Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership
Executives should not take a reputation for ethical leadership for granted. Based on interviews with senior executives and corporate ethics officers, this article reveals that a reputation for executive ethical leadership rests on two essential pillars: the executive's visibility as a moral person (based upon perceived traits, behaviors, and decision-making processes) and visibility as a moral manager (based upon role modeling, use of the reward system, and communication). Developing a reputation for ethical leadership pays dividends in reduced legal problems and increased employee commitment, satisfaction, and employee ethical conduct. The alternatives are the unethical leader, the hypocritical leader (who talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk), and the ethically neutral leader (who may be an ethical person, but employees don't know it because the leader has not made ethics and values an explicit part of the leadership agenda). The article also offers guidelines for cultivating a reputation for ethical leadership.
Authors :: Linda Klebe Trevino, Laura Pincus Hartman, Michael Brown
Swot Analysis of "Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership" written by Linda Klebe Trevino, Laura Pincus Hartman, Michael Brown includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ethical Moral facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing,
geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ethical Moral, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ethical Moral operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ethical Moral
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ethical Moral
Strengths Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ethical Moral in Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ethical Moral has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Ethical Moral is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ethical Moral has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ethical Moral has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Learning organization
- Ethical Moral is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Ethical Moral is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ethical Moral is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ethical Moral in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ethical Moral in the sector have low bargaining power. Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ethical Moral to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Ethical Moral is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Ethical Moral in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Ethical Moral has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ethical Moral to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Ethical Moral
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ethical Moral does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ethical Moral is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Ethical Moral supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ethical Moral vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ethical Moral, firm in the HBR case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership HBR case study mentions - Ethical Moral takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Linda Klebe Trevino, Laura Pincus Hartman, Michael Brown suggests that, Ethical Moral is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Ethical Moral has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Ethical Moral 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ethical Moral is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership, it seems that the employees of Ethical Moral don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ethical Moral has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ethical Moral needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Opportunities Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership are -
Manufacturing automation
– Ethical Moral can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ethical Moral can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Ethical Moral to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ethical Moral is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Ethical Moral has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ethical Moral can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Ethical Moral can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ethical Moral can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ethical Moral in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ethical Moral can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ethical Moral can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ethical Moral operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ethical Moral can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ethical Moral to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Ethical Moral to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ethical Moral can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Threats Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ethical Moral with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Ethical Moral in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Ethical Moral business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Ethical Moral needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Ethical Moral can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ethical Moral demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ethical Moral in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ethical Moral high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Regulatory challenges
– Ethical Moral needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Ethical Moral.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ethical Moral can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ethical Moral is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Ethical Moral needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Ethical Moral needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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