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Introduction
Most of the time, researchers do not try to elaborate a philosophical link between ethical theories, and ethical leadership. Some authors try to combine different ethical theories within the same leadership approach. [32] Knights and O'Leary (2006) said that ethical leadership is indeed "ethical" since it reflects one ethical theory or the other: philosophical egoism (Hobbes, Spinoza), utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill, Ross), Kantian theory, or ethics of responsibility (Sartre, Lévinas, Habermas). Authors prefer a mix between virtue ethics (MacIntyre) and ethics of responsibility (Lévinas). The basic problem of their approach is that we cannot assess to what extent a given ethical theory could be connected with ethical leadership. [41] Ncube and Washburn (2006) suggested that ethical leadership should combine deontology (Kant), virtue ethics (Aristotle) and utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill). Such an approach will imply to take into account the needs of all organizational members, in order to maximize harmonious relationships within the organization. Authors did not explain how Kantianism could coexist with utilitarian principles. Although we could agree that a mix of various ethical theories could be an attractive alternative, we must reveal the pitfalls and limitations of such an eclectic approach. We must always keep in mind that the way we will define a leadership style (such as servant leadership) will reduce the number of ethical theories we could adhere to. In other words, depending on the way we define a given leadership style, not all ethical theories could be closely linked to such leadership style. Some ethical theories are not compatible with one another. Other schools of thought (virtue ethics, ethics of responsibility) could be mixed together, or used separately. The choice of ethical theories actually reveals the meaning of "ethics" when it is connected with leadership.
We will analyze some basic (philosophical) ethical theories and see to what extent their main concepts could be connected to some leadership approaches. We have selected eight leadership approaches: directive leadership, self-leadership, authentic leadership, transactional leadership, shared leadership, servant leadership, charismatic leadership and transformational leadership. We will see how each of them could be connected with one ethical theory or another. We have selected five ethical theories that could be relevant for leadership approaches: philosophical egoism, utilitarianism, deontology, ethics of virtue, ethics of responsibility. In every case,...