The Importance of Ethical Leaders

Statement of the Problem

Leadership is an organizational role that has an effect on every organizational matter. From the employees’ morale, customers’ satisfaction, and the organizational effectiveness, organizational leaders and their behaviors directly or indirectly affect everything. In addition to the leadership’s impact on the organization and its elements, leaders are often perceived as role models for the organizational members. Consequently, it is important that leaders are not only competent but also ethical in their everyday conduct, (Toor & Ofori, 2009). But, how can leader’s ethical behavior be distinguished? What are these ethical behaviors that affect the followers? And, how do we know when a leader is an ethical leader? Clearly, ethical leadership is a critical organizational matter, which needs a robust definition, and a model that shows how it effects the organization and its elements.

One of the significant aspects of ethical leadership is its emphasis on internalized moral perspective, moral person, moral manager, and idealized influence (Brown and Trevin ̃o, 2006; Walumbwa et al., 2008). Many researchers have discussed the ethical intentions beneath leaders behaviors, and offered ways to detect those intentions. Ladkin (2008) writes about “Leading beautifully” as a guideline for leaders. Ladkin (2008) believes that ‘‘leading beautifully’’ has three major dimensions: ‘‘mastery’’ – in understanding the leader’s self and her context, ‘‘coherence’’ – congruence between various forms of leader’s self and with her purpose and message, and ‘‘purpose’’ – attending to her goal. Further, Ladkin (2008) suggests that leading beautifully ‘‘brings into play the ethical dimension of a leader’s endeavor’’ and questions i...

... middle of paper ...

...outen, J., van Dijke, M., Mayer, D. M., De Cremer, D., & Euwema, M. C. (2013). Can a leader be seen as too ethical? The curvilinear effects of ethical leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(5), 680-695. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.05.002

Toor, S., & Ofori, G. (2009). Ethical leadership: Examining the relationships with full range leadership model, employee outcomes, and organizational culture. Journal Of Business Ethics, 90(4), 533-547. doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0059-3

Walumbwa, F. O., B. J. Avolio, W. L. Gardner, T. Wernsing and S. J. Peterson: 2008, ‘Authentic Leadership: Development and Validation of a Theory- Based Measure’, Journal of Management 34(1), 89–126.

Weierter, S. J. M.: 1997, ‘‘‘Who Wants to Play Follow the Leader?’’ A Theory Charismatic Relationships Based on Routinized Charisma and Follower Char- acteristics’, The Leadership Quarterly 8, 171–193.