Ethical Leadership for Sustainability in the Era of Technology

Abstract

The study aims to explore the importance of ethical leadership in the modern
era of technology. In today’s neoliberal world of globalization, financialization,
and search for numerical flexibility, organizations are resorting to numerous
technological innovations of the second machine age to extract as much surplus
value as possible from the workers or employees. To do so, leaders are often
engaging in numerous forms of unethical practices. In the given context, the
study aims to explore how unethical leadership practices in this technological
era ultimately affects the sustainability of the organization. The study is based
on secondary data, going through studies from multiple disciplines (ethics,
technology, and leadership) to draw a congruent and wholesome picture of the
research topic. The current research finds out that in all the sectors, unethical
practice by leaders to generate higher profit has been documented in various
parts of the world. The major unethical practice done through the use of
technology are profiling candidates on social media, monitoring of employees
within and beyond the organizational boundaries, misclassification of employees
as independent contractors, and algorithmic control. While such practices may
boost profit in the short run, in the long-run majority of these organizations
are suffering in numerous ways such as legal case filings by the employees,
naming and shaming by the general public against the unethical practices,
lower productivity, operational and financial distress, and reputational damage.
The study suggests that looking at the long run picture, managers should make
ethical use of technological advancements and consider both the social and
technical aspects of a system to ensure equitable distribution of the surplus
value.