The television show Undercover Boss features a leader working undercover in his or her own company to find out how the organization really works. Here, we consider the ethical leadership lessons it might offer. Executives from DirecTV, Hooters, 7-Eleven. NASCAR, Chiquita, and Choice Hotels have been featured on the show. Typically, the executive works undercover for a week. Then the employees with whom and under whom the leader has worked are summoned to company headquarters and rewarded, or punished, for their actions. In one episode, Waste Management's president Larry O'Donnell, sporting gray stubble and work clothes, works the back of a trash truck. Later, he sorts recyclables from a fast-moving conveyer belt. Under the barking orders of a supervisor, he even cleans a long line of portable toilets. Some criticize the show for its faux realism. The CEOs know they are on camera, so every word and facial expression is for the cameras. Many employees know they are on camera, too. One critic commented, "Because the series' very existence requires cooperation from the executives that it purports to make suffer for their sins, it has to raise them higher, in the end, than it found them at the start."

Realistic or not, the series continues to be popular. And the effects on the bosses featured in the episodes—and their employees—are profound. After CEO Mitchell Modell of the sporting goods chain Modell's spent days struggling to keep up with his lowest-paid employees in the warehouse and the office, he reported, "I tell everybody if you're fortunate enough to be on 'Undercover Boss' to do it in a heartbeat," he said. "If you're not fortunate enough, then go work on the front lines. It's an eye-opening experience." As a result of the insight he gained, Modell overhauled the company's approach to customer service and learned new ways to increase profitability and organization performance. He said, "As CEO, one of the things you always wonder about is what your associates (employees) are really thinking and what their days are like. It was a great education."

The idea has moved beyond television too. Recently, the Australian government created a program that places CEOs undercover in their own workplaces. One participating CEO, Phil Smith of clothing retailer Fletcher Jones, said tearfully, "I learnt a lot from this that I wouldn't have found out any other way."

Do you think leaders who work undercover are really changed as a result of their experiences?

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