The key goal of the essay is to explore the strategic significance of business ethics and corporate social responsibilities (CSR) for the contemporary periods, and then critically analyse the feasibility of the statement relating to ethical leadership. In the following parts, to start with, the paper will identify the vital role of ethics and CSR in business with the clear concept definition. In addition to that, the paper will focus on explaining the ethical leadership and its advantages and disadvantages with the considerations of business operation. In the end, the paper will propose several useful implications to develop ethical leadership and benefit more from it. .
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Chonko and Hunt (1985) define ethics as the code of moral principles and values that are able to govern individual and group behaviours based on the judgement of right or wrong. Ethics in business is increasingly essential to influence the sustainability of strategic decision-making. In addition, the concept of corporate social responsibility is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into the organizational business model (Mayer, Kuenzi & Greenbaum, 2010). The strategic decision-maker is expected to take corporate legal and economic obligations while creating more benefits for society for business sustainability. According to the CSR pyramid established by Carroll (2000), the corporation is confronted with four different levels including economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic. In the ethical level, the business activities of the corporation are expected to comply with what is right and avoid potential damages. In the next level, the corporation is able to contribute to the community and improve life quality as a great corporate citizen in society. In the 21st century, business ethics and CSR are closely associated with the organizational sustainable success. The industry is increasingly competitive and turbulent, and the insufficient attentions on ethical practices in business are very likely to create negative issues for the healthy development of the company.