Ethical leadership challenges facing early career employees

The Ted Rogers Leadership Centre invited CCAL to participate in a “Day of Research” at the Ted Rogers Business School, Ryerson University (Toronto) last October.  The objective of the forum was to review recently completed research on early career employees, defined as those with five years’ work experience or less, to understand how this segment of the workforce identifies and resolves ethical dilemmas compared to those with decades of experience under their belt. The forum also aimed to explore what post-secondary institutions and their leadership centres can do to help.

With little professional experience, early career employees might be more anxious to fit into their new work environment, while being less sure of their organization’s ethics policies and feeling fragile job security. All of these factors combined can lead to ethical missteps of varying degrees.

Jessica McManus, professor with Mendoza College of Business at University of Notre Dame, presented a chapter of her book Engaging Millennials for Ethical Leadership: What Works for Young Professionals and Their Managers in the first of four roundtable discussions. McManus focused her research on millennials due to a disconnect she noticed between how the group is portrayed in mainstream media and what she experiences as an instructor. McManus also noted what most millennials find compelling in the workplace: tone at the top, a culture of integrity, feedback and ongoing improvement, frequent communication and most importantly, ethical leadership.

The event ended on a high note with a public keynote address by Dr. Mary Gentile, creator of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. GVV is an innovative approach to value-driven leadership development in business education and the workplace. Straightforward and timely, Gentile’s curriculum is effective because it focuses on implementation and asks questions rooted in self-reflection that will lead to action. In this context, business ethnics is centred on being true to who we are in both our personal and professional lives.

From its original launch by The Aspen Institute and the Yale School of Management, GVV has become a global endeavor extending to over one thousand organizations worldwide.

Following Dr. Gentile’s keynote, the Canadian Centre for Advanced Leadership (CCAL) gave a reflective presentation and opened the question period.  “Ethics is about how we treat people. A significant and variable cost for employers is employee engagement,” reflected Valle. “On the flipside, employees spend most of their waking hours at work and are ready to dedicate their best energies to their jobs.  If we can enable employees to be their best selves at work, they will be more likely to care about what they do, grow professionally and personally while simultaneously grow their company too.”

Stay tuned for the next steps in this research area.  If you are interested in learning more about business ethics and listening to experts in this field, we’d love to hear from you at leadership@haskayne.ucalgary.ca