juncture, leaders should effectively communicate organization

values, strategies, and goals to all employees to promote understanding of their respective roles

and responsibilities.

Leaders can also encourage two-way communication in their organization by maximizing

employee engagement. Employee engagement strategy involves encouraging the involvement of

employees in making important decisions and solving serious problems facing the organization.

Engaging employees in critical workplace processes boosts their confidence, self-esteem, and

emotional attachment to the organization. Confidence and high self-esteem encourage employees

to share ideas with colleagues and leaders in an organization. Furthermore, employee

engagement enables leaders to eradicate the traditional rigid hierarchical organizational structure.

Fixed conventional structures normally discouraged employees’ engagement, thus hindering idea

sharing in organizations.

The manner leaders communicate with their subordinates influences their willingness to

share ideas with leaders and colleague employees. Leaders should understand that the

effectiveness of a communication channel is highly dependent on the effectiveness of the

feedback system. Leaders, therefore, should implement feedback channels in their organization.
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The feedback channels enable employees to understand that their ideas have huge impacts on the

organizational systems (Inc. Staff, 2010). Leaders should always offer quick responses to the

employees’ questions and ideas as a motivational strategy. Leaders, for example, should notify

employees upon receiving a message via email or other messaging platforms. Leaders should

also involve employees in face-to-face meetings. However, in large organizations, leaders should

select some employees to represent them in face-to-face meetings involving individual

employees. Leadership training programs also motivate employees to share ideas with their

superiors and colleague employees. These programs enable employees to realize that interaction

with their leaders increases their exposure to leadership responsibilities. Organizations that

employ this strategy normally prefer hiring from within to fill top position vacancies.

3. Leadership Values

Leadership excellence in organizations depends on an individual’s commitment to

workplace values, including integrity, excellence, honesty, service, and respect. Leaders,

therefore, should ensure that their decisions and actions are based on workplace values. Leaders

are expected to stick to their principles with regards to their interaction with their subordinates,

considering that management of human capital determines the competitiveness and profitability

of an organization. It is hence unacceptable for leaders in an organization to sacrifice their

instrumental values even if it means benefiting the organization.

Notably, leaders are expected to set moral examples in organizations. Leaders are

expected to enlighten their subordinates regarding compliance with regulatory frameworks and

adherence to moral values. The teamwork-based, flat, and cross-functional organizational

systems hold that every employee in the organization, including leaders, are equal before the

codes of practice. In the new organizational systems, leadership behaviors act as standards for
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workplace performance (Manning & Curtis, 2015). If leaders display immorality and shaky

principles, their subordinates are convinced that these mistakes are permissible. Improper

practices and behaviors among leaders encourage replication by their subordinates. Conflict

resolution strategies among leaders that involve sacrificing their values solve temporary

solutions for these problems. Success in the competitive globalized business is dependent on the

leaders’ ability to set long-term goals for their organizations. Leaders are also expected to make

decisions that have long-term impacts on the organization. Sticking to instrumental values is the

only way an organization can accomplish long-term goals, including competitiveness and

profitability.

The risks associated with compromising moral code and principles by sacrificing

instrumental values can be explored from the perspective of 21st Century organizational

conflicts. Leaders, for example, might be tempted to pay employees lower salaries in an attempt

to reduce costs for their organizations. Leaders might reduce salaries for employees without

considering their productivity in the organization. Although this might profit the organization in

the short term, employee motivation and satisfaction will eventually drop. Moreover, lack of

employee satisfaction and motivation will eventually frustrate the organization’s employee

retention goal. Leaders act as the backbones for organizational cultures that aim at integrating

instrumental values with the human capital. Sacrificing instrumental values among leaders leads

to confusion in the workplace. Leaders who sacrifice these values also create mistrust in the

workplace, thus hindering teamwork processes and two-way communication.

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References

Hassell, D. (2019). Open Communication: Vital to Business Success. American Management

Association. Retrieved from https://www.amanet.org/articles/open-communication-vital-

to-business-success/

Inc. Staff . (2010, May 1). How to Communicate With Employees: The secrets, and the benefits,

of effective communication. Inc.

Manning, G., & Curtis, K. (2015). The art of leadership (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Education.

Thompson, J. (2019). Common Ethical Workplace Dilemmas. Chron.