research on ethical leadership

What is Ethical Leadership and Why is it Important?

Ethical leadership is not only the right thing to do, it is key to driving an organization's success.

Valerie Kirk

Errors, bad behavior, and poor judgment in leadership can negatively impact a company’s brand and reputation. For business success, it’s critical for organizations to fill their C-suite with ethical leaders.

Ethical leadership involves leaders and managers making decisions based on the right thing to do for the common good, not just based on what is best for themselves or for the bottom line. While profits are important, ethical leaders take into consideration the needs of customers, communities, and employees in addition to company growth and revenue when making business decisions. 

Ethical leaders encourage their team members to model this behavior, too. They help to build a workplace culture that values transparency, collaboration and inclusion, and where everyone feels safe to share their voice.

They can also help organizations recruit and retain top talent. Professionals are increasingly seeking out companies whose leaders strive to do the right thing. Generation Z, who will make up 25 percent of the workforce by 2025, demands leadership ethics more than generations that came before them. 

“Gen Z is not going to negotiate. They have really strong values and ethics, and they don’t bend them because of intimidation or because they are just getting a paycheck,” said Michael McCarthy, instructor at Harvard Division of Continuing Education’s Professional & Executive Development and host of the “ Happy at Work ” podcast. “The idea of letting harmful or hurtful behavior slide is not acceptable.”

Leaders who weigh ethical considerations before making key business decisions drive a company’s long-term success. 

The 6 Main Principles of Ethical Leadership

Having ethical leaders isn’t as simple as hiring “good” people. Companies should strive to fill their leadership ranks with people who embody the principles of ethical leadership. The six main principles include: 

Respect includes valuing others’ skills and contributions. While historically respect in the workplace may have been one-way (leaders demanding respect from employees), in an ethical work environment, respect is mutual. 

Mutual respect leads to healthier workplace relationships where both sides appreciate and support what the other is doing and feel secure in talking through issues and challenges. Healthy relationships create positive work environments, which drives increased productivity.

Current and upcoming business leaders should take mutual respect into account as workforce expectations continue to shift.  

“I tell current leadership to respect Gen Z. They have values and morals, and you’re going to have a better organization because of them,” McCarthy said. “They aren’t going to put up with the old hierarchy that doesn’t offer mutual respect.” 

2. Accountability

Ethical leaders hold themselves accountable for their actions. They make decisions based on integrity and stand behind their work. They also lead by example, communicate openly about challenges, and don’t look to place blame on others for any shortfalls.

Leaders make ethical decisions based on doing what is right for employees, customers, and the community. Because these constituents are always top of mind for ethical leaders, they often have a strong sense of service. They engage in activities such as charitable giving and volunteer work to give  back to their communities — and encourage their teams to do the same. 

Leaders who are transparent build trust amongst their organizations and amongst customers. 

To build and maintain trust, leaders must be good communicators who speak openly and honestly about issues. Regardless of the issue’s severity or unpopularity, leaders’ responsibility to be clear and candid  empowers others to make the right decisions with the information they have. 

Honesty and transparency also help to build a brand’s reputation, leading to long-term customer loyalty.

Justice is not just about following the law, but about ensuring that everyone is getting what they deserve. Ethical leaders approach situations with a focus on treating everyone fairly, and they expect their teams to treat each other and customers the same way. Through their actions, they build equitable work environments where everyone feels respected. 

6. Community

Ethical leaders view their companies as communities and consider everyone involved when evaluating situations and making decisions. By viewing their organizations this way, they build equity and inclusion into their decision-making process and create work environments that encourage collaboration across teams. 

Learn more about Harvard DCE’s Ethical Leadership program

Examples of Positive and Negative Ethical Leadership

The following three examples are of companies that were faced with ethical dilemmas and how different leadership styles led to vastly different outcomes. 

Johnson & Johnson

One of the most famous examples of ethical leadership was the case of the Tylenol cyanide poisonings in the early 1980s. Seven people died of cyanide poisoning, and the only connecting factor was that they had all taken extra-strength Tylenol. During investigation, it was discovered that the tablets were laced with cyanide.

Johnson & Johnson’s leaders acted quickly and pulled all Tylenol products off the shelves — 31 million bottles, worth over $100 million — and stopped all production and advertising. The swiftness of their decision, although costly, put customers’ well-being first and saved lives.

They partnered with law enforcement to find the perpetrator and subsequently developed the first-ever tamper-resistant packaging. They were transparent with the public about what they were doing to ensure this tragedy never happened again. 

The Tylenol brand recovered from the incident, largely because of Johnson & Johnson’s ethical leadership team’s swift action and transparent care for customers.

In 2008, JetBlue left passengers stranded on the tarmac at the John F. Kennedy International Airport for more than five hours during a snowstorm. The delay had a ripple effect — JetBlue had to cancel more than 1,000 flights over the following five days.

In response, JetBlue’s CEO wrote a letter of apology to customers. He also directed his team to draft a customer bill of rights, which outlined customers’ rights to information about flights and information about compensation in the event of delays or cancellations.

The CEO also participated in a public apology tour, taking full responsibility for the incident rather than blaming it on the weather.

His transparency and accountability created trust with customers, who stayed loyal to the airline.

Wells Fargo

In September 2016 , it was revealed that employees of Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks in the United States, opened millions of unauthorized accounts in order to meet aggressive sales targets. This widespread fraudulent activity was the result of a work culture that prioritized quantity over quality and pushed employees to engage in unethical practices.

Company leaders denied knowledge of fraudulent practices. The bank was hit with significant financial penalties, but because of the lack of accountability, they damaged the trust of their customers and investors. They reported a 50 percent profit loss in the quarter following the scandal.

Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership

Companies cannot underestimate the power of different leadership styles on their growth and long term success. Those who practice ethical leadership have positive corporate cultures where employees are engaged, motivated, and feel good about coming to work. Companies without ethical leadership face lower productivity and high turnover rates, impacting the organization’s bottom line.

Ethical leaders aren’t just born with these skills — they develop them over years of experience and training. 

Harvard DCE Professional & Executive Development offers a two-day Ethical Leadership program that helps leaders develop skills to make ethical choices and lead companies through challenging dilemmas. 

Topics covered include: 

• Making ethical decisions with conflicting responsibilities 
• Building a moral framework within yourself and the organization
• Understanding the role of employees in both their professional and personal lives 
• Navigating a slippery slope when seemingly good people do bad things
• Building a corporate culture that values moral behavior

Learn more about the ethical leadership program, including how to register.  

Leaders looking to expand their ethical leadership skills should also consider the two-day Authentic Leadership program , where they will learn how to develop mindfulness and authenticity to build trust, create engagement, and promote productivity. 

Explore all Executive Leadership and Management courses

About the Author

Valerie Kirk is a freelance writer and corporate storyteller specializing in customer and community outreach and topics and trends in education, technology, and healthcare. Based in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay, she spends her free time exploring nature by bike, paddle board, or on long hikes with her family.

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A New Model for Ethical Leadership

• Max H. Bazerman

Rather than try to follow a set of simple rules (“Don’t lie.” “Don’t cheat.”), leaders and managers seeking to be more ethical should focus on creating the most value for society. This utilitarian view, Bazerman argues, blends philosophical thought with business school pragmatism and can inform a wide variety of managerial decisions in areas including hiring, negotiations, and even time management. Creating value requires that managers confront and overcome the cognitive barriers that prevent them from being as ethical as they would like to be. Just as we rely on System 1 (intuitive) and System 2 (deliberative) thinking, he says, we have parallel systems for ethical decision-making. He proposes strategies for engaging the deliberative one in order to make more-ethical choices. Managers who care about the value they create can influence others throughout the organization by means of the norms and decision-making environment they create.

Create more value for society.

Idea in Brief

The challenge.

Systematic cognitive barriers can blind us to our own unethical behaviors and decisions, hampering our ability to maximize the value we create in the world.

The Solution

We have both an intuitive system for ethical decision-making and a more deliberative one; relying on the former leads to less-ethical choices. We need to consciously engage the latter.

In Practice

To make more-ethical decisions, compare options rather than evaluate them singly; disregard how decisions would affect you personally; make trade-offs that create more value for all parties in negotiations; and allocate time wisely.

Autonomous vehicles will soon take over the road. This new technology will save lives by reducing driver error, yet accidents will still happen. The cars’ computers will have to make difficult decisions: When a crash is unavoidable, should the car save its single occupant or five pedestrians? Should the car prioritize saving older people or younger people? What about a pregnant woman—should she count as two people? Automobile manufacturers need to reckon with such difficult questions in advance and program their cars to respond accordingly.

• MB Max H. Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the author (with Don A. Moore) of Decision Leadership: Empowering Others to Make Better Choices (Yale University Press, 2022) and Better, Not Perfect: A Realist’s Guide to Maximum Sustainable Goodness (Harper Business, 2020).

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Developing a Framework for Ethical Leadership

• Published: 29 June 2014
• Volume 130 , pages 639–649, ( 2015 )

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• Alan Lawton 1 &
• Iliana Páez 2  

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Interest in ethical leadership from academics and practitioners has grown enormously in recent years. This article addresses this literature through a framework that identifies three interlocking questions. First, who are ethical leaders and what are their characteristics? Second, how do ethical leaders do what they do? Third, why do leaders do as they do and what are the outcomes of ethical leadership? Different dimensions to ethical leadership are examined and presented as three interlocking circles; Virtues, Purposes and Practices. This framework presents an integrated approach to ethical leadership and argues that future research take this holistic framework and apply it to different sectors or contexts.

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We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this article who provided comprehensive and thought-provoking feedback on earlier versions of the paper.

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Lawton, A., Páez, I. Developing a Framework for Ethical Leadership. J Bus Ethics 130 , 639–649 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2244-2

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Received : 04 April 2013

Accepted : 06 June 2014

Published : 29 June 2014

Issue Date : September 2015

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2244-2

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Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior

Volume 2, 2015, review article, ethical leadership.

• Deanne N. Den Hartog 1
• View Affiliations Hide Affiliations Affiliations: Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam, 1018 TV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; email: [email protected]
• Vol. 2:409-434 (Volume publication date April 2015) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032414-111237
• First published as a Review in Advance on December 24, 2014
• © Annual Reviews

High-profile cases of leaders’ ethical failure in different settings and sectors have led to increased attention to ethical leadership in organizations. In this review, I discuss the rapidly developing field of ethical leadership from an organizational behavior/psychology perspective, taking a behavioral and perceptual angle. After addressing the background of ethical leadership in this field, I discuss how ethical leadership has been defined, which behaviors and characteristics contribute to a leader being seen as ethical by followers, and how ethical leadership relates to other leadership styles. I also contrast ethical with unethical leader behaviors. Next, I address what the research to date tells us about the effects of perceived ethical leader behavior, the mechanisms through which this form of leadership affects followers, and what the role of the context is. Finally, I summarize the challenges the field currently faces, outline several future research directions, and discuss some practical implications of the work to date.

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The effect of ethical leadership on innovative work behaviors: a mediating–moderating model of psychological empowerment, job crafting, proactive personality, and person–organization fit.

1. Introduction

2. theoretical background and hypothesis development, 2.1. ethical leadership and innovative work behavior, 2.2. the mediating role of psychological empowerment, 2.3. the mediating role of job crafting, 2.4. the mediating role of proactive personality, 2.5. the moderating role of person–organization fit, 3.1. participants and procedures, 3.2. measurement tools, 3.3. common method variance and multicollinearity, 4.1. factor loadings, reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity, 4.2. hypotheses testing, 5. discussion of the results and conclusions, 5.1. theoretical contributions, 5.2. practical implications, 5.3. limitations and future research directions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Abuzaid, A.N.; Ghadi, M.Y.; Madadha, S.-a.M.; Alateeq, M.M. The Effect of Ethical Leadership on Innovative Work Behaviors: A Mediating–Moderating Model of Psychological Empowerment, Job Crafting, Proactive Personality, and Person–Organization Fit. Adm. Sci. 2024 , 14 , 191. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14090191

Abuzaid AN, Ghadi MY, Madadha S-aM, Alateeq MM. The Effect of Ethical Leadership on Innovative Work Behaviors: A Mediating–Moderating Model of Psychological Empowerment, Job Crafting, Proactive Personality, and Person–Organization Fit. Administrative Sciences . 2024; 14(9):191. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14090191

Abuzaid, Ahmad Nasser, Mohammed Yasin Ghadi, Saif-aldeen Marwan Madadha, and Manal Mohammad Alateeq. 2024. "The Effect of Ethical Leadership on Innovative Work Behaviors: A Mediating–Moderating Model of Psychological Empowerment, Job Crafting, Proactive Personality, and Person–Organization Fit" Administrative Sciences 14, no. 9: 191. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14090191

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The Relationship Between Ethical Leadership and Employee Job Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Media Richness and Perceived Organizational Transparency

Associated data.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethical leadership (EL) is a vital component driving firms’ practice, significantly affecting employee satisfaction (ES). The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between EL and employee job satisfaction. Moreover, the study investigates the mediating effect of media richness (MR), perceived organizational transparency (OT) on EL, and ES. In addition, the study used a convenient sampling technique for collecting the data from 276 employees working in the service sector of Macau. Essentially, questionnaires had used as the fundamental tool guiding the data collection method. The findings indicate a positive and significant relationship between EL, ES, MR, and perceived OT. The MR and perceived OT have significant mediating effects between EL and ES. The study is beneficial for the service sector of Macau to plan the strategies for their employees in terms of organizational sustainability and success. The study is also helpful for the government to understand EL and for the researcher to search the new aspects of EL in organizations for future research direction.

Introduction

In today’s business world, moral ethics have gained considerable popularity in the management literature. At present, emerging enterprises have significantly extended their role from achieving organizational prosperity to bringing colossal individual benefits. The developing notion has brought immense advantages for worldwide businesses, compelling them to adopt moral and ethical considerations as an essential tool for organization’s welfare. Perhaps, to fulfill the progressing demand of workplace ethics, the study demands both the public and private organizations to embrace the concept of ethical leadership (EL) in achieving the global socio-economic boom ( Deal, 2018 ).

Comprehensively, EL refers to adopting moral conduct, causing an individual to initiate the two-way relationship, communication, and decision-making ( Brown et al., 2005 ). Ethical leadership enhances organizational performance by integrating moral values into organizations’ practices. Ethics plays a critical role in developing the right set of ideas, thoughts, and principles, influencing individuals’ work behavior, conduct, and actions ( Rabie and Abdul Malek, 2020 ). In particular, the resilience of leaders’ character requires consistency with moral virtues. Good leadership demands not only managers’ expertise, knowledge, and strategic power but also leaders’ moral character. Given the statement, the moral characteristics of EL reveal leaders to be morally responsible, visionary, and honest ( Sharma et al., 2019 ). Nonetheless, this moral aspect empowers the employees’ behavior, thus influencing their motivation, performance, and satisfaction.

Moral leadership is a unique concept assisting the employees’ work, subsequently raising employee satisfaction (ES). Employee satisfaction is a pleasurable emotion (i.e., psychological and social) related to employees’ achievement ( Teimouri et al., 2018 ). Ethical leadership vigorously accelerates employees’ productivity, thereby reporting greater satisfaction ( Freire and Bettencourt, 2020 ). The comprehensive effect of EL extends far beyond influencing employee behavior to satisfy the individual’s needs and desires. The study shows that EL guides employees’ behavior, actions, and attitudes, thereby increasing their work contentment ( Kaffashpoor and Sadeghian, 2020 ).

Moreover, firms’ communication also plays an integral role in increasing the followers’ satisfaction. In this perspective, media richness (MR) is a crucial factor driving organizational communication. MR alludes to the leaders’ ability to integrate innovation (e.g., information technology) for delivering personalized information, feedback, and messages (i.e., verbal and non-verbal cues). In particular, the study shows that MR strengthens an organization’s communication network, thereby fostering workplace interactions, cognition, and satisfaction ( Sheer, 2020 ). The study suggests that leaders choose the most effective communication media channel for supporting organizational transparency (OT) ( Sommerfeldt et al., 2019 ).

Information discrepancy influences the organizations’ performance, thus affecting the stakeholders’ attitude (e.g., actions, motivation, and satisfaction) ( Losada-Otálora and Alkire, 2019 ). Consequently, maintaining OT in business practices (e.g., information sharing and communication) is vital for successful business functioning. OT refers to the firm’s intention of sharing the business information (i.e., positive and negative) with its stakeholders (e.g., internal and external). It includes information about organization’s practices, attributes, procedures, and actions. The study states that the organization is responsible for sharing truthful, honest, correct, and accurate knowledge ( Sarfraz et al., 2019 ; Shah et al., 2019 ; Schnackenberg et al., 2021 ). Hence, the management should promote higher disclosure of information, awareness, and ownership for achieving greater business transparency.

Unfortunately, the deficiency in literature had conceptualized a backdrop in understanding EL as a fundamental phenomenon influencing the employees’ satisfaction. This underlying mechanism stretches beyond the boundary of traditional management to the moral configuration of leadership, potentially increasing ES. Hence, comprehensive study reviews on EL require consolidation as the prior studies lack a workable structure guiding the direct relationship between the terms. Accordingly, the research shows that the relationship between EL and ES is limited ( Moon and Jung, 2018 ; Ajaz et al., 2020 ). Furthermore, despite the increasing role of novel technology, the research states that MR ( Ishii et al., 2019 ) and OT (i.e., leadership knowledge sharing) had also remained silent under the moral lens of EL ( Bavik et al., 2018 ).

Significantly, to fill the research gap, the study empirically conceptualized the effect of EL on ES ( Vlachos et al., 2013 ), fundamentally in the light of moral leadership theories. It also investigates the direct impact of EL on MR and OT. Moreover, the study framework explains the connection between MR and OT with employee job satisfaction. Finally, it highlights the mediating role of MR and OT, bridging the nexus between EL and ES. In particular, this study theoretically addresses all the research gaps by presenting a solid knowledge foundation on the effect of EL on ES, MR, and OT.

Potentially, this study is a unique contribution to bridging the prior research gaps. Therefore, based on this statement, EL in the hospitality sector has gained most researchers’ attention, thus elevating its need for investigation ( Kabene et al., 2006 ). Leaders play a prime role in enhancing the health service, subsequently facing immense pressure to behave ethically, influencing the employees’ performance satisfaction ( Shafique et al., 2018 ). Accordingly, this study holds paramount importance by allowing future researchers to investigate the fundamental relationship between EL and employee job satisfaction. Furthermore, the prior literature states that EL had explored various times in context to several mediating variables [e.g., moral identity ( Arain et al., 2017 ), psychological contract ( Ahmad et al., 2019 ), and behavior outcomes ( Khan N. et al., 2018 )]. Hence, this unique study highlights two significant variables leading to improved job satisfaction.

Perhaps, this study has a broad scope in the management and psychological literature. It develops a solid foundation, highlighting the increasing demand for moral practices. The underlying mechanism of EL has accumulated the fragmented literature from management discipline, thus providing a clear picture of morality in leadership. Indeed, to the best of our knowledge, this novel study integrates the dispersed literature on EL under one roof. Perhaps, to cover the literature deficiency, the study provides the management experts with essential knowledge about the dynamic nature of moral leadership and its increasing effect on ES.

Essentially, this study had divided into various sections. This article begins by briefly introducing the study variables in the light of relevant theoretical studies. Then, the “Literature review” section (i.e., literature review) gains the reader’s attention by proposing a set of testable hypotheses, formulating the direct and indirect relationship between the variables. Moreover, the “Methodology” section suggests the most relevant tools used for data analysis, and the “Results” section significantly illustrates the study outcomes. Finally, the “Discussion” section discusses the study outputs, and the “Conclusion” section concludes the research article.

Literature Review

Significantly, the evolution of modern leadership and advancement in communication technologies have shaped the organizations’ working culture, processes, and structures, thereby bringing numerous advantages for the leaders and the employees. Accordingly, the “Literature review” section aims to investigate the fundamental relationships in the light of the moral leadership perspective. Along with this, it also presents the role of the leaders in developing a favorable working climate, work practices, and behavior, thus enhancing the employees’ satisfaction. Indeed, this section elaborates the relevant literature review in the following terms: EL, ES, MR, and OT. All the variables and terminologies had demonstrated in the same series in the section below.

Ethical Leadership and Employee Satisfaction

Over the years, EL has received massive popularity from scholars, researchers, and managers, essentially ensuring the application of the various definitions of moral leadership in the work setting ( Ko et al., 2018 ). EL refers to the behavioral approach of promoting normative conduct and actions ( Brown et al., 2005 ). Its definition establishes a distinct association among the workers, potentially improving their work satisfaction. Given the illustration, the research indicates that advanced leadership enhances organizational outcomes by reporting increased employees’ commitment and job satisfaction ( Qing et al., 2020 ; Abdullah et al., 2021 ).

In leadership, moral ethics is a vital component driving firms’ practices. Leadership ethics develop a critical guide for the organizations’ members, thus encouraging them to follow moral cues. Ethical leaders support the integration of moral principles, thus making leadership integrity, fairness, and empowerment improve ES. The positive consequences of leadership ethics strengthen the employees’ attributes, thereby influencing employee cognition and satisfaction. In line with the statement, the research indicates that leaders’ moral characteristics demonstrate high consideration for employee well-being, subsequently nurturing employee workplace satisfaction ( Moon and Jung, 2018 ).

In addition, moral leaders hold a powerful position in stimulating organizational behaviors. The leadership characteristics reinforce a positive attitude in employees, guiding their work actions. EL effectively influences employee actions by tapping into the employees’ values. The employee-leader congruence makes the employee practice moral values, thereby promoting ES in the workplace. Given the explanation, the research reveals that leaders exhibiting high ethical standards direct the employees’ work behaviors, subsequently raising their job satisfaction ( Abdullah et al., 2018 ; Freire and Bettencourt, 2020 ). Indeed, ethical leaders play an instrumental role in enhancing the employees’ work behavior. Ethical leaders motivate individuals to work harder toward the organization’s development ( Charoensap et al., 2019 ; Sarfraz et al., 2022 ). Given the articulation, the study shows that the leaders enhance employees’ satisfaction, thus making the employees conducive to working hard in the challenging environment ( Cleveland et al., 2019 ). In particular, leaders’ ethical conduct is an effective predictor of ES. The literature concludes that EL positively influences the employees’ behavior, satisfaction, and performance ( Shafique et al., 2018 ). Consequently, based on these research findings, we have suggested the following hypothesis:

• H1: EL has a positive and significant impact on ES.

Ethical Leadership and Media Richness

In the 21st century, innovative media tools have become crucial for sharing moral information with employees. With the increasing leadership ethics, the prior literature indicates that the accelerating media channels foster moral teachings, thus shaping the leadership attributes ( Roman et al., 2019 ; Mohsin et al., 2022 ). Recently, the growing EL has alleviated the need for innovative technological tools guiding business practices. At present, the developing significance of media channels has enabled businesses to incorporate novel digital technologies for establishing an effective communication network. This complementary mode of connection significantly benefits today’s employees, leading the media-based channels to influence work structure. Essentially, an EL style brings immediate results to the organization’s performance. The moral leadership style empowers the workers to benefit from the increasing advantages of MR, thereby supporting the organization’s communication process ( Bhatti et al., 2020 ).

The unique communication technologies make the MR play a critical role in improving an organization’s understanding of information. Ethical leaders use effective media channels to share moral knowledge with their employees. High MR enables the leaders to send personalized messages to the employees regarding organizational matters and activities. Organizations utilize multiple communication channels for connecting with its stakeholder (i.e., business partners, employees, and customers). In leader-subordinate communication, the media-based tools foster the organization’s communication process. The most effective media-enriched communication channels include email, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Docs ( Aritz et al., 2018 ). Given the articulation, the research shows that the more efficient the media channel is, the more ethical leaders influence team cohesion through moral cues ( Sedrine et al., 2021 ).

Indeed, recent technological progress has led the organization to experience a new paradigm of working in real space, thereby radically affecting people’s behavior, actions, and communication. EL influences organizational communication, thereby developing a moral-ethical climate. The moral character of ethical leaders empowers the employees by providing them with an environment where they can practice moral teaching. Given the illustration, the study states that ethical leaders adopt efficient media tools for educating employees about business ethics ( Wu, 2021 ). However, MR depends on the choice of the leader who prefers to cascading down the ethical information to the low-level workers. The research suggests that social media applications are the most popular sites for generating, consuming, and dismembering information across the business network ( Bashir et al., 2021 ). Consequently, based on the previous literature, the hypothesis indicates EL to strengthen the MR, thereby proposing the following hypothesis:

• H2: EL has a positive and significant impact on MR.

Ethical Leadership and Organizational Transparency

Due to the rapid globalization, organizations today are functioning in an environment where consumers’ demands are constantly changing, escalating its intensity on the organization’s practices. An organization operating in a higher competitive environment alleviates the need for adopting transparent business initiatives in response to market changes. Undoubtedly, in recent times, OT has become a critical instrument for leaders in adapting to changing environments. Ethical leadership shapes the organization’s culture, leading the business transparency to reduce business uncertainty ( Metwally et al., 2019 ).

According to the definition, OT refers to the firm’s intention to transmit business information (i.e., negative and positive) to its stakeholder ( Schnackenberg et al., 2021 ). Significantly, to maintain information transparency, moral leaders should look after the interest of both the internal and external stakeholders. Integrity, one of the crucial leadership traits, effectively motivates the leaders to share truthful information with firms’ stakeholders, subsequently enhancing organizational value and employee behavior ( Ete et al., 2021 ). In particular, this accountability dimension of data transparency assists the employees’ actions by communicating the change information to the intended user ( Yue et al., 2019 ). Consistently, leaders’ characteristics had been constructed around the virtue of fairness, accountability, honesty, and integrity ( Francis et al., 2018 ). Perhaps, business ethics reflected in the leadership makes the leaders’ integrity develop an open communication system, guiding the individual moral behavior. In particular, knowledge sharing is a significant aspect of guiding the employees’ behavior. Given the illustration, the study shows that ethical leaders provide moral information to employees, thus making OT enhance employees’ performance ( Bhatti et al., 2020 ).

Furthermore, from the organization’s perspective, knowledge flow is vital for business success. Perhaps, to improve individual’s performance, the leaders should provide ethical teaching to the employees by adopting different media channels. In recent years, various platforms have enhanced the flow of moral knowledge to the employees (e.g., social media and Facebook). Perhaps, the study suggests leaders utilize the competence of emerging MR for staying connected to the employees ( Braojos et al., 2019 ).

Arguably, EL cannot function without an effective communication structure. A transparent communication network encourages the leaders to develop a two-way communication process, thus enhancing the firm’s communication ( Jiang and Luo, 2018 ). Ethical leaders play an active role in directing the transparent communication environment. Given the explanation, the study shows that unethical climate decreases the influence of moral leadership, thereby devastatingly affecting the organization’s outcome and employees’ behavior ( Halbusi et al., 2021 ). Undoubtedly, leaders play a significant role in building the organization’s ethical climate with maintaining OT. Consequently, the literature suggests the following hypothesis:

• H3: EL has a positive and significant impact on OT.

Media Richness and Employee Satisfaction

As the organizational environment continues evolving, new technologies have rapidly emerged as an efficient tool for reaching the employee. Advanced media technologies have ensured the development of managerial communication between leaders and employees. Social media channels significantly facilitate the organization’s communication process, thereby enhancing the individual’s job performance. In support, the study refers to videoconferencing as an innovative tool driving the firm’s communication ( Lee et al., 2018 ) and employees’ satisfaction. Given the statement, the new influx of MR influences the organization’s communication with fostering ES ( Chen and Chang, 2018 ).

In addition, concerning management literature, ES alludes to the pleasant feeling of happiness. The firm’s communication ensures the potential use of media channels for acquiring favorable individual outcomes. In particular, deciding on the most appropriate media channel, the managers should take care of the employee preference. Media choices influence the employees’ satisfaction. Complex media platforms are hard to operate by employees. In the illustration, the study shows that media channels, such as email and telephonic calls, are fundamental tools driving employees’ satisfaction ( Erjavec et al., 2018 ). Perhaps, due to the increasing significance of media quality, the management needs to consider the interest of the employees in selecting the best media tool ( Verčič, 2019 ), subsequently enhancing employees’ satisfaction.

Fundamentally, scholars and professionals have potentially recognized the significant role of MR in enhancing employees’ job satisfaction. MR plays a crucial role in setting the tone of the firm’s communication process. Consistently, the prior literature shows that MR enhances the employees’ satisfaction. In explaining this notion, the study states that MR (e.g., online platforms) increases individuals’ job satisfaction, thereby improving task accomplishment ( Fleischmann et al., 2020 ). Certainly, MR nurtures the employees’ morale and satisfaction. It ensures the exchange of verbal and non-verbal signals, messages, and texts with the end user ( Mehra and Nickerson, 2019 ). It provides a framework for transmitting data with the stakeholders (i.e., internal and external). The increased MR helps the individual acquire the essential data for accomplishing the work task. Hence, the study shows that the improved relatedness of media channels positively increases ES ( Khan I. U. et al., 2018 ). Therefore, the literature concludes the following hypothesis:

• H4: MR has a positive and significant impact on ES.

The Mediating Role of Media Richness

In the increasing era of globalization, the technological advancement in information technology has fostered EL to bring colossal benefits to individuals. At present, organizations have embraced novel technologies for performing business functions. The progressing globalization has massively compelled the organizational leaders to connect with the employees through advanced technological networks. However, this developing technological reliance had demanded ethical leaders to foster ethical behavior in speeding up the business performance.

Leaders’ communication behavior is an essential component in supporting individual outcomes. Ethical leaders use multiple communication methods to convey the organization’s vision, messages, and teachings, thus establishing a positive leader-subordinate relationship. Ethical leadership encourages adopting modern technologies, subsequently enhancing organizational communication and ES. Accordingly, the study states that firms’ embracing technological innovation builds an immediate leader-employee connection, thereby improving employee trust and satisfaction ( Tkalac Verčič and Špoljarić, 2020 ). The prior study shows that social media has become a vital communication tool for sharing data ( Khan et al., 2019 ). Social media usage enhances the employees’ ability to respond to workplace challenges. It establishes a leader-follower connection, thereby fostering employees’ satisfaction ( Bhatti et al., 2020 ).

In the EL paradigm, MR strengthens individual work outcomes by improving job satisfaction ( Chen et al., 2021 ). Employee satisfaction is highly dependent on employees’ choice of media quality. Employees prefer to use the potent media channel for communication with leaders ( Aritz et al., 2018 ). In EL, a leader’s goal is to fulfill employees’ needs (i.e., information). Accordingly, moral leadership supported by computer-mediated technologies satisfies the employee’s desires for interpersonal communication ( Braun et al., 2019 ). Therefore, by focusing on the communication richness, the study illustrates that today’s media channel affects the communication process of organizations, thus significantly influencing their employees’ satisfaction ( Özden et al., 2019 ). Indeed, the study shows that ethical leaders promote adopting novel technologies for building a positive communication network that increases ES ( Mehra and Nickerson, 2019 ). Perhaps, based on the previous studies, the literature suggests that MR should be a significant factor mediating the relationship between EL and ES.

• H4a: MR significantly mediates the relationship between EL and ES.

Organizational Transparency and Employee Satisfaction

In today’s digital world, OT has become the top priority of management leaders. It alludes to data sharing with creating an open organizational structure to promote business culture. Transparency is a fundamental attribute of the organization’s culture that guides the business practices, behaviors, activities, and practices. OT alone cannot meet the interest of the stakeholders. Therefore, management must understand the role of maintaining transparency in catering to the employee demand for information ( Mappamiring et al., 2020 ) for directing the business practices, procedures, and activities. Firms’ accountability refers to their obligation of sharing the data with employees, thus guiding their behavior and satisfaction. Employee participation remains high when the organization presents workers with transparent data. The study shows that OT strengthens the employees’ engagement, thus fostering employee performance and satisfaction ( Hofmann and Strobel, 2020 ).

Indeed, OT is a powerful driver of ES. ES largely depends on the information available to them. Information transparency encourages the firms to share transparent, truthful, and accurate information, thus assisting the employees’ activities. Concerning the firms’ communication, exposure to false and inadequate data creates confusion for employees, thus making it difficult for them to manage the flooding of unnecessary and overburdened data ( Yue et al., 2019 ). To perform the work task, the firm must provide relevant knowledge to employees concerning the business content, purpose, and process. In particular, without the information transparency, it becomes hard for the employees to meet the performance standards, subsequently decreasing workers’ morale and workplace satisfaction. Hence, the organizations need to take care of data transparency for gaining optimum individual results (i.e., work satisfaction) ( Ridwan et al., 2018 ). Moreover, the study shows that the organizations’ communication guides the individual’s work outcomes (e.g., reduced stress and problems), thus making this an entry point for the leaders to boost employee enthusiasm and job satisfaction ( Sariwulan et al., 2019 ). Hence, based on the reviews of previous scholars, we have developed the following hypothesis:

• H5: OT has a positive and significant impact on ES.

The Mediating Role of Organizational Transparency

Along with the transition from traditional management to EL, the leadership mechanism had constructed around the significant concept of OT, thus improving the business culture. EL plays a critical role in formulating business transparency in the communication network. Business information assists the employees in altering their behaviors, conducts, and actions. The organization’s morality holds a high potential for promoting openness and transparency of information. Accordingly, EL ensures the transfer of moral data to the workers, thus fulfilling their desire for progress. Given the statement, the study shows that EL is the direct way to increase OT and ES ( Moslehpour et al., 2018 ).

The leadership characteristics emphasize adopting ethical principles, thus developing an environment for accelerating employee career satisfaction ( Moon and Jung, 2018 ). Visionary leaders create an ethical environment, thus increasing the employees’ excitement and work satisfaction ( Özturk and Senanur, 2021 ). Organizational transparency is critical to developing an ethical climate in the organization. EL ensures the establishment of moral and transparent business practices, procedures, and communications, subsequently achieving individual outcomes. The ethical environment enhances the employees’ perspective, thereby recording a positive response between EL and ES ( Halbusi et al., 2021 ). Indeed, for an organization’s success, maintaining business transparency has become vital for leaders. The common goal of the organizations is to accelerate the employees’ satisfaction and morale. Therefore, to achieve this goal, leaders’ should create value for their employees by building a transparent organizational climate, thus influencing their work engagement and satisfaction ( Meynhardt et al., 2020 ). Accordingly, the research states that the influence of ethical leaders on ES ensures the creation of the organization’s ethical culture, substantially internalizing the moral beliefs to satisfy the employees’ needs ( Taştan and Davoudi, 2019 ). Therefore, the prior literature presents the following hypothesis:

• H5a: OT mediates the relationship between EL and ES.

Methodology

The quantitative study examined the direct relationship between EL, MR, OT, and ES. Moreover, the study also examines the mediating relationship between MR and OT and between EL and ES. The data are collected by the service sector of Macau. First-line managers, middle-level managers, senior-level managers, and executives working in the service industry participated in this study. The study adopted ten-item measurement scale of EL from the study by Elçi et al. (2012) , and the four-item MR measurement scale was adopted from the study of Ben Sedrine et al. (2020) . The four-item measurement scale of OT was adopted from the study of Rawlins (2008) . The four-item ES measurement scale was adopted from the study by Chi and Gursoy (2009) . The convenient sampling was used in this study, and data were collected by employees electronically. A total of 350 questionnaires are distributed to respondents and 290 questionnaires are received back; after checking the data, 267 questionnaires are finalized with a 76% response rate to analyze the data. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used for the data analysis.

Table 1 provides the complete details of the demographic characteristics of respondents who participate in this study. In the gender section, 161 respondents are men with 60.3%, while 106 respondents are women with 39.7%. Regarding age, 20 respondents age between 19 and 30 years with 7.5%, 78 respondents age between 31 and 40 years with 29.2%, 63 respondents age between 41 and 50 years with 23.6%, 77 respondents age between 51 and 60 years with 28.8%, and 29 respondents age more than 60 years with 10.9%. In the education section, 38 individuals are intermediated with 14.2%, 93 individuals have bachelor’s degree with 34.8%, 100 individuals have master’s degree with 37.5%, and 36 individuals have MPhil/other degrees with 13.5%. Moreover, in marital status, 46 individuals are single with 17.2%. At the same time, 221 individuals are married with 82.8%; in designation, nine individuals are accountants with 3.4%, 11 individuals are first-line managers with 4.1%, 107 individuals are middle-level managers with 40.1%, 111 individuals are senior-level managers with 41.6%, and 29 individuals are executives with 10.9%.

Demographic characteristics.

Common Method Bias

This research also applied the common method bias using Harman’s single-factor approach ( Figure 1 ). The variance extracted by one single factor is 10.235%, which is less than 50%, indicating no common method bias in this study ( Podsakoff et al., 2003 ). Table 2 provides the detail of the assessment measurement model that shows the reliability and validity analysis. Cronbach’s alpha, loadings, and composite reliability should be greater than 0.70 ( Tabassum et al., 2020 ), and the study meets the reliability threshold criteria. Therefore, the average variance extracted (AVE) should be higher than 0.5 ( Sarstedt et al., 2019 ); the study meets the threshold criteria of 0.5. The reliability has been shown in this study. Figure 2 shows the graphic demonstration of the assessment measurement model.

Conceptual framework.

Reliability and validity analysis.

Graphical representation of assessment of measurement model.

Assessment of Measurement Model

Table 3 shows the discriminant validity between constructs; there are two methods to measure the discriminant validity, namely, Fornell–Larcker and HTMT. The Fornell–Larcker method shows that the values on the diagonal represent the square root of the AVE, while the off diagonals are correlations. HTMT is the most reliable method to analyze the discriminant validity that should be less than 0.85 ( Hair et al., 2016 , 2019 ).

Discriminant validity analysis (Fornell–Larcker and HTMT).

Values on the diagonal represent the square root of the average variance extracted, while the off diagonals are correlations.

The study meets the threshold criteria of HTMT and Fornell–Larcker; there is no discriminant validity issue between constructs. Table 4 demonstrates the variance influence factor, which shows multicollinearity by constructing its means and independent variables that are influenced by other variables in this study. The variance influence factor should be less than 10, which shows the acceptable values in this study, but in some cases, it can be less than 5 or 2.5, and the minimum range is 1. This study meets the threshold criteria; all variables have multicollinearity. Figure 2 shows a graphical representation of the assessment of the measurement model.

Variance influence factor.

Structural Model

Hypothesis testing.

Table 5 indicates the direct relationship between variables. According to the beta valve, variables considered positive and negative relationship between each other, while a t -value threshold higher than 1.96 and p -value less than 0.01 mean that there is a significant relationship between constructs. In this study, hypothesis 1 indicates that the beta value is 0.413 and t -value is 4.209, showing the positive and significant association between constructs EL→ES. Hypothesis 2 shows that the beta value is 0.554, and the t -value is higher than 1.96; there is a positive and significant relationship between constructs EL→MR. Therefore, hypothesis 3 indicates that the beta value is 0.557 and the t -value is 8.295, higher than 1.96, showing the positive and significant association between constructs EL→OrgT.

Hypothesis testing direct effect.

*Indicates significant paths: p < 0.01, NS = not significant.

Moreover, hypothesis 4 finds that the beta value is 0.277, and the t -value is 3.380. There is a positive and significant connection between constructs MR→ES. Hypothesis 5 shows that the beta value is 0.215, and the t -value is 3.089, confirming the significant relationship between constructs OrgT→ES.

Table 6 indicates the mediating relationship between MR and OT and between EL and ES. The results show that hypothesis 4a shows that the beta value is 0.154 and the t -value is 3.09, confirming the significant mediating relationship between EL→MR→ES. Hypotheses 5a confirmed that the beta value is 0.12 and the t -value is 0.044; there is a significant mediating relationship between EL→OrgT→ES. Figure 3 demonstrates the pictorial representation of the structural equation model.

Hypothesis testing mediation effect.

Graphical representation of the structural model.

Quality Criteria

Table 7 shows that the quality of the model, namely, adjusted R 2 , Q 2 , and F 2 measured the quality. Therefore, the adjusted R 2 shows the variability and close relationship of constructs in the model. The relationship between variables depends on the number of variables, either greater or lower. The higher values show a strong association between variables. The study has R 2 values of ES, MR, and OrgT, which are 0.561, 0.307, and 0.311, respectively. Furthermore, the adjusted R 2 values of ES, MR, and OrgT are 0.556, 0.304, and 0.308, respectively, confirming the strong relationship between the study variables. Q 2 reveals that the predictive relevance of the model should be greater than 0; Q 2 values of ES, MR, and OrgT are 0.342, 0.185, and 0.181, respectively, confirming that the model has good predictive relevance. The F 2 values of EL→ES, EL→MR, EL-→OrgT, MR→ES, and OrgT→ES are 0.210, 0.443, 0.451, 0.121, and 0.072, respectively, which proves the higher effect size has a strong association between variables as regression analysis. Figure 4 demonstrates the graphical representation of R 2 and F 2 values.

R 2 , F 2 , and Q 2 values.

Graphical representation of R 2 and F 2 values.

Significantly, over the years, various researchers have worked on ethics, but limited studies have comprehensively shed light on the role of EL in fostering employees’ job satisfaction ( Vlachos et al., 2013 ). Hence, based on this research gap, this study illuminates the dynamic role of moral leadership in enhancing ES, MR, and OT in the healthcare industry of Macao. Ethical leaders play a fundamental role in boosting the individual’s and organization’s outcome. Indeed, in recent years, the growing significance of moral ethics has elevated the need for adopting EL for enhancing individuals’ output. Given the statement, the previous section (i.e., literature review) showed the potential relationship between the variables. However, this section aims to support the study results in the light of previous research. This section also discusses both the direct and indirect relationship in contrast to the fundamental findings of our study.

Ethical leaders’ moral character significantly influences individuals’ job satisfaction. Given the articulation, the study shows that EL enhances employees’ job satisfaction, thus guiding individual behavior ( Negis Isik, 2020 ). This study indicates that H1 is supported. EL has a positive and significant impact on ES. The results are supported by advanced leadership that enhances organizational outcomes by reporting increased employees’ commitment and job satisfaction ( Qing et al., 2020 ). Accordingly, the prior literature states that leadership constitutes a comprehensive communication model by making the Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools drive the business performance. Given the illustration, the research indicates that the novel leadership agenda (i.e., EL) has made the digital communication tools gain considerable importance, thereby influencing the behavioral elements of employees ( Roman et al., 2019 ). Thus, H2 is supported. EL has a positive and significant impact on MR, and these results are supported by the more efficient the media channel is, the more ethical leaders influence team cohesion through moral cues ( Sedrine et al., 2021 ).

Similarly, H3 is supported in this study. EL has a positive and significant impact on OT. Significantly, the findings of this study supported that moral leaders should look after the interest of both the internal and external stakeholders to maintain information transparency. Integrity, one of the crucial leadership traits, effectively motivates the leaders to share truthful information with firms’ stakeholders, subsequently enhancing organizational value and employee behavior ( Ete et al., 2021 ). In addition to this, the study states that novel communication channels (e.g., social media platforms) improve employees’ satisfaction, thus building a solid employee-firm relationship ( Erjavec et al., 2018 ). Thus, H4 is accepted and supported. MR has a positive and significant impact on ES. The results are confirmed and previous studies refer to videoconferencing as an innovative tool driving the firm’s communication ( Lee et al., 2018 ) and employees’ satisfaction. Given the statement, the new influx of MR influences the organization’s communication with fostering ES ( Chen and Chang, 2018 ). Moreover, H4a is supported and accepted, and MR significantly mediates the relationship between EL and ES supported by the prior literature ( Özden et al., 2019 ).

Consistently, the research shows that perceived organizational communication suggests leaders build a transparent communication climate by fostering ES ( Pološki Vokić et al., 2020 ). Thus, H5 is supported. OT has a positive and significant impact on ES. The study’s results are indicated that ES largely depends on the information available to them. Concerning the firms’ communication, exposure to false and inadequate data creates confusion for employees, thus making it difficult for them to manage the flooding of unnecessary and overburdened data ( Yue et al., 2019 ). However, the H5a is supported and accepted, and OT mediates the relationship between EL and ES. The findings of this study revealed that OT is critical to developing an ethical climate in the organization. EL ensures the establishment of moral and transparent business practices, procedures, and communications, subsequently, achieving individual outcomes. The ethical environment enhances the employees’ perspective, thereby recording a positive response between EL and ES ( Halbusi et al., 2021 ).

Accordingly, the study results suggest that leaders pay attention to the implementation of ethics, improving the organization’s affairs. Ethical behavior potentially influences employee action. Therefore, the study provides implications for the leaders to realize the importance of moral ethics in improving employees’ satisfaction. Furthermore, it also recommends increasing the amount of MR and OT for achieving favorable individual outcomes. This study provides a moral guide for today’s managers, leaders, scholars, and organizations for incorporating ethical practices, thus boosting employee work satisfaction.

Since ancient times, EL has considerably gained experts’ attention. At present, the accelerated progress of moral ethics has made the leaders develop a strong moral character, fundamentally contributing to the organization’s welfare. However, raising the individual’s outcome has morally questioned the business practices, fostering the demand for EL. Indeed, the prior literature concludes EL to be a significant concept influencing the individual’s satisfaction. In the context of moral leadership, MR has also played a fundamental role in developing the organization’s communication process. The progressing MR drastically influences ES, thus demanding the leaders to emphasize developing an ethical climate of increased transparency.

Furthermore, the study also strengthens the role of MR and OT, thus ensuring favorable individual outcomes. MR and OT help leaders build an ethical climate, accelerating employees’ satisfaction and organizations’ progress. Perhaps, the study concluded that the impact of EL enhances employees’ satisfaction, thus promoting MR and OT to open the doors for the leaders to adopt novel communication tools for conveying the moral teachings.

Subsequently, to help advance our knowledge of EL, the study helps us understand the emerging role of moral leadership in today’s working environment. Results show that ethical leaders increase employees’ satisfaction at work. Furthermore, the study findings also provide empirical support to MR and OT. The mediating role of MR and OT illustrates a positive association between EL and ES. Overall, the research findings contribute to the growing knowledge of leadership virtues, thus stating its positive effect on ES, MR, and OT.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

Ethical review and approval were not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

This study was done by the author named in this article, and the author accept all liabilities resulting from claims which relate to this article and its contents.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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4 Examples of Ethical Leadership in Business

• 14 Sep 2023

Have you ever faced an ethical dilemma? Maybe you found someone’s wallet on the ground or witnessed someone cheating during a test or competition. In these scenarios, the right answer isn’t always clear.

In business, you’re bound to encounter ethical dilemmas, especially as a leader. Behaving unethically can be illegal—for instance, stealing money or harming employees. In these situations, making the right choice is clearer. Sometimes, it’s not a question of legality but of weighing potential outcomes.

“Many of the decisions you face will not have a single right answer,” says Harvard Business School Professor Nien-hê Hsieh in the online course Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability . “Sometimes, the most viable answer may come with negative effects. In such cases, the decision is not black and white. As a result, many call them ‘gray-area decisions.’”

When facing ambiguity, how do you make the most ethical decision? Here’s a primer on ethical leadership and four examples of leaders who faced the same question.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Ethical Leadership?

Ethical leadership is the practice of making decisions that balance stakeholders’ best interests with your company’s financial health, and empowering others to do the same.

As a leader, you have ethical responsibilities to four stakeholder groups—customers, employees, investors, and society—which Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability breaks down.

Responsibilities to Customers and Employees

• Well-being: What’s ultimately good for the person
• Rights: Entitlement to receive certain treatment
• Duties: A moral obligation to behave in a specific way
• Best practices: Aspirational standards not required by law or cultural norms

Employees have a fifth category—fairness—which comprises three types to consider:

• Legitimate expectations: Employees reasonably expect certain practices or behaviors to continue based on experiences with the organization and explicit promises.
• Procedural fairness: Managers must resolve issues impartially and consistently.
• Distributive fairness: Your company equitably allocates opportunities, benefits, and burdens.

Responsibilities to Investors

Your responsibilities to investors are known as fiduciary duties . The four types are:

• Duty of obedience: Adhere to corporate bylaws, superiors’ instructions, and the law.
• Duty of information: Disclose necessary information and remain truthful about performance and operations. Refuse to divulge certain information to nonessential parties.
• Duty of loyalty: Act in the most favorable way for shareholders and avoid conflicts of interest.
• Duty of care: Evaluate decisions’ potential outcomes before acting.

Responsibilities to Society

In addition to creating value for your business, you’re responsible for making a positive, or at least neutral, impact on society and the environment.

One framework to conceptualize this is the triple bottom line, also called the “three P’s”:

• Profit: Your business’s responsibility to make a profit.
• People: Your business’s responsibility to positively impact society by creating jobs, supporting charities, or promoting well-being initiatives.
• The planet: Your business’s responsibility to positively impact the natural environment, or at least not damage it.

Even business leaders with the best intentions can make unethical decisions. In a Harvard Business Review article , HBS Professor Max Bazerman describes the concept of motivated blindness , in which you become unaware of unethical decisions when they benefit you or your company.

Hsieh echoes this sentiment in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability .

“Even when the right thing to do seems clear from an outsider’s perspective, factors like time, social pressures, and the need for self-preservation can complicate things,” Hsieh says in the course.

Learning about ethical leadership can enable you to be aware of unintended negligence and make more conscious, ethical decisions.

Here are four examples of business leaders who faced ethical dilemmas, how they handled them, and what you can learn from their experiences.

1. Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol Poisonings

A classic case of ethical leadership in business is “the Chicago Tylenol poisonings.” On September 9, 1982, a Chicago-area 12-year-old girl woke up with a cold. Her parents gave her a tablet of extra-strength Tylenol to ease her symptoms and, within hours, she died.

Six more deaths followed—the connecting factor between them was having taken extra-strength Tylenol shortly before passing away. It was later discovered that the tablets were laced with cyanide, a chemical that interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen.

Johnson & Johnson, Tylenol’s parent company, had an ethical dilemma and a public relations disaster to contend with.

Baffled as to how the cyanide got in the tablets, Johnson & Johnson’s leaders acted quickly and pulled all Tylenol products off the shelves—31 million bottles worth over $100 million—and stopped all production and advertising.

The swiftness of their decision, although incredibly costly, put customers’ well-being at the forefront and saved lives.

Johnson & Johnson partnered with the Chicago Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to track down the perpetrator who added cyanide to the medication. The company offered a $100,000 reward and provided detailed updates on its investigation and product developments following the crisis.

When it became clear that the killer had bought the product, laced it with cyanide, and returned it to store shelves undetected, Johnson & Johnson developed the first-ever tamper-resistant packaging. The “safety seal” that now covers the opening of most food and drug products was born.

“Our highest responsibility has always been the health and safety of our consumers,” a Johnson & Johnson representative wrote in a statement to the Chicago Tribune . “While this tragic incident remains unsolved, this event resulted in important industry improvements to patient safety measures, including the creation of tamper-resistant packaging.”

The Tylenol brand recovered from the incident, largely because of Johnson & Johnson’s leadership team’s swift action and transparent care for customers.

2. JetBlue’s Shutdown

On Valentine’s Day, 2007 , at the John F. Kennedy International Airport, JetBlue Airlines sent nine planes from the gate to the runway during a snowstorm, hoping conditions would rapidly improve—but it had no such luck.

The misstep caused the planes to sit on the tarmac for more than five hours with disgruntled passengers inside. The issue snowballed from there.

Since JetBlue employees had to work overtime to deal with the delays, few had enough allowable flight time to handle upcoming departures. JetBlue was left with no choice but to cancel 1,096 flights over the following five days.

CEO David Neeleman responded by writing an apology letter to customers and crafting a “ customer bill of rights ” that the airline still abides by. The document outlined customers’ rights to information about flights, as well as how they’d be compensated in the event of delays or cancellations.

Neeleman also went on a public apology tour, taking full responsibility for the incident rather than blaming it on the weather.

This response stands in contrast to the 2022 Southwest Airlines incident that played out similarly but with less accountability from leaders. Initially caused by bad weather and then exacerbated by Southwest’s outdated booking systems, the 16,700 canceled flights left thousands stranded between December 21 and 31.

In contrast to Neeleman’s apologies and emphasis on customer rights, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan took a defensive stance, explaining in a video the impact that “record bitter cold” had on all airlines and that Southwest was doing everything it could to remedy the issue. While those points may have been true, the response didn’t go over well with customers who wanted to feel respected and understood.

Each leader's choices highlight the importance of being transparent and championing customer rights when facing similar issues.

Related: The Importance of Reflective Leadership in Business

3. Starbucks’s Racial Bias Incident

If one of your employees made a critical decision based on racial bias, how would you respond? That was the question Kevin Johnson, then-CEO of coffee shop chain Starbucks, had to answer in April 2014 .

One day, two Black men entered a Starbucks in Philadelphia and asked to use the bathroom. The manager on duty told them the restroom was for paying customers only, so they sat down to wait for their friend to arrive before ordering.

The manager called the police, who arrested the men for trespassing. Although no charges were filed, the arrest went viral and sparked protests throughout the United States.

Starbucks, which prides itself on being an ethical brand , has one of the most diverse leadership groups in corporate America—five of the board’s 14 members are women, and five are from racial minority groups. This racially motivated incident clashed with its values.

Johnson fired the manager who called for the arrest, apologized to the two men, and announced racial bias training for all Starbucks employees.

To emphasize the training’s importance, Johnson closed 8,000 locations on May 29, 2018, to educate 175,000 employees. This cost Starbucks an estimated $12 million in lost profit but spread the message that it cares about its customers, employees, and society.

Related: How to Create a Culture of Ethics and Accountability in the Workplace

4. The Muse Sticking Up for Employees

Ethical dilemmas often aren’t public scandals—even quiet, internal decisions can have enormous impacts. Kathryn Minshew, CEO and co-founder of The Muse , faced one such scenario in the early days of growing the online career platform.

She’d just signed a company to use The Muse’s recruiting platform. It was a major deal, and the young startup desperately needed revenue. But during the onboarding process, Minshew noticed the client’s representatives were talking down to her junior staff members. While they respected her, how they treated her team didn’t sit well.

She spoke with the client about it, effectively providing a warning and a chance to start the relationship on a better note. Still, the poor treatment of her team continued.

Minshew had a decision to make: Take the revenue despite the mistreatment or part ways with the client to support her team. She went with the latter.

“I told them nicely that it didn’t make sense to work together anymore and refunded the unused balance of their money,” Minshew says in an interview with Fast Company . “They tried to argue, but at that point, my mind was made up. I didn’t realize how relieved my team was—and how much they appreciated it—until after it was all done.”

By cutting ties with the client, Minshew fulfilled her ethical responsibility to create an environment that supported her employees’ well-being and right to be treated respectfully. In doing so, she built a strong foundation of trust and demonstrated that she’d have their best interest in mind—even at the business’s expense.

“I think backing your team in situations like that is really important,” Minshew says in the same interview, “but it’s not always easy, especially when you’re early-stage.”

How to Develop Ethical Leadership Skills

While these scenarios likely differ from those you face at your organization, ethical leadership’s guiding principles ring true.

To build your ethical leadership skills , consider taking an online business ethics course. In Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability , Hsieh presents several real-world examples of ethical dilemmas, prompts you to consider how you’d respond to them, and then lets business leaders share how they handled each.

In the course, you also learn how to use frameworks and tools to conceptualize your responsibilities to stakeholders, make judgment calls in gray-area situations, and act decisively to reach optimal outcomes.

By learning from the challenges and triumphs of those who came before you, you can equip yourself to handle any ethical dilemmas that come your way.

Are you interested in learning how to navigate difficult decisions as a leader? Explore Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability —one of our online leadership and management courses —and download our free guide to becoming a more effective leader.

About the Author

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Ethical leadership and follower moral actions: investigating an emotional linkage.

• 1 School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
• 2 School of Business Administration, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang, China
• 3 School of Business and Administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China

The effectiveness of ethical leadership has been extensively investigated. However, compared to the outcomes of ethical leadership, we still lack enough knowledge about the mechanisms underlying ethical leadership and its outcomes. Drawing from social information processing theory, this paper explores an emotional explanation for the effectiveness of ethical leadership. Adopting a time-lagged research design with responses from 64 leaders and 289 followers, the present research found that ethical leadership invokes followers’ other-praising emotions and eventually enhances their moral actions. Further, leader core self-evaluation contributes to the positive effects of ethical leadership on followers’ other-praising moral emotions and subsequent moral actions. Theoretical and practical implementations of these observations were discussed.

Introduction

As ethical scandals are cropping up more frequently in recent times and in view of its unique effectiveness in modeling behavioral ethicality, ethical leadership is receiving greater research attention ( Brown and Treviño, 2006 ; Demirtas and Akdogan, 2015 ). Characterized as a leadership demonstrating and promoting of “normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relations” ( Brown et al., 2005 , p. 120), ethical leadership has been reported to have positive effects on a range of follower outcomes including task performance ( Bouckenooghe et al., 2015 ), perceived leader effectiveness ( Brown et al., 2005 ), organizational citizenship behavior ( Piccolo et al., 2010 ), work place deviance ( Resick et al., 2013 ), ethical behaviors ( Mayer et al., 2009 ), and prosocial behaviors ( Kalshoven et al., 2013 ). However, in spite of such empirical support, several researchers ( Brown and Treviño, 2006 ; Bouckenooghe et al., 2015 ) have noted that our understanding of ethical leadership and its impacts on follower actions need to be improved due to the following reasons.

First, in comparison to the numerous outcomes of ethical leadership, little is known about the mechanisms through which ethical leaders trigger followers’ moral actions. Although the relationship between ethical leadership and follower ethical/unethical behaviors has been investigated ( Mayer et al., 2009 ), we still lack enough research regarding why followers can translate their leaders’ ethical behaviors into their own moral actions, which is an equally essential part to understand ethical leadership effectiveness ( van Knippenberg et al., 2004 ; Dinh et al., 2014 ). Thus,without investigating the mechanisms that drive the influence of ethical leadership on follower moral actions, we would not reach a comprehensive understanding about the effectiveness of ethical leadership.

Second, several scholars ( Brown and Treviño, 2006 ; Chen and Hou, 2016 ; Zhang and Tu, 2016 ) have stressed the need to explore the boundary conditions of ethical leadership effectiveness. However, with few exceptions that had focused on follower characteristics such as self-esteem ( Avey et al., 2011 ) or team climate ( Chen and Hou, 2016 ), what mitigates or strengthens ethical leadership’s influence has remained undiscovered. Especially, little is known about whether and how the effectiveness of ethical leadership varies across different leader characteristics. Since paucity of information on the boundary conditions will limit the theoretical development and practical implications of ethical leadership ( Brown and Treviño, 2006 ; Chen and Hou, 2016 ), it is necessary to examine such conditions to fully understand ethical leadership at the workplace.

The present research aims to address the gaps mentioned above. First, we rely on social information processing theory (SIP, Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ) to examine a moral emotional linkage between ethical leadership and follower moral actions. The emotional mechanism has been widely considered to be necessary to understand leader behaviors and to predict employee behaviors ( Dasborough and Ashkanasy, 2002 ; Sadri et al., 2011 ). As in the moral domain, emotions consciously and unconsciously affect employees’ ethical behavior and ethical decision making ( Greene and Haidt, 2002 ; Arsenio and Lemerise, 2004 ; Salvador and Folger, 2009 ; Harvey et al., 2016 ). However, research on ethical leadership has so far paid more attention to cognitive mechanisms such as (cognitive) trust ( Xu et al., 2016 ), perceived accountability ( Steinbauer et al., 2014 ) and perceived organizational politics ( Kacmar et al., 2013 ), while research on leadership and business ethics has not done so with regard to the role that emotions play in employees’ reactions to ethical leadership ( Brown and Mitchell, 2010 ). Although scholars have emphasized the vital role of moral emotions in translating moral standards into moral actions (see a review of Tangney et al., 2007 ; Lindebaum et al., 2017 ), few studies, as far as we know, have empirically examined this relationship.

Drawing from social information theory ( Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ), which posits that environmental information cues shape individual’s attitudes and behaviors by indicating what a person’s attitudes and opinions should be, we propose that ethical leadership would invoke followers’ other-praising moral emotions, which eventually triggers followers to report more ethical issues and engage in less unethical behavior. Second, we believe that an ethical leader is more likely to evoke followers’ other-praising moral emotions when the leader has high core self-evaluation. Salancik and Pfeffer (1978) have pointed out that, as information cues become more salient, individual’s attitudes and behaviors are more likely to change. Hence, we believe that when an ethical leader has high core self-evaluation, he/she would be more confident about his/her own ethical beliefs and actions, making the ethical cues more salient to invoke followers’ other-praising moral emotions.

Our research contributes to ethical leadership and moral emotions literature in the following ways. First, by linking ethical leadership with follower moral actions through moral emotions, our research provides a fundamentally emotional explanation of why ethical leadership promotes follower moral actions. Second, by focusing on other-praising moral emotions, our research discusses how emotions in specific-domain (i.e., moral domain) can help explain the effectiveness of ethical leadership, thus contributing new insights to emotion literature. Finally, by examining the moderating role of leader core self-evaluation, the present research clarifies the potential boundary condition of ethical leadership effectiveness. Our theoretical framework is shown in Figure 1 .

FIGURE 1. Theoretical model.

Theory and Hypotheses

Individual’s job attitudes and behaviors are results of complex processes. Previous research has emphasized the vital role of need-satisfaction models in shaping employee’s job attitudes and behaviors. For example, Maslow (1943) proposed the hierarchy of needs model to explain how different needs guide individual’s specific behaviors. However, taking the social information processing perspective, Salancik and Pfeffer (1978) argue that the context and the consequences of past choices significantly influence individuals’ attitudes and behaviors, which go beyond the effects of individual predispositions and rational decision-making processes. Specifically, as social information processing theory posits, individual perceptions, attitudes and behaviors can be shaped by information cues, such as work requirements and expectations from the social environment ( Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ; Bhave et al., 2010 ). Specifically, Gundlach et al. (2003) indicated that individuals’ translating of information cues could trigger individuals’ emotional reacts. For example, employees may experience anger emotion if they translate others’ whistle-blowing behavior to responsibility avoidance behavior. Meanwhile, several scholars have emphasized the vital role of emotion in processing information cues and in translating those cues into moral judgment and actions (e.g., Arsenio and Lemerise, 2004 ; Dodge and Rabiner, 2004 ).

According to SIP theory, one of the important sources of information is individuals’ immediate social environment, which has two general effects on individuals’ attitudes and behaviors ( Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ). First, individuals’ social environment helps construct meaning directly through the guidance of socially acceptable beliefs, needs, attitudes, and reasons impinging on actions ( Bhave et al., 2010 ). For example, leaders’ continuous statements about ethical standards and principles underlying work conditions force employees to either reject such statements or include them during employees’ own evaluations. Second, social influence and context focus individuals’ attention on certain specific information, which makes the information more salient, raises expectations, and highlights the logical consequences of individual behaviors ( Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ). For example, coworkers may highlight the bad or unhealthy effects of their products to customers and state that their work was unethical when judged against the prevailing social norms.

According to social information processing theory, such environmental information cues help employees to construct and interpret events and shape their attitudes and behaviors by indicating what a person’s attitudes and opinions should be ( Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ). Previous research has validated the work-related outcomes explained by SIP theory, such as procedural justices ( Goldman, 2001 ), job satisfaction ( O’Reilly and Caldwell, 1985 ), work-family conflict ( Bhave et al., 2010 ), as well as leadership effectiveness ( Chiu et al., 2016 ).

Ethical Leadership and Other-Praising Moral Emotions

Ethical leadership is conceptualized as the “demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making” ( Brown et al., 2005 , p. 120). First, ethical leaders get legitimized by modeling normatively appropriate behaviors such as honesty, fairness and care. Second, ethical leaders not only pay attention to ethics themselves, but they also take specific actions to make ethics salient in the social environment, say, by communicating with followers about ethics, allowing followers to speak up their ideas or opinions ( Bass and Steidlmeier, 1999 ), setting ethical standards and rewarding ethical conduct ( Treviño et al., 2003 ). Finally, ethical leaders embed ethicality into their decision-making process by considering the ethical consequences of their decisions and making fair choices as a model for others ( Bass and Avolio, 2000 ). Multiple studies have suggested that ethical leadership predicts followers’ work attitudes and behaviors, such as job satisfaction ( Brown et al., 2005 ), psychological well-being ( Avey et al., 2012 ), performance ( Bonner et al., 2016 ), employee voice ( Lee et al., 2017 ), OCB ( Bonner et al., 2016 ; Wang and Sung, 2016 ) and misconduct ( Mayer et al., 2010 ).

Moral emotions refer to the emotions that are linked to the “interests or welfare of society or at least of persons other than the judge or agent” ( Haidt, 2003 : 854), which typically include self-conscious emotions such as shame and guilt, other-condemning emotions such as anger and disgust, and other-praising emotions such as elevation and gratitude ( Brown and Mitchell, 2010 ). Moral emotions have been thought to play a vital role in linking moral standards and moral behaviors ( Tangney et al., 2007 ) because those emotions provide the motivational force (i.e., the power and the energy) for individual to do good and to avoid doing bad ( Kroll and Egan, 2004 ). However, with very few exceptions that focus on the trait qualities of moral emotions (e.g., Eisenbeiss and Knippenberg, 2015 ), researchers have not empirically examined how the state qualities of moral emotions can help to explain the linkage between moral standards and moral behaviors.

In present research, we focus on other-praising moral emotions to answer how followers translate ethical leadership into their own moral behaviors. Other-praising moral emotions refer to the emotions that are positive and other-targeted, such as elevation, gratitude, and awe ( Brown and Mitchell, 2010 ). We emphasize the mediating role of other-praising moral emotions for two reasons. First, ethical leaders stick to high ethical standards when making decisions ( Lee et al., 2017 ), which will be more likely to invoke followers’ positive rather than negative moral emotions. Second, through communicating with followers about ethical issues and responding to followers’ suggestions, ethical leaders will be more possible to evoke followers’ leader-targeted rather than self-targeted moral emotions, such as elevation and gratitude.

Drawing on social information processing theory, we believe employees’ moral emotions and moral behaviors can be shaped by the ethical information cues (e.g., values, standards and behaviors) exhibited by their direct leader ( Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ). Specifically, we propose that ethical leadership will evoke followers’ other-praising moral emotions due to the following reasons. First, we anticipate that ethical leadership can invoke follower moral emotions (e.g., elevation, inspiration) because ethical leaders express strong ethicality in their behaviors. Since the direct leader is one of the most important components of work environment for employees ( Bass and Stogdill, 1990 ), the beliefs and behaviors of the direct leader provide the salient information cues that are capable of progressively changing employee attitudes and behaviors. Since ethical leaders exhibit high ethical beliefs and behaviors, followers will translate leaders’ ethical values and behaviors into their own feelings, e.g., generating the other-praising emotions such as elevation and awe.

Second, ethical exemplars encourage followers to praise moral emotions (e.g., elevation, awe) by demonstrating the desire for being just and helping others. Having been characterized thus as moral persons, ethical leaders start being seen not only as fair and principled decision-makers in organizations but also moral examples who care about the broader society ( Brown and Treviño, 2006 ). By demonstrating self-sacrifice and self-transcendence ( Mayer et al., 2012a ), ethical leaders can easily invoke followers’ other-praising moral emotions. For example, when Martin Luther King was giving the famous speech “I Have a Dream”, the audience became charged with moral emotions such as elevation, inspiration, and awe. Third, ethical leaders elicit followers’ praising moral emotions (e.g., gratitude, inspiration) by taking care of followers’ needs and welfare. Haidt (2003) argued that, when an individual perceives that another person has done some good deeds for him/her, he/she will experience the emotion of gratitude. Thus, by continuously considering followers’ needs, ethical leaders will easily evoke praising moral emotions among their followers ( Cropanzano et al., 2017 ).

Although the association between ethical leadership and followers’ other-praising moral emotions have not been directly examined, several previous findings could be seen to be providing supportive evidence for our proposed relationship. For example, Vianello et al. (2010) found that leaders’ self-sacrificing and interpersonal fairness elicited followers’ elevation. Similarly, Haidt (2003) pointed out that kindness and self-sacrifice are powerful elicitors of awe and elevation emotion. Therefore, we propose that:

Hypothesis 1: Ethical leadership is positively related to other-praising moral emotions.

Other-Praising Moral Emotions and Moral Actions

The association between individual emotions and behavioral reactions has received much attention over the past few decades ( Cropanzano et al., 2017 ; Lebel, 2017 ). For example, as cognitive appraisal theory posits ( Lazarus, 1991 ), each discrete emotion predicts a specific action tendency ( O’Leary-Kelly et al., 2017 ), e.g., anger predicts attack, compassion predicts helping, and anxiety predicts avoidance. In the moral emotion domain, although the linkage between each moral emotion and the specific behavioral tendency has not been fully revealed, research has made much progress in predicting behaviors via moral emotions. For example, Cropanzano et al. (2017) proposed that other-condemning moral emotions (anger, disgust, and contempt) invoked by leader-member exchange (LMX) differentiation will harm the LMX relationship in the future.

Since moral emotions are linked to the interests or welfare of society or of persons, moral actions will be more likely to become its behavior tendencies. As Kroll and Egan (2004) noted, moral emotions provide the motivational force—the power and energy—to do good and to avoid doing bad. In the present research, we propose that other-praising moral emotions positively affect followers’ moral actions to report unethical issues and to avoid doing unethical behaviors. First, other-praising moral emotions provide followers with more psychological power and energy to engage in moral actions ( Kroll and Egan, 2004 ). Haidt (2003) pointed out that other-praising moral emotions (e.g., elevation and awe) “create a more generalized desire to become a better person oneself” (p. 861). Similarly, Algoe and Haidt (2009) argue that employees who are high in other-praising moral emotions should motivate changes and behaviors that are beneficial in the long run. Thus, when employees are charged with other-praising moral emotions, they will be more likely to engage in moral actions themselves, such as reducing unethical behaviors and reporting unethical issues for sustainable development.

Second, other-praising moral emotions broaden followers’ awareness and encourage followers to display more novel, exploratory and ethical behaviors. Fredrickson (1998) “broaden and build model” suggests that positive emotions prompt individuals to pursue novel, varied, and creative paths of actions rather than discard trivial behavioral scripts. Other-praising moral emotions fit well with this “broaden and build model”. Thus, employees with high other-praising moral emotions will go beyond their own normal duties to display more ethical behaviors. Furthermore, previous researchers have pointed to the positive relationship between other-praising moral emotions (e.g., elevation, gratitude, and admiration) and prosocial or ethical behaviors, such as helping others ( Haidt, 2003 ; Algoe and Haidt, 2009 ). Therefore, we propose that:

Hypothesis 2: Other-praising moral emotions is positively related to followers’ moral actions, such as (a) reporting more ethical issues and (b) engaging in less unethical behavior.

Combining the above arguments—because ethical leadership acts as a critical antecedent of followers’ other-praising moral emotions (Hypothesis 1)—and because followers’ other-praising moral emotions could motivate them to do moral actions, we anticipate that other-praising moral emotions play a critical role in translating positive external influences (i.e., ethical leadership) to followers’ actual moral actions. Haidt (2003) also suggested that other-praising moral emotions encourage individuals to be a better person and to follow the moral example (i.e., the ethical leader) to demonstrate more ethical behaviors, creating “a virtuous ripple effect”. Hence, we argue that ethical leadership can invoke followers’ other-praising moral emotions, which in turn will lead to increased willingness to report unethical issues and decrease unethical behaviors at work.

Hypothesis 3: Ethical leadership will have positive effects on followers’ moral actions, such as (a) reporting more ethical issues and (b) engaging in less unethical behavior by invoking followers’ other-praising moral emotions.

Moderating Effect of Leader’s Core Self-Evaluation

Although we believe that ethical leadership can invoke followers’ other-praising moral emotions, whether the followers would indeed be moved and inspired depends on the extent to which the followers treat their ethical leader as an important source of information. According to social information processing theory ( Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ), an individual’s immediate social environment provides information cues to shape the individuals’ attitudes and behaviors. However, although the direct leader is one of the important environmental factors for employees, different leaders may influence their followers differently ( Rees and Segal, 1984 ). For example, if an ethical leader has no confidence about what he/she believes and what he/she has done, the followers may question their leaders’ ethical behavior, let alone generating moral emotions.

This paper focuses on leader core self-evaluation as the boundary factor for several reasons. First, core self-evaluation provides an integrative framework addressing the effects of employee dispositions on their job attitudes ( Bono and Judge, 2003 ). Judge et al. (2003) identified four components of core self-evaluation: generalized self-efficacy, self-esteem, emotional stability, and locus of control. Since these traits are fundamental and broaden self-perceptions, core self-evaluation is thought to have overarching influence on all other appraisals ( Johnson et al., 2008 ). Second, core self-evaluation reflects people’s beliefs about their own ability to interact with the environment by exhibiting their own behaviors ( Bono and Judge, 2003 ). By demonstrating efficacy beliefs while interacting with others, individuals with high core self-evaluation provide additional information cues for others to translate individuals’ behaviors. Third, previous leadership studies have called for investigating the role of core self-evaluation on leadership effectiveness ( Resick et al., 2009 ). Hence, it is important to explore how the leader’s core self-evaluation affects the effectiveness of ethical leadership.

We propose that when the leader has high core self-evaluation, the positive effect of ethical leadership on followers’ other-praising moral emotions get strengthened. According to social information processing theory, employees’ attitudes and behaviors can be shaped by environment information cues ( Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ). As a part of the followers’ immediate social environment, leader’s behaviors could exhibit both ethical and efficacy information. When an ethical leader has high core self-evaluation, he/she will be more confident about what he/she has done ( Bono and Judge, 2003 ), thus making the ethical information (e.g., values, standards and behaviors) more salient for employees. On one hand, ethical leaders with high core self-evaluation will carry out more ethical standards and practices, thus invoking followers’ other-praising moral emotions by strengthening the ethical values and behaviors. On the other hand, high core self-evaluation leaders have high self-regulatory capacities to control their own actions to cope with external constraints ( Johnson et al., 2008 ), which encourages followers to develop more positive feelings toward their leader. On the contrary, when an ethical leader has low core self-evaluation, he/she may have little confidence or ability to stick to ethical standards and behaviors himself/herself, thus conveying less ethical information cues to followers and invoking less moral emotions eventually. Therefore, we propose that:

Hypothesis 4: Leader core self-evaluation moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and other-praising moral emotions, such that the relationship between ethical leadership and other-praising moral emotions will be strengthened when leader has high core self-evaluation.

According to social information processing theory ( Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978 ), leader’s ethical and efficacy characters could jointly affect employees’ attitude and behaviors. Since ethical leadership and leader core self-evaluation interact to influence employees’ other-praising moral emotions (Hypothesis 4) and other-praising moral emotions elicit moral actions (Hypothesis 2), we propose a mediated moderation effect to theorize that followers’ other-praising moral emotions help translate leader’s ethical and efficacy characteristics into their own moral actions.

Hypothesis 5: Other-praising moral emotions mediate the effect of interaction between ethical leadership and leader core self-evaluation on followers’ (a) reporting ethical issues and (b) unethical behavior.

Participants and Procedures

Data was collected from several organizations located in Mainland China. Industry of these companies varies from manufacturing, real-estate and high-tech industry. A time-lagged data collection method was designed to reduce the potential common method bias. At Time 1, 72 teams were contacted in these companies, ranging from research (29%), production (43%), sales (18%), and other functional teams (11%). Each team has one leader and more than three employees (the average number of followers per team is 4.52). One of the authors went directly to the workplace to distribute the questionnaire. Each participant was offered with a questionnaire, a $2 gift, and an introductory letter to briefly introduce the research purpose and ensure participants’ confidentiality. 40 min later, we collected the questionnaire back. Finally, we received questionnaires from 72 leaders and 350 followers. About 7 weeks later, at Time 2, we distributed the questionnaire directly to the person who participated in the first survey and a total of 64 leaders (a response rate of 89%) and 295 followers (a response rate of 84%) responded. After excluding some uncompleted questionnaire, we finally identified 64 leaders and 289 followers. 48% of leaders were women and their average age was 39.0 years ( SD = 8.47), and they have worked in their company for an average of 9.9 years ( SD = 9.4). 58% of followers were women and their average age was 31.73 years ( SD = 8.41), and their average organizational tenure was 5.46 years ( SD = 7.01).

At Time 1, followers were asked to rate ethical leadership and their demographics background information and leaders were asked to report their own core self-evaluation and demographics information. At Time 2, followers completed measures of moral emotions and reporting unethical issues and leaders rated their followers’ unethical behaviors.

To ensure the internal validity of our translated scales, a back-translation process (c.f. Brislin, 1970 ) was conducted on all survey items.

Ethical Leadership

Ethical leadership was measured with a ten-item scale developed by Brown et al. (2005) . Sample items include “(my leader) sets an example of how to do things the right way in terms of ethics” and “(my leader) “conducts his or her personal life in an ethical manner” (α = 0.96). Items were rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree).

Other-Praising Moral Emotions

We measured the five other-praising moral emotions proposed by Brown and Mitchell (2010) , by using the format for assessment from Brunstein (1993) . The five other-praising moral emotions are elevation, awe, inspiration, gratitude, and admiration. Followers were asked to report the extent they feel when interaction with their leader during the past months. Items were rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very frequently). The Cronbach’s α was 0.86.

Leader Core Self-Evaluation

We measured leader core self-evaluation with 12-item from Judge et al. (2003) . Sample items were “I am confident 1 get the success I deserve in life” and “I complete tasks successfully” (α = 0.94). Items were rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree).

Reporting Unethical Issues

Reporting unethical issues was measured with the two items from Mayer et al. (2013) ’s reporting unethical conduct scale. The items are “If I personally observed conduct that violated our company’s standards of ethical business conduct I would report it” and “If I witnessed an employee violate our company’s code of conduct I would report it” (α = 0.90). Items were rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree).

Unethical Behavior

Leaders were asked to rate followers’ unethical behavior with a seven-item scale from Moore et al. (2012) . Sample items include “falsifies a receipt to get reimbursed for more money than he/she spent on business expenses” and “takes property from work without permission” (α = 0.76). Items were rated on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 7 (daily).

Control Variables

Since we based on social information processing perspective to examine how ethical leadership affects follower moral emotions, we controlled follower age, gender, and the interaction frequency between leader and follower ( Lopes et al., 2005 ) to exclude potential confounded effects. Frequency of interaction with leader was measured with a 3-point item adapted from McAllister (1995) ranging from 1 (many times daily), to 3 (once or twice in the past 1 month). The item was “How frequently do you interact with your supervisor at work?” Follower gender was measured as a dummy variable, with “0” refers men and “1” refers to women.

Analytical Strategy

Within-group interrater agreement (rwg, James et al., 1993 ) and ICC values were computed to examine whether employee-rating ethical leadership could be aggregated to team level. Ethical leadership had an average r wg value of 0.94 with ICC(1) and ICC(2) of 0.46 and 0.80. Thus, according to these results, we aggregated ethical leadership to team level.

Follow the recommendation of Raudenbush et al. (2011) , we used hierarchical linear modeling to test our hypotheses. As our hypothesis 2 and hypothesis 3 indicated cross-level indirect effect, we used Montel Carlo method to test those hypotheses ( Preacher et al., 2010 ).

Preliminary Analyses

Table 1 provides the means, standard deviations, reliability, and correlations among all variables. Ethical leadership was positively related to moral emotions ( r = 0.33, p < 0.001). Moral emotions was positively related to reporting unethical issues ( r = 0.43, p < 0.001) and was negatively related to unethical behavior ( r = −0.25, p < 0.001).

TABLE 1. Means, standard deviations, and correlations for all variables.

We adopted the confirmatory factor analysis to verify discriminant validity of all the constructs. The measurement model was composed of four latent variables (ethical leadership, moral emotions, reporting unethical issues, and unethical behavior) with 24 indicators (10 items for ethical leadership, 5 items for moral emotions, 2 items for reporting unethical issues, and 7 items for unethical behavior). Results (see Table 2 ) showed that the four-factor model had the best fi to the data (χ 2 = 1487.84, df = 485, χ 2 / df = 3.07, CFI = 0.90, TLI = 0.89, RMSEA = 0.08), indicating that the constructs used in our model had good discriminant validity.

TABLE 2. Confirmatory factor analyses.

Hypotheses Testing

We used hierarchical linear modeling to test our hypotheses. As shown in Table 3 , after controlling follower age, gender and interaction frequency with their leader, ethical leadership was positively related to other-praising moral emotions (γ = 0.61, SE = 0.12, p < 0.001; Model 1b), supporting hypothesis 1. Meanwhile, the interaction between ethical leadership and leader core self-evaluation was positively related to other-praising moral emotions (γ = 0.18, SE = 0.07, p < 0.05; Model 1c), supporting hypothesis 4. Results from Model 2b showed that other-praising moral emotions had a positive effect on reporting unethical issues (γ = 0.41, SE = 0.10, p < 0.001), supporting hypothesis 2a. Similarly, results from Model 3b showed that other-praising moral emotions had a negative effect on unethical behavior (γ = −0.02, SE = 0.01, p < 0.05), supporting hypothesis 2b.

TABLE 3. Hierarchical linear modeling results.

We further plotted the interactive effects and performed the simple slop tests. As shown in Figure 2 , when leader has high core self-evaluation, ethical leadership was significantly positively related to moral emotions ( t = 4.17, p < 0.001). However, when leader core self-evaluation is low, the relationship between ethical leadership and moral emotions was not significant ( t = 1.74, p = 0.08), supporting our hypothesis 4.

FIGURE 2. Interaction effect between ethical leadership and leader core self-evaluation on other-praising moral emotions.

We followed Preacher et al. (2010) ’s recommendation to use Montel Carlo method to test cross-level indirect effect (i.e., Hypothesis 2a, 2b, 5a, and 5b). Results with 20000 times bootstrapping showed that the indirect effect between ethical leadership and reporting unethical issues via other-praising moral emotions was 0.29, with 95% confidence interval between 0.17 and 0.42 (not including 0), supporting hypothesis 2a. Similarly, the indirect effect between ethical leadership and reporting unethical issues via other-praising moral emotions was −0.02, with 95% confidence interval between −0.024 and −0.011 (not including 0), supporting hypothesis 2b. Moreover, the mediated moderation effect of moral emotions in relationship between hypothesized interaction (i.e., the interaction between ethical leadership and leader core self-evaluation) and reporting unethical issues was 0.08, with 95% confidence interval between 0.06 and 0.10 (not including 0), supporting hypothesis 5a. The mediated moderation effect of moral emotions in relationship between hypothesized interaction and unethical behavior was −0.005, with 95% confidence interval between −0.006 and −0.004 (not including 0), supporting hypothesis 5b.

The present study has investigated how ethical leadership improves followers’ moral actions through generating followers’ moral emotions. We have found that ethical leadership invokes followers’ other-praising moral emotions and eventually promotes moral actions among the followers, such as reporting more ethical conduct and engaging in less unethical behaviors. Furthermore, when ethical leaders have high core self-evaluation, followers’ other-praising moral emotions as well as their subsequent moral actions will be more likely evoked. On the other hand, when the leader has lower core self-evaluation, the positive effect of ethical leadership on follower other-praising moral emotions becomes neutralized.

Theoretical Contributions

Our research contributes to literature in multiple ways. By introducing the affective perspective, it has offered an emotional explanation about why ethical leadership matters. Previous scholars had consistently suggested that while considering the vital effects of moral emotions on moral actions ( Harvey et al., 2016 ), it is essential for future leadership research to understand the role of moral emotions ( Brown and Mitchell, 2010 ; Lindebaum et al., 2017 ). For example, followers’ hostile affective states can help explain how followers translate their leader’s mistreatment into their own deviant behaviors ( Mayer et al., 2012b ). However, although researchers have demonstrated that ethical leadership can benefit followers and teams in multiple ways ( Brown et al., 2005 ; Avey et al., 2012 ), the question of what role emotions play in employees’ reactions to ethical leadership has not been answered clearly. This answer is important because it helps us understand the causal relationship between ethical leadership and follower moral actions ( Brown and Mitchell, 2010 ) and distinguish ethical leadership from other positive leadership approaches in influencing followers. Drawing on social information processing theory, we have found that ethical leadership evokes followers’ other-praising moral emotions and enhances their moral actions. Specifically, by displaying high moral standards and behaving ethically, ethical leaders invoke follower’s other-praising moral emotions such as elevation, awe, and inspiration, which eventually motivates followers to report more unethical issues and engage in less unethical behavior. Thus, our research has provided an emotional linkage between ethical leadership and follower moral actions, contributing to literature on ethical leadership.

Our research also contributes to emotion literature by focusing on other-praising moral emotions and offering new insights on the association between emotions and behaviors in the moral domain. It is well-documented that emotions have significant effects on individual’s attitudes and behaviors ( Cropanzano et al., 2017 ; Lebel, 2017 ). However, previous studies have paid more attention on more generalized emotions such as positive emotions and negative emotions ( Matta et al., 2014 ). Although those efforts increased our understanding about how emotions shape individual behaviors, several theorists have argued for more specific-domain research on the differentiated influences of specific emotions on behaviors ( Tangney et al., 2007 ; Brown and Mitchell, 2010 ; Horberg et al., 2011 ). For example, several scholars have called for future research to pay attention to moral emotions by revealing its unique role in linking organizational moral standards and employee moral actions ( Tangney et al., 2007 ; Lindebaum et al., 2017 ). In response to such calls, our research examined the positive association between ethical leadership, follower moral emotions, and moral behaviors. Specifically, our results showed that followers are more likely to generate other-praising moral emotions toward their ethical leaders and then conduct more moral actions, such as reporting more unethical issues. Thus, our research contributes to emotion literature by extending our knowledge about the influence of emotions on behaviors in the moral domain.

Finally, our research has contributed to ethical leadership literature by exploring the boundary conditions under which ethical leaders could be more influential in invoking follower moral emotions. Although the positive impacts of ethical leadership have been examined in previous studies (e.g., Brown et al., 2005 ; Avey et al., 2012 ), our knowledge about the conditions under which ethical leadership will be more effective is still far from being satisfactory. Several scholars have noted that without revealing the boundary conditions of effectiveness of ethical leadership, we would not be able reach a comprehensive understanding of ethical leadership ( Brown and Treviño, 2006 ). In response, our results showed that ethical leadership will be more effective when the leader has high core self-evaluation. By contrast, when an ethical leader has low core self-evaluation, followers will not generate other-praising moral emotions toward their leader. Our research thus contributes to ethical leadership literature by investigating how leader characteristics influence the impact of ethical leadership on followers.

Practical Implications

Our results verify the effectiveness of ethical leadership on follower moral actions, suggesting that ethical leadership is effective to promote employees to behave more ethically. Moreover, our findings show that ethical leaders trigger followers to foster other-praising moral emotions. Organizations should actively hire or cultivate more ethical leaders, since those leaders could benefit followers and, at the same time, the organization. Meanwhile, following our finding that ethical leadership elicits followers’ moral actions, leaders should themselves be more willing to behave ethically. Furthermore, our findings show that when an ethical leader has high core self-evaluation, followers’ moral emotions will be more likely invoked. This result suggests that ethical leaders should be self-motivated and express strong self-confidence in front of their followers. Our result also indicates that when the leader has low core self-evaluation, the positive effects of ethical leadership on followers’ moral emotions will be neutralized. This finding could act as a reminder that ethical leadership may not always be useful.

Limitations and Future Research

Our study comes with several limitations that should be noted. First, since this study was conducted in China, it is not very clear to what extent can our results be generalized to other contexts. Previous research has indicated that several cultural factors, such as power distance, impact the interactions between leaders and followers ( Kirkman et al., 2009 ). For example, Kirkman et al. (2009) found that the effect of transformational leadership on procedural justice is more positive when followers have low power distance orientation. Similarly, power distance orientation may also affect the relationship between ethical leadership and followers’ moral emotions since followers with different level of power distance orientation may translate their leader’s ethical behavior differently. Thus, we recommend future research examining whether cultural factors make a difference in our proposed model.

Moreover, although our research has revealed the vital role of other-praising moral emotions in linking ethical leadership and follower moral behaviors, we did not exclude the possibility that other kinds of moral emotions may make a difference. For example, as Brown and Mitchell (2010) noted, other-condemning emotions such as disgust and self-focused emotions such as shame may also explain the effect of ethical/unethical leadership on follower behaviors. Meanwhile, in our research, we intended to provide a comprehensive emotional explanation for the influence of ethical leadership on follower moral actions, thus we did not examine whether specific other-praising emotions (e.g., elevation, inspiration, and gratitude) will have distinct effects. Since the behavioral tendency varies across different emotions ( Lazarus, 1991 ), we encourage future research to dig into the emotional link between ethical leadership and follower moral actions.

The effectiveness of ethical leadership has been well-documented in a growing number of studies. Therefore, it is surprising that we still lack enough knowledge about the emotional linkage between ethical leadership and follower moral actions. The present research proposed and found that ethical leadership prompts followers to engage in more moral actions by invoking followers’ other-praising moral emotions. Moreover, when the ethical leader has high core self-evaluation, the positive effects of ethical leadership on follower moral emotions and moral actions is strengthened. We hope our work will enhance our current knowledge on ethical leadership and provide new insights.

Ethics Statement

An ethics approval was not required as per our institution’s guidelines and national regulations. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants in our study.

Author Contributions

YZ and JM designed and adopted the study, wrote the paper. FZ wrote the paper.

This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71802193) and Humanities and Social Sciences grant of the Chinese Ministry of Education (No. 18YJA630149).

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords : ethical leadership, other-praising moral emotions, core self-evaluation, reporting unethical issues, unethical behavior

Citation: Zhang Y, Zhou F and Mao J (2018) Ethical Leadership and Follower Moral Actions: Investigating an Emotional Linkage. Front. Psychol. 9:1881. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01881

Received: 13 December 2017; Accepted: 13 September 2018; Published: 04 October 2018.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2018 Zhang, Zhou and Mao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Jianghua Mao, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

A Practical Overview of Leadership

Lead from Anywhere

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The social scientific study of leadership has advanced substantially in the past 30 years and is accelerating. During this 60-minute presentation, Nathan Hiller, PhD, provides an overview of what effective leadership entails, common misunderstandings about leadership, and the role psychologists and psychology can play in the future. This session is designed for anyone–whether you’re in a formal position managing/leading others, find yourself informally leading, are working professionally with leaders, or just curious about the topic.

This program does not offer CE credit.

Presented in collaboration with

Division 14 (society for industrial and organizational psychology).

Nathan J. Hiller, PhD

Executive director of the Center for Leadership at Florida International University and professor in the College of Business, where he holds the Ingersoll-Rand Professorship. His research in leadership crosses perspectives and domains—from psychology to strategic management, and has appeared in many of the leading journals in the field. He is coeditor of a forthcoming Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Division 14) Frontiers Series book on senior leaders and organizational agility. In his applied work, he regularly works with leaders and organizations across industries—from technology, healthcare, premium retail, and manufacturing, to K-12 education and various federal agencies. He received his PhD in psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Calgary.

Sara Weiner

Industrial and organizational psychologist and a member of APA Division 14, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP).

More in this series

Provides valuable insights, especially useful for first-generation professionals and those new to leadership, shedding light on the transition into private practice leadership.

September 2023 On Demand Webinar

Lee Ryan discusses her journey of self-discovery on the path to becoming an effective leader and shares ideas about how to prepare yourself (and others) to lead psychology through the next decade.

May 2023 On Demand Webinar

Aaron Boes and Ted Abel share strategies for developing successful research programs, emphasizing different career stages.

April 2023 On Demand Webinar

Iris Jenkins appointed director of the research integrity and consultation program

In collaboration with faculty, staff, and leadership, Jenkins will shape the education and outreach program to promote ethical excellence and facilitate ethical decision-making that impacts university scholarship.

Lindsey Haugh

28 Aug 2024

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Iris Jenkins. Photo by Kristina Rose for Virginia Tech

Iris Jenkins has been appointed director of the research integrity and consultation program in the Division of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance , effective Aug. 1. 

In her role, Jenkins will oversee the research ethics consultation service, serve as the university’s research integrity officer, and lead the campus research ethics and compliance training program. She will also coordinate a universitywide, comprehensive program of responsible and ethical research learning opportunities for Virginia Tech students, scholars, and researchers.

“We are delighted to welcome Iris Jenkins to the team,” said Lisa M. Lee, associate vice president for research and innovation . “She brings nearly two decades of combined research and compliance experience, which will enrich our efforts to infuse ethical decision-making into the innovative research conducted across Virginia Tech.”

In collaboration with faculty, staff, and leadership, Jenkins will shape the education and outreach program to promote ethical excellence and facilitate ethical decision-making that impacts university scholarship. She will coordinate Virginia Tech’s research ethics consultation service, which offers investigators a resource to work through options for handling ethics challenges that present in the conduct of research. Finally, she will handle reports of research misconduct.

“I believe the best research is research that is conducted responsibly and ethically,” Jenkins said. “I am enthusiastic about providing educational opportunities and resources that will assist Virginia Tech faculty, staff, and students in doing their best research.” 

Previously, Jenkins served in the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Research Compliance Office, working with the Human Research Protection Program and on the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. She is an active member of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research, a nonprofit organization that advances ethical research through services and programs for the research oversight community. Jenkins served as its national speaker and advisor on their annual conference advisory group. 

She earned a master’s degree in plant pathology from the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in neuroscience and behavior from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

For questions about research misconduct, research ethics training, or to schedule a consultation, contact Jenkins at [email protected].

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Indigenous research

We commit to progressing the welfare of Indigenous peoples through recognising and engaging with the traditional custodians of our land, promoting a greater level of understanding of indigenous culture and knowledge, and educating future indigenous researchers. (UWA 2020 Vision).

The Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Education is charged with delivering UWA’s strategy and focus in relation to Indigenous education, teaching, research and engagement issues. Part of this includes developing Indigenous research capacity and the advancement of an Indigenous research agenda for the University.

UWA is also committed equitable Indigenous participation and outcomes in research and research training, developing research initiatives that add to the body of knowledge and experiences of Indigenous peoples and effective Indigenous participation in the University’s research decision-making.

In addition to the campus-wide brief, the PVC Indigenous Education is also responsible for the oversight of the School of Indigenous Studies. Its status as a formal academic component of a leading research university means the School is expected to focus on research and the School’s academic staff members are required to be active researchers.

Research in the Indigenous space

Research in the Indigenous space encompasses two main dimensions:

• Building Indigenous researchers and research capacity
• Research with and/or on Indigenous people and topics

UWA is focused on building the capacity of Indigenous academic staff currently employed at UWA, increasing the number of Indigenous academics at UWA through recruiting Indigenous academic staff, and increasing the numbers of Indigenous higher degree by research (HDR) graduates.

As part of this focus, UWA is keen to ensure research with and/or on Indigenous people and topics adheres to associated research protocols and the ethics of funding bodies and community organisations. There is also an emphasis on ensuring non-Indigenous researchers undertake research on Indigenous topics as well as supervising Indigenous students and/or supervising non-Indigenous students researching Indigenous topics.

There are a number of significant research projects being undertaken at UWA.

The School of Indigenous Studies:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project

The School of Indigenous Studies and the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences:

• Poche Centre for Indigenous Health

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences:

• Centre for Aboriginal Medical and Dental Health

The School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Education:

• Centre for Rock Art Research and Management

Indigenous Research Strategy

The Indigenous Research Strategy is a core component and integral part of the broader and overarching Indigenous Strategy for UWA and outlines the University's goals in three key priority areas:

Building Indigenous researcher capacity

Building indigenous community capacity.

• Ensuring quality research that meets the needs of Indigenous people
• Support Indigenous academic staff to build their research profile
• Increase the number of Indigenous academic staff at UWA
• Build an Indigenous postgraduate HDR student pipeline
• Recognition of Indigenous knowledge and knowledge-holders
• Enable culturally determined research; set research agendas that meet Indigenous needs
• Establish research training that builds skills bases and is properly accredited

Ensure quality Indigenous Research that meets the needs of Indigenous people

• Promote Indigenous research protocols and guidelines – community- and discipline-specific
• Provide cultural training and development of all senior staff, researchers, students, supervisors
• Embed Indigenous engagement in research decision-making
• Establish Indigenous knowledge as a strategic research priority