Binta Niambi Brown is the CEO and cofounder of Fermata Entertainment Ltd., an innovative startup in the music industry. She faced an ethical dilemma. Brown was about to close a $3 billion asset acquisition when she uncovered information that could have destroyed the deal. She could not reach her business partner and had two choices: Risk the deal by telling the client or stay quiet until the papers were signed. She decided to tell the client. In her own words, “[e]ven if the deal had been blown up for good, honest reasons rooted in decent integrity and morality, there’s always the fear that you are going to become the associate whose deal blew up, and now everybody’s talking about how the senior person wasn’t around and you are being Goody Two-Shoes and you ruined the deal.” When she disclosed the information, she was able to reach an agreement and the deal was ultimately made. In the end, her demonstration of sound ethics and doing the right thing prevailed. Perhaps the most important aspect of the use of influence in organizations is the ethical use of power and politics for leaders. Leaders must apply ethical tests to every action they take in the organization using the tactics described in this chapter. How Good People Make Tough Choices, by Rushworth Kidder, provides a nine-step checklist leaders and others may use to determine if they are being ethical in their dealings with others...............

Discussion Questions

1. Provide an example of the utilitarian approach in organizations (think of a decision that does the most good for the most people).

2. How does the utilitarian approach in your example differ from focusing on individual rights? What would you do differently if focusing on individual rights?

3. What approach do you think most leaders use in practice?