Chapter 20: To Follow or not to Follow? A Tale of Corrupt Power and Unethical Leadership

As an executive of Garamond Global Research, Sam Stokes had made it to the top. He had worked hard over the years, devoting his life to growing and developing a high impact and highly regarded global research organization. The company was extremely profitable, working mostly with small client organizations looking to conduct market research and analysis. What Sam didn’t know, was that he had lost the respect, loyalty, and support of his followers long ago. As a leader, his actions were deemed unacceptable, and even unethical, however few followers had the guts to stand up and voice their frustration.

Over the many years that he worked at Garamond, Sam amassed a great deal of power and influence over major company decisions, use of company resources, as well as hiring and firing decisions. As he continued to gain power, Sam’s subordinates began to notice that he became more secretive about how resources were being used, and much more selective about who received the resources. The company also began experiencing greater amounts of turnover from Sam’s direct and indirect reports, with the average tenure of his employees being only 2.5 years. As more and more employees left the organization, rumors stemming from ex-employees began to surface. The stories told of Sam’s misuse of company funds, favoritism with certain employees, and seemingly unethical actions with client projects. It wasn’t long before current employees began noticing his indiscretions too.