Conceptualization and Measurement of Virtuous Leadership: Doing Well by Doing Good

Gordon Wang () and Rick D. Hackett ()
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Gordon Wang: George Brown College
Rick D. Hackett: McMaster University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2016, vol. 137, issue 2, No 7, 345 pages

Abstract: Abstract Despite a long history in eastern and western culture of defining leadership in terms of virtues and character, their significance for guiding leader behavior has largely been confined to the ethics literature. As such, agreement concerning the defining elements of virtuous leadership and their measurement is lacking. Drawing on both Confucian and Aristotelian concepts, we define virtuous leadership and distinguish it conceptually from several related perspectives, including virtues-based leadership in the Positive organizational behavior literature, and from ethical and value-laden (spiritual, servant, charismatic, transformational, and authentic) leadership. Then, two empirical studies are presented that develop and validate the Virtuous Leadership Questionnaire (VLQ), an 18-item behaviorally based assessment of the construct. Among other findings, we show that the VLQ accounts for variance in several outcome variables, even after self-assessed leader virtue and subordinate-rated social and personalized leader charisma are controlled.

Keywords: Virtuous leadership; Positive organizational behavior; Scale development; Virtues (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2560-1

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