Issue 43

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43. To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standard.

Ethical and moral standards play important roles in people’s value system. I agree with the statement that it is of great importance to maintain high ethical and moral standards if one wants to become an effective leader. However, to maintain the highest standards is impossible and of no necessity.

Ethics and morals are respectively akin to theory and practice. “Moral” has a dual meaning. The first indicates a person’s comprehension of morality and his capacity to put it into practice. In this meaning, the antonym is “amoral”, indicating an inability to distinguish between right and wrong. The second denotes the active practice of those values. In this sense, the antonym is “immoral”, referring to actions that violate ethical principles.

Undoubtedly, leaders must maintain a high ethical and moral standard, which help them earn others’ support and trust. In the realm of business, the ethics and morals still have important functions. The successful leaders are always those who conform to social ethics and morals. A really successful entrepreneur cares more about the future than the current profit. These leaders understand that their corporations’ images in consumers’ heart are essential, thus, they spend more effort forging their brands. For example, famous corporations often provide their customers with better service and be honest to them so that they can earn customers’ trust. Almost all famous corporations win their successes with their sincere and honest service.

Without a high ethical and moral standard, a leader’s personality will be unreliable and it might lead to unimaginable catastrophe. It is particularly true in the politic realm. Nixon, the 37th president of United States, lost people’s trust and resigned finally due to the Watergate Scandal. His role in that scandal led to people’s doubt about their leader’s morality and eventually resulted in Nixon’s resignation. Moreover, it is quite formidable if a leader is of poor ethical and moral standard. Take Hitler as the obvious example, he abused his power to invade other countries and slaughter Jews. Although he was finally defeated, the greatest catastrophe in human history—World War II—cost hundreds of millions of people’s lives and the destructions are inestimable. These two examples show the importance of ethics and morals from the other side.

However, there is no need to maintain the highest ethical and moral standard. Going too far is as bad as not going enough. For instance, politic calls more for wisdom and sophistry and sometimes political leaders have to hold some information to stable a society. Moreover, there is no standard to assess which is the highest ethical and moral standard. There is no need to judge which leader achieves the highest ethical and moral standard when they all have the high standard.

To sum up, no one could deny the importance of ethics and morals in leadership. We need to set them as a principle to elect leaders. However, to consider whether a leader achieves the highest standard or not is unnecessary and, to some extent, even impossible.