Bernie Ebber Deviant Behavior Essay

“Executives are perceived from a distance. As a result, ethical leadership is largely a reputational phenomenon whereby the social salience of their “ethical” leadership is particularly important. “ (Kidwell, 2004) This is particularly the case with Bernie Ebber, the man that everyone thought could touch the clouds. But like any great fairytale/myth, it turned out he would only stay on the ground like the rest of us. Cultural dominations at times control the deviant behavior in which company owners such as Bernie Ebbers use to take for granted. For example Ebbers use of 400 million dollars that he took from the board in order to buy more stock (Kidwell, 2004) is a perfect example of deviant behavior because he is grossly taking his investors own money and using it to reinvest and own more of a stock in his company, essentially squeezing them out with their own money.

“His management philosophy focused obsessively on keeping down costs. He questioned why expensive bagels, rather than cheaper food, were served at company meetings. He replaced the coffee supplier with vending machines when he discovered that the company was spending $3 million a year on coffee.” (Kidwell, 2004) That’s not to say that ruthless leaders are bad leaders, some of the best leaders have been ruthless. “The fact that Lincoln’s army was inert until Ulysses S. Grant assumed command and that some coaches can move from team to team transforming losers into winners is, for most people, evidence that leadership matters.” (Hogan. R, Curphy, Hogan, J,