Do ethical leaders exist? A unified theoretical framework to identify and evaluate them

Brian J. Galli, Francisco J. Santos Arteaga, Debora Di Caprio and Dennis T. Kennedy

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2016, vol. 15, issue 3/4, 277-307

Abstract: The literature has consistently verified the strong relationship existing between ethics and leadership. At the same time, it has also developed several differing views regarding the main attributes determining what constitutes an ethical leader. Critics of ethical leadership theory emphasise the lack of shared focus amongst existing researchers on the subject. Such a drawback complicates substantially the identification of the main factors required to demonstrate effective ethical leadership. This paper aims at identifying the main nexus areas arising across the existing body of research so that the main factors constituting the concept of ethical leadership can be identified. Besides identifying the uniform set of guidelines and principles defining ethical leadership, we will discuss whether or not it can be learned while also describing the key capacities required from a leader in order to develop it. Finally, the main strengths and limitations of ethical leadership theory will be analysed.

Keywords: leadership ethics; change management; ethical leadership theory; organisational development; ethical leaders. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=80705 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijmdma:v:15:y:2016:i:3/4:p:277-307

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Management and Decision Making from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().