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This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study that examines the characteristics of ethical leadership. Seventy-eight (78) Australian senior executives, represented by diverse industry backgrounds from both the public and private sectors, participated in the study. The researcher conducted semi-structured face-to-face interviews in which participants were asked to describe the characteristics and behaviors of an individual in a professional context they identified as an ethical leader. The participants' responses were analyzed with the assistance of NVivo (QSR International Pty Ltd, 2003), a qualitative data storage and retrieval program. The principal findings consisted of three themes: value alignment, governance, and relationship-centeredness. Ethical leaders are perceived to be individuals who behave with integrity, courage, and trustworthiness. They are relationship-centered, with fairness and altruism as the defining features of their engagement with others. In matters of governance, ethical leaders demonstrate adherence to formal accountability measures and exercise discernment in their decision-making responsibilities. More importantly, leaders perceived to be ethical demonstrate a strong alignment between what they espouse and how this is demonstrated in their behavior. This paper presents an overview of the literature in the area of ethical leadership and a discussion on the findings of this study in relation to the literature. It concludes with recommendations for further research.
In the competitive global business environment, there has been increased interest in the ethical behavior of leaders. The ethical dimension of leadership has given rise to the construct ethical leadership, and Ciulla (2001, p. 318) stressed the need to establish whether there is anything ethically distinctive about leadership itself and stated that "[u]nderstanding the moral challenges that are distinctive to people in leadership positions is fundamental to understanding the very nature of leadership". While ethical leadership has gained the increased attention of scholars, descriptive research on ethical research is a new and emerging area (Brown & Mitchell, 2010). Trevino et al. (2000, 2003) undertook important foundational work in an area that included defining ethical leadership and establishing it as a distinct construct in leadership research.
Other research attributes in which ethical leadership is related to follower outcomes includes job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and organizational commitment (Brown, Trevino, & Harrison, 2005; Walumbwa & Schaubroeck, 2009). Northouse (2007) said ethics is central to leadership because...