Foundations
The demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision making (pp. 412)
The moral character of the leader, the ethical legitimacy of the values embedded in the leader’s vision, and the morality of the processes of social ethical choice and action that the leader and followers engage in and collectively pursue (pp. 412)
Ethical leadership is positively related to consideration behavior, honesty, trust in the leader, interactional fairness, socialized charismatic leadership, and has a negative relationship with abusive leader behaviors (pp. 412)
The demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making (pp. 427)
Those who are perceived to be ethical leaders model conduct that followers consider to be normatively appropriate, making the leader a legitimate and credible role model…normatively appropriate is deliberately vague because, beyond the generalities noted above, what is deemed appropriate behavior is somewhat context dependent (pp. 427)
Most attention to an ethical dimension of leadership has been embedded within the charismatic or transformational leadership paradigm (pp. 425)
Some have suggested that the compliance-based influence style associated with transactional leadership behavior is unethical if they are motivated by selfishness rather than altruism and if they use power inappropriately (pp. 425)
- Ethical leaders set clear standards and hold employees accountable for following them, which are cardinal features of transactional leadership (pp. 425)
- Ethical leaders use transactional type influence processes such as standard setting, performance appraisal, and rewards and punishments to hold followers accountable for ethical conduct, along with transformational leadership styles (pp. 425)
- Only partial overlap between transformational and ethical leadership
Honesty and integrity are seen as important components of a transformational leader’s idealized influence (pp. 425)
Honesty was only one of many characteristics that differentiated ethical and unethical charismatic leaders (pp. 425)
Honesty and trustworthiness contributed to only one aspect- termed the “moral person” aspect-of ethical leadership. They also found that ethical leadership involved a “moral manager” aspect that involved a number of visible behaviors that do not necessarily flow only from personal traits (pp. 425)
Supervisors have the opportunity to create a just work environment by making decisions that are perceived by employees to be fair (pp. 426)
Considerate and fair treatment of followers appears to overlap with ethical leadership, but not completely (pp. 426)
Anything that can be learned by direct experience can be learned by vicarious experience, via observing others’ behavior and its consequences (pp. 426)
Leaders are an important and likely source of such modeling first by virtue of their assigned role, their status and success in the organization, and their power to affect the behavior and outcomes of others (pp. 426)
If leaders are to be seen as ethical leaders who can influence employee ethical conduct, they must be legitimate and credible ethical role models because employees may be cynical about ethical pronouncements coming from some organizational leaders, especially in a scandalous business climate (pp. 426)
Justice is particularly important to employee evaluations of organizational authorities in general and to role modeling in particular (pp. 426)
Effective modeling requires attention to the behavior being modeled (pp. 426)
Ethical leaders gain followers’ attention by making an ethics message salient enough to stand out in the organizational context. Thus, steering employees’ attention to ethical standards by accentuating their importance through explicit communication seems crucial to ethical leadership as a social learning process (pp. 427)
Ethical leaders become social learning models by rewarding appropriate and disciplining inappropriate conduct and by doing so in a way that is perceived to be fair (pp. 427)
Transformational leaders contribute to observational learning about ethical values and ethical conduct by demonstrating ethical behavior and communicating with employees about conduct standards and values (pp. 428)
Ethical leadership will be positively related to interactional fairness and trust in the leader, honesty (pp. 428), perceptions of leader effectiveness (pp. 429), consideration behavior (pp. 430)
Ethical leadership will be negatively related to abusive supervision, the sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors (pp, 428)
Ethical leadership will be positively related to employees’ satisfaction with their leader, ratings of leader effectiveness, employees’ willingness to give extra effort and their willingness to report problems to management (pp. 429)
Social learning theory suggests that ethical leadership should influence employees’ ethical conduct at work because ethical leaders are attractive and legitimate models who attract and hold followers’ attention (pp. 431)
In contexts in which the moral intensity of ethical decisions is high, leaders will have greater opportunities to demonstrate ethical leadership to their employees (pp. 431)
Scholars
Brown; Trevino; Harrison; Bandura; Scandura; Alexander & Ruderman
Research
Brown, Trevino, & Harrison. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. The Leadership Quarterly. 97. 125.
Notes
Related Theories
Servant Leadership; Authentic Leadership; Positive Psychology and Leadership; Charismatic Leadership; Transformational Leadership
ALEC 801 