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Reframing Leadership and Organizational Practice Volume 12, 2012 - Issue 4: Perspectives on Ethical Leadership
Journal of Change Management
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Original Articles
What's the Difference? Ethical Leadership in Public, Hybrid and Private Sector Organizations
&Leonie Heres Karin Lasthuizen Pages 441-466 | Published online: 12 Nov 2012
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Abstract
Is there one best practice for ethical leadership? Studies suggest that the publicness of
an organization can have important implications for leadership. Yet research on ethical
leadership generally assumes that one ethical leadership style should �t all types of
organization alike. This study explores the validity of that assumption by using
qualitative interviews to unravel similarities and di�erences in how Dutch public,
hybrid and private sector managers conceive ethical leadership. The results suggest
that most aspects of ethical leadership may be transferable across public and private
sectors. However, in comparison with their private sector counterparts, the managers
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sectors. However, in comparison with their private sector counterparts, the managers
operating in public and hybrid sector organizations placed greater value on being
altruistic, showing concern for the common good, and being responsive, transparent
and accountable to society at large. Moreover, whereas public and hybrid sector
managers considered explicit and frequent communication about ethics to be a key
component of ethical leadership, most of the private sector managers preferred
communication strategies in which ethics was more implicitly embedded in
discussions of, for instance, ‘the business model’ or ‘customer relationships’. The
results suggest further research on the contingencies of ethical leadership views and
practices across di�erent types of organizations is warranted.
Keywords: Ethical leadership publicness organization type context variform universal leadership
Introduction
Research on ethical leadership has proliferated in the last decade. As a result,
understandings of what ‘ethical leadership’ entails and how it works have improved
signi�cantly (Brown and Treviño, 2006). Research shows that ethical leadership helps
to reduce counterproductive and unethical behaviour (Huberts et al., 2007; de Hoogh
and den Hartog, 2008; Lasthuizen, 2008; Mayer et al., 2009), raises followers' moral
awareness and judgement (Treviño et al., 1999; Resick et al., 2010), and fosters
dedication, optimism, initiative, extra e�ort, altruism, better work attitudes and
willingness of followers to help others with work-related problems (Brown et al., 2005;
de Hoogh and den Hartog, 2008; Mayer et al., 2009; Toor and Ofori, 2009; Kalshoven,
2010). The e�ects of ethical leadership on followers' behaviour are shown to have
wider rami�cations than the e�ects produced by a more general leadership style (e.g.
transformational leadership) that does not have such an explicit focus on ethics
(Brown et al., 2005; Lasthuizen, 2008).
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(Brown et al., 2005; Lasthuizen, 2008).
An important limitation to most research on ethical leadership, however, is the
common assumption that the same style of ethical leadership is adequate for all
organizations under all circumstances. By contrast, studies on implicit leadership
theories indicate that not only are conceptions of leadership context-dependent, but
they also in�uence the extent to which particular leadership characteristics and
behaviours are e�ective in in�uencing follower decision-making and behaviour (den
Hartog et al., 1999; Resick et al., 2006; van den Akker et al., 2009). Moreover, a meta-
analysis by Lowe et al. (1996) reveals that both the prevalence and e�ectiveness of
leadership styles are partly contingent upon the public–private nature of the
organization (i.e. its ‘publicness’). Such studies raise questions as to what extent a ‘one
style �ts all’ approach to ethical leadership is tenable. Is there one best way to be an
ethical leader, a ‘best practice’ that is transferable across organizations? Or are there
di�erent approaches to ethical leadership that might be used in di�erent types of
organizations?
The present study aims to provide some initial insights into questions like these by
uncovering both similarities and di�erences in the way public, hybrid and private
sector managers conceive ‘ethical leadership’. It thereby explores whether the
prevailing ethical leadership model �ts with the views of managers that operate across
di�erent types of organizations, or whether some of the universalistic premises
underlying the current model need to be revisited. In doing so, this study can provide
important insights to further advance the conceptualization and operationalization of
ethical leadership.
Literature Review
Ethical Leadership
Drawing on qualitative research (Treviño et al., 2000, 2003) as well as conceptual and
quantitative validation studies (Brown et al., 2005; Brown and Treviño, 2006), ethical In this article
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quantitative validation studies (Brown et al., 2005; Brown and Treviño, 2006), ethical
leadership has been de�ned 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). As this de�nition implies, the primary
objective of ethical leadership is to cultivate ethical decision-making and behaviour
among followers and it is this explicit focus on promoting and managing ethics that
distinguishes ethical leadership, both conceptually and empirically, from other
leadership styles such as transformational or authentic leadership (see Brown et al.,
2005 and Brown and Treviño, 2006 for a more extensive discussion). Prevailing theory
and research speci�cally sees ethical leadership as consisting of two fundamental
components, the ‘moral person’ and the ‘moral manager’ (cf. Treviño et al., 2000).
Moral person. Whilst a clear de�nition is lacking in today's literature, the ‘moral person’
component of ethical leadership is often described in terms of: (1) the personal
character of the leader, and (2) the moral nature of the leader's own decision-making
and behaviour. Ethical leaders are portrayed as being ‘ethical by nature’ (Aronson,
2001, p. 253) and having strong moral values that are highly principled and concerned
with ‘doing the right thing’ (Treviño et al., 2000; Kaptein, 2003). Ethical leaders also have
the moral courage to uphold these values even in the face of signi�cant external
pressures (May et al., 2003). In addition, ethical leadership is associated with a plethora
of moral traits such as integrity, responsibility, trustworthiness, authenticity and
conscientiousness (Craig and Gustafson, 1998; Treviño et al., 2003; Caldwell, 2009; den
Hartog and de Hoogh, 2009; Kalshoven and den Hartog, 2009).
The values and traits of ethical leaders are embedded in their decision-making and
behaviour (Treviño et al., 2000). Ethical leaders have a high level of moral awareness
(Treviño et al., 2003) and make sound moral decisions by ‘judging ambiguous ethical
issues, viewing them from multiple perspectives, and aligning decisions with their own
moral values’ (Brown and Treviño, 2006, p. 599). As Turner and associates (2002, p.
305) show, this necessitates the application of higher levels of moral reasoning. It is
said that ethical leaders make great e�orts to remain consistent, coherent and In this article
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said that ethical leaders make great e�orts to remain consistent, coherent and
constant in their decision-making and behaviour: they walk the talk and talk the walk
(Kaptein, 2003; Brown and Treviño, 2006).
Leaders' decisions and behaviours inevitably a�ect their relationship with followers
and thereby their ability to in�uence follower (ethical) decision-making and behaviour.
For this reason, ethical leaders are open, caring and people-oriented (Michie and
Gooty, 2005), and they show respect, trust, fairness and loyalty towards followers
(Brown et al., 2005; Mayer et al., 2009). In doing so, ethical leaders strengthen their
relational attachment with followers and followers in turn will come to identify
themselves more with their ethical leaders. This makes followers more likely to
reciprocate with constructive behaviours and to deter from behaviour that hurts the
leader or the group (Popper and Mayseless, 2003; Cropanzano and Mitchell, 2005;
Neubert et al., 2009 Walumbwa and Schaubroeck, 2009). Also, a fair and just
interpersonal treatment of followers elevates the credibility and moral authority of
leaders and enhances followers' motivation to emulate the leader's ethical behaviour
(Neubert et al., 2009; de Schrijver et al., 2010).
Moral manager. The second component of ethical leadership, the ‘moral manager’, is
concerned with those behaviours of the leader that are deliberately geared towards
promoting ethical decision-making and behaviour amongst followers (Brown et al.,
2005). Speci�cally, the ‘moral manager’ component includes four key aspects: role
modelling, reinforcement, communication about ethics and empowerment.
Role modelling ethical behaviour is the �rst and most critical factor in being a moral
manager (Treviño et al., 1999; Lasthuizen, 2008; Neubert et al., 2009), as it directly
attests to the credibility of the ethical leader and their attempt to foster ethics among
followers. Although role modelling overlaps with being a ‘moral person’, it goes beyond
one's mere individual behaviour by highlighting the reputational and perceptual side
of ethical leadership (Treviño et al., 2000). It is important that the decision-making and
behaviour of the leader is su�ciently visible and salient to be observed by followers
‘against an organisational backdrop that is often ethically neutral at best’ (Brown and
Treviño, 2006, p. 597). At the same time, ethical leaders must be careful not to send In this article
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Treviño, 2006, p. 597). At the same time, ethical leaders must be careful not to send
out negative or con�icting signals. ‘[People] are generally not aware of our intent. They
see the actions and make inferences based upon them’ (Treviño et al., 2000, p. 134).
Ethical leaders are aware of how their decisions and behaviours might be interpreted
by followers, make e�orts to avoid conduct that could be perceived as inconsistent
with moral values and norms, and explicate the reasoning behind their decisions and
behaviours if needed (May et al., 2003; Weaver et al., 2005).
Adding a more transactional side to ethical leadership, the second aspect of the ‘moral
manager’ component concerns reinforcement of ethical standards through discipline
and reward. Importantly, the learning experience of reinforcement lies not just with
the person(s) being rewarded or punished, but also occurs vicariously and
anticipatorily among those that observe the reinforcement actions of the leader
(Treviño, 1992; Brown et al., 2005; Mayer et al., 2009). Rewards and punishments
should thus be made visible to other followers as well (Treviño et al., 2000). In dealing
with unethical behaviour, leaders should also apply a fair and balanced amount of
authority, so as to prevent resentment and cynicism yet still send a clear message that
ethical lapses are not tolerated (Johnson, 2005). Formal reinforcements should be used
with caution. Too much emphasis on formal reinforcement could lessen the level of
moral reasoning used by followers and provide them with a reason for not considering
the broader ethical implications of their actions (Baucus and Beck-Dudley, 2005).
Furthermore, formal rewards might lead employees to sacri�ce the overall desired
outcomes for the sake of the rewarded behaviour (Bartol and Locke, 2000). Informal
rewards such as recognition, trust and status, however, can be powerful incentives for
people to engage in ethical behaviour (Grojean et al., 2004), while the threat of
informal sanctions, such as ostracism by peers and leaders, can e�ectively deter
people from committing unethical behaviour (Treviño, 1992).
The third aspect that is said to be important to being a ‘moral manager’ is
communication about ethics (Brown et al., 2005). Such communication includes
highlighting the moral implications of decisions, having open discussions about
individual and organizational values, clarifying norms and role expectations and In this article
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individual and organizational values, clarifying norms and role expectations and
providing guidance on the appropriate course of action (Grojean et al., 2004; de Hoogh
and den Hartog, 2008; van den Akker et al., 2009; Piccolo et al., 2010). Leaders also
communicate their ethical message by making their own decision-making processes
transparent to followers (Treviño et al., 2003; de Hoogh and den Hartog, 2008). Ethical
leaders are open, approachable and willing to listen to the questions and dilemmas
that followers may have (Huberts et al., 2007), and they provide followers with
feedback regarding their ethical conduct (Grojean et al., 2004).
Similar to leadership in general (Bass and Steidlmeier, 1999), recent studies suggest
that empowerment of followers is a fourth important aspect of moral management
(Resick et al., 2006; den Hartog and de Hoogh, 2009). Ethical leaders provide followers
with opportunities to participate in decision-making processes and allow them to voice
their own perspectives and concerns, they help them to set realistic and motivating
goals and they provide them with individual attention, coaching and opportunities for
personal development (Khuntia and Suar, 2004; den Hartog and de Hoogh, 2009;
Walumbwa and Schaubroeck, 2009). Ethical leaders stimulate followers to view things
from di�erent perspectives, to question their assumptions and to think independently
and creatively (Resick et al., 2006). Empowerment may provide for a natural growth in
the ethicality of followers (cf. Jurkiewicz, 2006). Moreover, empowerment heightens
perceptions of fairness and of trust in the leader, increasing the leader's own ability to
in�uence the followers' ethical decision-making and behaviour (Resick et al., 2006;
Mayer et al., 2009).
Ethical Leadership in Public, Hybrid and Private Organization Contexts
These days, there are many types of organizations that defy the label of a strictly
‘public’ or ‘private’ organization. Hence, it is necessary to establish a more dynamic and
multidimensional approach to distinguishing public and private organizations,
accounting for the many di�erent types of organizational con�guration. In this study,
the terms ‘public’ and ‘private’ are taken as the opposite ends of a continuum
indicating the degree of ‘publicness’ of an organization (Bozeman, 1987). The position In this article
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indicating the degree of publicness of an organization (Bozeman, 1987). The position
of an organization on this public–private continuum follows from three dimensions: (1)
the extent to which organizations are constrained by political control, (2) how
organizations are funded and �nanced, and (3) the extent to which organizations
perform public or private tasks in order to reach public or private goals (cf. van der
Wal, 2008). The terms ‘public’, ‘private’ and ‘hybrid’ organization then denote typical
positions on the public–private continuum.1
To date, there have been few studies that have looked at contextual variations in what
people consider to be ethical leadership (see, however, Resick et al., 2006; Martin et al.,
2009), let alone whether a more public organization would require a di�erent style of
ethical leadership than a more private one. Indeed, most studies on ethical leadership
simply assume that one style of ethical leadership is adequate for any type of
organization. Yet, as argued below, there are reasons to suspect that the publicness of
an organization may shape a person's understanding of ethical leadership. Speci�cally,
these reasons relate to the public service motivation of employees, the core tasks of
organizations and the in�uence of external stakeholders on the organization.
First, public service motivation (PSM) may a�ect the ways in which ethical leadership is
conceived. PSM re�ects such things as a person's desire to serve the public interest,
one's loyalty to the government, the strive for social equity and a so-called ‘patriotism
of benevolence’ motive (Perry and Wise, 1990). On average, PSM is higher among
public organization employees than among private organization employees
(Vandenabeele, 2008; Leisink and Steijn, 2009). People with higher levels of PSM, in
turn, are shown to be less dependent on monetary and other extrinsic incentives
(Perry and Wise, 1990; Bright, 2005) and exhibit more social altruism (Brewer, 2003),
interpersonal citizenship behaviours (Pandey et al., 2008) and a willingness to report
integrity violations that are harmful to the public interest (Brewer and Selden, 1998).
This could imply that in organizations with higher levels of PSM, presumably the more
public organizations, leaders might need to appeal more to the intrinsic motivations of
employees. They may, for example, want to emphasize general ethical principles and
the value of decisions and actions to the public interest over speci�c procedures, rules, In this article
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the value of decisions and actions to the public interest over speci�c procedures, rules,
punishments and rewards. Or, conversely, leaders in public organizations might
assume that their followers are already intrinsically motivated to serve the greater
good and may therefore consider frequent communication on ethics to be
super�uous. By contrast, leaders in organizations with lower PSM, arguably the more
private organizations, may wish to relate ethical conduct more directly to employees'
own career opportunities or their chances of receiving bonuses, status and
recognition. Additionally, in private organizations, explicit communication on ethics
and integrity in terms of ‘the public interest’ and ‘the common good’ may not be
su�ciently motivating for employees and perhaps less e�ective than in public
organizations.
Second, the di�erences in the core tasks and mission of public and private
organizations may be important to ethical leadership. Whereas the primary aim of
private organizations is generally to maximize pro�ts, public organizations are
primarily executers and enforcers of democratic law and policy, serving the public
interest and providing public services that are generally not sold on economic markets
(Dahl and Lindblom, 1953). As such, public organizations often make decisions and
operate in ways that are not only coercive and monopolistic, but which also have a
broader societal impact and greater symbolic signi�cance (Hughes, 2003; Rainey and
Chun, 2005). The very nature of their tasks suggests ethical dilemmas may, therefore,
be more pronounced in public organizations. Whether it is interrogating a recalcitrant
prisoner, deciding to spend taxpayers' money on education or on welfare for the
elderly, or determining when to inform the general public on the possible bankruptcy
of a bank, public organizations frequently face ethical dilemmas that are inherent in
the core of their business. Because of this, managers of public organizations may, for
example, feel the need to address the ethical dimensions of certain decisions and
actions more explicitly and frequently than their private sector counterparts.
Third and last, the di�erent demands and expectations that external stakeholders
have of public and private organizations could shape managers' views on ethical In this article
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have of public and private organizations could shape managers views on ethical
leadership. Political dynamics and external oversight inhibit the discretion of public
and hybrid organization managers, particularly when it comes to personnel
management (Rainey and Chun, 2005). Moreover, the publicness of an organization
a�ects the extent to which the organization is susceptible to citizen pressure and
scrutiny, with public organizations facing uniquely high public expectations for
fairness, openness, accountability and transparency (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004;
Rainey and Chun, 2005). As a result, managers in public and hybrid organizations may
feel ‘forced’ to employ more explicit ethical leadership and institutionalized ethics
programmes. In the Netherlands, for instance, public organizations are now legally
required to have a formal code of ethics and ethics policy (National Integrity Bureau,
accessed 2009). Backed up by such an extensive ethics programme and political
mandate, managers in public organizations could be more inclined to talk explicitly
about ethics with their employees, discussing ethical dilemmas and re�ecting on the
ethical aspects of their decisions and actions. Furthermore, ethics programmes may
foster the use of more formal reinforcement mechanisms in case of ethical
transgressions.
At present, presumptions like the above regarding the e�ect of an organization's
publicness on ethical leadership lack a solid empirical basis and thus remain highly
speculative. At the least, however, this discussion suggests that it is quite possible that
di�erent types of organizations may elicit di�erent views on ethical leadership. Hence,
empirical exploration of the similarities and di�erences in ethical leadership
conceptions across public, hybrid and private organizations is needed to determine
whether the universalistic approach to ethical leadership is su�ciently valid and �tting
with managers' own perspectives or whether we should take a more context-sensitive
approach to ethical leadership instead.
Method
Given the lack of pre-existing theoretical and empirical insights on ethical leadership
contingencies, particularly in relation to organizational publicness, an explorative In this article
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contingencies, particularly in relation to organizational publicness, an explorative
research design must be employed. In doing so, this study explicitly aims for
theoretical generalization (cf. Yin, 1990; Ritchie and Lewis, 2003). When it comes to
theoretical generalization, the goal is not to universalize results (e.g. ‘managers’), but
rather to elicit insights that can inform and expand present theories and enable the
development of hypotheses for future empirical testing. To achieve such theoretical
generalizability, it is not the representativeness of the numerical sample that is of
concern, but rather the richness and breadth of the sample and its ability to represent
the variety of views on ethical leadership. In addition, theoretical generalizability
requires the internal validity and reliability of data (Yin, 1990; Ritchie and Lewis, 2003),
which in turn is aided by careful, transparent and structured administration and
justi�cation of the data collection methods and analyses.
To foster the internal validity of the study, the data were collected using qualitative
interviews. Compared with most quantitative designs, qualitative interviews can
provide a deeper understanding of the assumptions and processes underlying (ethical)
leadership (Bryman, 2004) and allow for a more detailed analysis of the various
contextual factors that might a�ect it (Bryman et al., 1996). Furthermore, qualitative
interviews are generally more sensitive to the multiple social meanings that people
attach to a construct. Hence, interviews are more appropriate for studying the
subjective, diverse and idiosyncratic understandings people may have of ethical
leadership (cf. Bresnen, 1995). Interviews allow interviewees to formulate their
conceptualizations of ethical leadership in their own words, to attach meaning to the
construct and to express how they value certain aspects of it (Alvesson, 1996).
Consistent with this, the study focuses on what managers think ethical leadership
should look like and the subjective meaning they attach to the concept, rather than on
evaluating the managers' own ethical leadership or lack thereof. Nevertheless, it is
reasonable to expect that managers largely base their views of ethical leadership on
their daily experiences and realities. Managers' conceptions of ethical leadership are
thus necessarily informed by practice and situated in the context within which they
operate. In this article
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operate.
Internal validity is also fostered by an open, inductive approach to the research object.
However, semi-structured interviews rather than completely open interviews were
used for several reasons. Miles and Huberman (1994) argue that where constructs are
relatively well-delineated, a tighter design of the qualitative interview will provide more
clarity and focus and yields more comparable, reliable and economic results.
Furthermore, qualitative research is often criticized for its lack of cumulativeness even
though building on previous research and explicitly relating the study to pre-existing
literature can be just as important in qualitative research as it is in quantitative studies
(Bryman, 2004). Given the existence of a relatively well-developed ethical leadership
construct and the importance of more cumulative and reliable qualitative research, at
least some structuring of and focus in the interviews was deemed necessary. Still, in
order to allow multiple subjective meanings to come to the fore and enable the
occurrence of unanticipated �ndings, the interviews maintained a relatively open and
�exible character.
The interviews commenced with some general questions probing respondents' initial
de�nitions of and associations with the term ‘ethical leadership’, e.g. with questions
such as ‘what would you consider to be ethical leadership?’ and ‘what characteristics
should an ethical leader have?’. Subsequently, the interviews were structured around a
topic list including themes such as ‘role modelling’, ‘communication’ and ‘the role of
organizational context in ethical leadership’. When interviewees diverged in promising
directions, or the course of the interview suggested a di�erent order of questions
might be more appropriate, the interview protocol was put aside and the questions
were adjusted to the situation at hand. In many cases, the themes suggested in the
interview protocol emerged naturally from the responses of the interviewees, and we
were able to relate the questions more directly to the interviewee's own story. At
times, the insights obtained from the interviews led to a revision of (aspects of) the
interview protocols used for the subsequent interviews. Thus, there was a continuous
interaction between the conceptual framework and the empirical data, which helped
combat the risk of too much a priori framing and structuring on our part. In this article
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combat the risk of too much a priori framing and structuring on our part.
In total, 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers working in a
wide variety of organizations in the Netherlands.2 A theoretically driven, purposive
sampling method was employed to maximize the richness and possible variance of
views on ethical leadership and to ensure that a wide range of organization types were
included in the sample. The �nal sample (see Table 1) included managers from typical
public organizations such as a police force and a municipality to typical private
organizations in retail and engineering, and various hybrid organizations in between.
Although the de�nition of publicness presented earlier prohibits strict labelling of all
the organizations, a rough categorization of public (�ve organizations), hybrid (�ve)
and private organizations (eight) can be made. Both with respect to the number of
employees and the organization's budget, the sample ranged from medium-sized local
organizations to very large multinationals. One smaller organization was included in
the sample.
The sample included both middle managers and executive managers. Of the 18
interviewees, 13 were male. Ages ranged from 34 to 61 years, with an average age of
48.5. All interviewees had completed tertiary education, with most having obtained
university-level degrees. While it may be that people with lower education levels have
di�erent views on what ethical leadership entails, the lack of diversity in the education
levels of the interviewees seems consistent with their function levels. More
problematic in this regard is the lack of diversity in terms of ethnic background: all
interviewees were Caucasian. Within the Netherlands, the workforce is much more
heterogeneous and includes large groups of ethnic minorities. The extent to which this
lack of ethnic diversity in the sample may or may not have a�ected our results, cannot
be determined at this point.
Table 1. Sample description
CSV Display Table
In this article
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be determined at this point.
Data were analysed along the ‘ladder of abstraction’ (see Carney, 1990 as cited in
Bresnen, 1995, p. 92), employing both incremental coding procedures using Atlas.ti
(version 4) and qualitative data matrices. To facilitate the coding process, a provisional
list of sensitizing codes was developed. This list was applied to the �rst three
interviews, and then examined thoroughly to determine its �t with the data and to
make adjustments where necessary. While some codes were revised, added,
separated into sub-codes or deleted, the overall structure chosen to code the
interviews seemed to �t the data well. The revised code list was then applied to the
next set of interviews and again reviewed and revised to achieve a better �t with the
data. This procedure was repeated several times and the �nal code list developed
progressively through close interaction with the data. Next, a qualitative data matrix
was used to further organize, aggregate and analyse the data to identify relevant
within-case and cross-case patterns of similarities and di�erences in managers'
conceptions of ethical leadership.
It is important to note that in the analysis, aside from considering the publicness of the
organization context, speci�c attention was paid to potentially confounding factors,
most notably interviewees' gender, age, management scope (i.e. the number of
respondents they are directly and indirectly responsible for), and the size of the
interviewees' organization. Where the comparison of data based on these
characteristics suggested di�erences in interviewees' views on ethical leaders, these
will be explicitly noted.
Results and Analysis
Being a Moral Person
As expected, all interviewees either explicitly noted or implied that ethical leadership
entails having strong moral values. However, the focus of these moral values di�ered In this article
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entails having strong moral values. However, the focus of these moral values di�ered
between public, hybrid and private organization managers: it was mostly the
managers of public and hybrid organizations (6 of 10) who emphasized that ethical
leadership requires altruism, serviceability to the common good and responsiveness
to societal demands, values and norms. As a police department head (respondent A)
remarked: ‘I think that when you talk about ethical leadership, you should have a clear
vision on the position of the police within society. We are not here as a goal in and of
itself, we are here to do a job for that society […] in the middle of society’. Such a
societal, outward-oriented focus was not notable in the views of the private sector
managers, who tended to describe ethical leadership more as something that
concerns the internal organization and its members. In fact, only one private sector
manager (K) noted altruism as an ethical leadership characteristic. The data do not
allow for any de�nitive conclusions on the causal mechanisms underlying this
apparent di�erence between the public, hybrid and private sector managers' views on
ethical leadership. However, three of the public and hybrid sector managers (A, E, G)
did explicate that their organizations tend to attract and select members who have a
higher than average motivation to serve the public interest. Conversely, only one of
eight private sector managers (M) indicated that his organization selects its employees
based on their commitment to societal goals. Furthermore, �ve of the public and
hybrid sector managers (respondents A, B, E, F, H) stressed that their organization's
task and position in society automatically make ethics an issue that needs to be
addressed and accounted for both within the organization and society itself.
Whatever the precise moral values, there was general agreement between public,
hybrid and private sector managers that both authenticity and moral courage were key
(13/18 respondents): ethical leaders should always be true to themselves and stand up
for what they believe in, even in the face of di�cult external circumstances. And,
although they were not mentioned very consistently across respondents, there were
signs to suggest that ethical leadership is associated with moral traits such as integrity
(7/18), trustworthiness (2/18), modesty (2/18) and conscientiousness (2/18). Female
interviewees seemed particularly inclined to discuss many di�erent traits of ethical
leaders. And, interestingly, while honesty seemed particularly central to the views of In this article
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leaders. And, interestingly, while honesty seemed particularly central to the views of
private sector managers (5/8), only one hybrid sector manager (respondent G) and
none of the public sector managers mentioned it.
Obviously, leaders' moral values and traits are inferred from their decision-making and
behaviour. Five interviewees noted explicitly that an ethical leader should be able to
recognize ethical dilemmas and make sound moral deliberations. This requires talking
to the people involved, taking account of di�erent perspectives, and considering both
short-term and long-term implications. To four of the interviewees (respondents I, K, P
and Q), ethical decision-making and behaviour also mean being consistent and
congruent not just in terms of practising what you preach and aligning your words and
deeds, but also in terms of being consistent in what you say or how you treat di�erent
people. Other managers (e.g. A, G and L), however, felt consistency in decision-making
should not be taken too strictly, as changing (moral) environments, speci�c
circumstances and learning over time may warrant a change of heart or direction.
Close inspection of the interview data in the end did not suggest a relation between
these di�erences and speci�c characteristics of the respondents or their organizations.
Interviewees also emphasized that, to them, ethical leadership entails being
transparent about decisions made (10/18) and being open to feedback (7/18). Ethical
leaders share their decisions to enable others to judge their intentions, their decisions
and conduct, and thus their integrity. The interviewees even suggested that ethical
leaders should organize such feedback themselves by frequently asking followers,
colleagues and/or superiors to tell them what they are doing wrong or could do better.
Again, most of the managers working in public organizations (4/5) seem to have a
strong focus on (also) being transparent to stakeholders outside the organization.
Respondent A: ‘In your accountability to the external environment … [you should be],
as transparent as possible, try to explain that you act according to the values and
norms that are imposed on you and that you impose on yourself. And do what you as
an organization in general are expected to do by the broader society’.
Interviewees further described ethical leaders as being caring and empathic (7/18). In
line with this, some interviewees noted ‘people-orientation’ (5/18) and ‘respectfulness’ In this article
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line with this, some interviewees noted people orientation (5/18) and respectfulness
(4/18) as aspects of ethical leadership. Ethical leaders were described as having a
general interest in people, in their backgrounds and their development, in how they
feel and what they are experiencing. They have ‘sympathy’ and are able to understand
and relate to another person's thoughts, feelings and actions. However, it was
particularly the women who stressed such care and empathy traits: four of �ve female
interviewees (D, H, I and K) referred to them as attributes of an ethical leader, whereas
only three of thirteen male interviewees (E, L and P) suggested empathy and/or care to
be characteristic of ethical leadership. As one male interviewee explicitly noted: ‘the
people I have in mind are not softies’ and ethical leaders should still be able to ‘keep
enough distance in order to hold people accountable’ (respondent E).
More speci�cally, many interviewees implied that ethical leadership requires a high
quality leader–follower relationship. Ethical leaders are leaders that have the ability to
build strong relationships of trust, respect, fairness, safety and openness with their
followers (12/18). Ethical leaders should be supportive, loyal and protective of
followers, even in times of hardship. In line with previous ethical leadership research,
one interviewee (F) argued that positive socio-emotional exchanges are in fact a
prerequisite for ethical leadership. He explicitly noted that if you treat your followers
well ‘in the end it pays o�’, because followers will repay you with the same behaviour.
Likewise, follower judgements of a leader's integrity may be more related to the
overall leader–follower relationship than to the morality of the leader's actual conduct:
‘It is di�cult to separate whether it is really about integrity or whether it is just a
general feeling about the management’ (respondent D).
Being a Moral Manager
Role modelling. All managers agreed that ethical leadership is largely a matter of role
modelling the right behaviour: ‘You shouldn't make it too complicated, it is still about
role modelling’ (respondent J). They considered role modelling essential to ethical
leadership because it attests to the credibility of leader and strengthens, or weakens,
the message that the leader aims to send. Role modelling communicates the
underlying principles that the leader tries to maintain. Consequently, being an ethical In this article
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underlying principles that the leader tries to maintain. Consequently, being an ethical
role model is not just about big gestures or dealing well with an ethical dilemma. In
fact, it seems to be the rather mundane everyday behaviours that are the most
powerful vehicles for role modelling: ‘It's really in everything: in how you react to
situations, in being consistent in what you say and do […] So it is continuously that that
principle needs to be con�rmed for people’ (respondent I). These behaviours that the
leader role models, but which may not have a clear ethical dimension to them, are
assumed to have spillover e�ects to situations in which there are serious ethical
issues. Furthermore, interviewees almost exclusively discussed examples of negative
role modelling and argued that leaders should foremost avoid (inadvertently) sending
out the wrong signals by exhibiting behaviour that could be interpreted as inconsistent
with the values and norms of the organization.
Reinforcement. Initially, very few interviewees volunteered descriptions of ethical
leadership that included the use of reinforcement through punishments and rewards.
It seems reinforcement is not preferred as a primary means for ethical leadership but
should only be used to, as the term itself suggests, reinforce other components such
as role modelling and communication. Nevertheless, when asked, interviewees
generally did feel (16/18) that reinforcement is necessary for ethical leadership.
Interviewees particularly acknowledged the symbolic function of reinforcement.
Punishments and rewards are seen as ways to explicate and exemplify the norms and
values of the organization. Moreover, reinforcement can communicate the sanctions
that employees can expect in response to unethical behaviour, which in turn is
thought to prevent other employees from committing such unethical acts: ‘And the
di�cult thing is, when the environment sees that you witnessed a certain behaviour in
the team and your environment also sees that you do not respond, then you become
part of the problem. And you lose your authority as a leader in that respect’
(respondent A). The same goes for rewarding behaviours. As with role modelling,
reinforcement is not about the punishment or reward per se, but about its symbolic
function and the underlying principles that it communicates. In line with this,
reinforcement is said to apply to all kinds of behaviours – smaller and bigger, with or In this article
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reinforcement is said to apply to all kinds of behaviours smaller and bigger, with or
without a clear ethical component.
A number of interviewees (8/18) emphasized the importance of safety and procedural
conscientiousness in dealing with unethical behaviour. More speci�cally, these
interviewees argued that ethical leaders should create and maintain an environment
in which followers feel comfortable and safe enough to report ethical transgressions.
Ethical leaders make sure that people are not penalized for reporting unethical
behaviour. Additionally, when unethical behaviour has been detected, ethical leaders
need to remain thorough, careful and fair in the process of investigating the behaviour
and punishing the individual(s) involved. By maintaining procedural conscientiousness
and respect for all people involved ‘the hard decisions that you sometimes have to
take will get support [from the punished employee as well as other employees]’
(respondent A).
Most interviewees (15/18) seemed to have an overall preference for informal
sanctions. When unwanted behaviours occur, ethical leaders should call that person to
account, making clear in a respectful way that such behaviour is not allowed and if it
ever occurs again that there will be consequences. Moreover, interviewees feel that
ethical leaders should actively stimulate followers to call each other to account as well.
Where possible, formal punishments are to be avoided. At some point, however, more
formal actions are necessary to prevent the occurrence or reoccurrence of certain
behaviours. Several interviewees did indicate, however, that in determining the
appropriate sanctions, a distinction should be made between people that violate rules
because of some sort of naivety or by mistake, and those that repeatedly and willingly
cross moral norms. Interestingly, only one interviewee (P) remarked that it is just as
important not to reward unethical behaviour: perverse incentives in the system of an
organization that could lead to risk-taking or unethical behaviour should be removed
in order for reinforcement to be e�ective.
When asked whether they would be in favour of rewarding exemplary ethical
behaviour, most interviewees responded rather hesitantly and several were quick to In this article
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behaviour, most interviewees responded rather hesitantly and several were quick to
add that such rewards should only be immaterial, most notably in terms of
compliments and recognition (7/18): ‘For many of these things I think that the most
important thing is that it is seen and that they get the con�rmation ‘gee, I saw that and
I think that was really good of you’ […] I think that material rewards do very little in
things like these' (respondent E). Four other managers (H, J, K and R) felt that
rewarding ethical behaviour, whether formal or informal, is unnecessary or in practice
just too di�cult. As a department head at a public bank indicated: ‘I think that that
behaviour is rewarded by itself, because you also get it back, I assume, in the response
you get from the one you do it to. Yes, that is rewarded in and of itself’. Three
interviewees (D, L, O) did consider material rewards to be somewhat useful, but only
when applied indirectly by including ethical behaviour as a recurring theme in the
yearly assessment interviews.
Communication about ethics. To a large majority of the interviewees (17/18),
communication about ethics is important, although there are notable di�erences as to
the preferred frequency and explicitness of such communication. All the managers
working in public organizations (5/5) considered communication about ethics as
something that should occur very regularly. As one public sector manager (A) noted: ‘In
your daily contact with people, you can just start a conversation about it. There are so
many opportunities in practice […] allowing you to express [norms and values] as a
leader’. For another public sector manager (B) ‘it is just a natural topic’. For many of the
managers working in hybrid and private organization contexts, however, ethics is not a
daily topic. These interviewees felt that ethics is something that requires only periodic
maintenance and should therefore only be raised as an issue every once in a while
(4/5). However, in practice, discussion about ethics may not always be easy to organize
because ‘tomorrow the business comes �rst and integrity can always wait another day’
(manager at a social housing corporation). There are also interviewees (5/18) – all from
private organizations – who feel that communicating about ethics is not necessary at
all. One interviewee even indicated: ‘talking about it is nonsense […] The less talk about
it the better. You just have to do it’ (respondent P). For these interviewees, ethics is
communicated through behaviour and selection of personnel rather than through In this article
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communicated through behaviour and selection of personnel rather than through
words. Verbal communication about ethics should only occur ‘by exception’ or ‘when
there is reason to’ (respondents P and R).
In most cases, the di�erent views on the frequency of ethics communication seems to
re�ect di�erences in managers views on how ethical leaders should communicate
about ethics. That is, it is a re�ection of interviewees' opinions on whether or not one
should explicitly communicate in terms such as ‘ethics’, ‘integrity’ and ‘morals’. On the
one hand, there are interviewees (respondents F, K, P and Q), three of which are
private sector managers, who feel that communication about ethics should occur in
rather general terms, using the everyday vocabulary of the organization and its
members. These interviewees avoid terms like ‘ethics’ and ‘integrity’ and instead
rephrase them into ones that �t the concrete context of their organization or
department. Here, ethics is ingrained in communication about ‘atmosphere’,
‘appropriate prices’, ‘quality structures’, ‘corporate identity’, ‘the business model’ and
‘long-term client relations’. An interviewee from a �nancial �rm (K): ‘It is not like I
emphasize it from an ethical standpoint, but everyone knows that that is what it's
about’. On the other hand, there are those who suggest ethical leadership also
requires more explicit communication about ethics (11/18). Speci�cally, these latter
interviewees prefer that ethical leaders explicate the ethical component in their work,
for instance, by discussing what their moral norms and values are and how to deal
with ethical dilemmas. Here, the implicit and the explicit communication style are not
seen as mutually exclusive but as complementary to one another. Again, the
di�erences between managers' views on communication show an interesting pattern
along the public–private continuum: although there are exceptions, most managers
working in private sector organizations tend to prefer more implicit communication
strategies (5/8), whereas those operating in the more public and hybrid organizations
clearly favour a mix of both implicit and explicit communication about ethics (8/10).
Again, these results seem consistent with managers' arguments that the tasks of
public and hybrid organizations and their position in the broader society make ethics a
‘natural topic’ to discuss. Also, as suggested by three public and hybrid sector
managers (A, E, G), explicit communication might appeal more greatly to the In this article
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managers (A, E, G), explicit communication might appeal more greatly to the
motivation of public organization employees to serve the common good.
To those interviewees that consider explicit communication about ethics important,
ethical leadership entails being transparent about decisions processes and explaining
the reasoning behind one's behaviour. And, some interviewees added (5/18), ethical
leaders should put themselves in a vulnerable position by sharing their struggles and
insecurities with followers. Respondent I: ‘When people see that their manager can be
vulnerable, it makes it easier for them to also do it’. Ethical leaders should be willing to
admit to their own mistakes and be held accountable for them. Even more so, ethical
leaders can use their own and others' mistakes as valuable learning experiences for
both themselves and the organization at large (3/18). Ethical leaders should
furthermore be clear about their own moral standards and try to come to some
shared moral standards for the organization. Ethical leaders need to ‘stimulate the
conversation about ethics’ and ‘make it live’ (respondents D and H). In how and what
they communicate, ethical leaders are role models to their followers. They show that it
is desirable to think and talk about values, dilemmas or occurrences of unethical
behaviour: ‘It makes the conversation [about ethics] more normal’ (respondent D).
Communication about ethics also helps bring to the fore a person's ‘blind spots or
weaknesses’ (respondent A) and raises followers' awareness of the moral aspects of
certain issues. Similarly, communication about incidents of unethical behaviour is
considered important for organizational learning. But, many interviewees stressed that
communication about ethics is more than a one-directional message from the ethical
leader (8/18). Communication is also about asking questions and listening to the
doubts, struggles and issues raised by followers. Ethical leaders are willing to ‘receive’
messages, even when it is about the leader's own conduct. Additionally, ethical leaders
should facilitate the conversation amongst followers.
Empowerment. Consistent with recent additions to the academic literature, most of the
interviewees had a general preference for an approach to ethical leadership that
emphasizes empowerment, independent judgement, commonsense and personal
responsibility (17/18). Interviewees suggested that ethical leaders should not give too In this article
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responsibility (17/18). Interviewees suggested that ethical leaders should not give too
many instructions on what is and what is not allowed, as rules and regulations merely
create a ‘false sense of security’ (respondent Q). Moreover, putting too much emphasis
on existing norms and rules can sti�e the discussion about those norms and rules. It is
the ethical leader's job to stimulate followers to think for themselves about what is and
what is not acceptable behaviour. Ethical leaders, interviewees noted, should try to
emphasize the underlying principles rather than the precise rules that would apply in a
speci�c situation. In addition, ethical leaders should enable an open and constructive
discussion about the organization's values, norms and rules so that followers become
directly and personally involved in the development of moral standards.
At the same time, interviewees suggested that rules still remain necessary to protect
both the organization and the employee. By emphasizing principles over rules, an
ethical leader leaves much open to interpretation and thereby allows for di�erent
interpretations of ‘appropriate behaviour’. This poses a risk to both the organization
and the employee and rules thereby function as a ‘safety net’. Rules, according to
general consensus, should be applied only ‘where the organization really doesn't want
something to happen’, where ‘intuition fails’ and/ or the ‘temptations are great’
(respondent L). One private sector manager (R), however, was adamant in stating that
general principles and personal responsibility are just not enough: ethical leaders
should above all clarify unequivocally what is and what is not allowed, avoid vague
norms and maintain a strict zero-tolerance approach to ethical transgressions. Also,
two interviewees (J and K) remarked that when the education level of followers is low,
ethical leaders might need to give more precise guidelines and instructions on what is
expected of the followers.
Discussion
The results, summarized in Table 2, suggest that there are great similarities between
public, hybrid and private sector managers' views on ethical leadership. Along with a In this article
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public, hybrid and private sector managers views on ethical leadership. Along with a
few additions and speci�cations, many of the characteristics and behaviours that
prevailing theories and empirical insights attribute to ethical leaders were found in the
data, and most were agreed upon by a majority of the interviewees. The data
speci�cally revealed that the managers see ethical leadership as �rmly based upon
being a ‘moral person’, i.e. leaders' own moral values and traits, their ethical decision-
making and behaviour, as well as their relationships with followers. To many of the
interviewees, ethical leadership also entails a more or less deliberate attempt to
in�uence the ethical decision-making and behaviour of followers, i.e. being a ‘moral
manager’. Through role modelling, reinforcement, communication and empowerment,
ethical leaders send out signals that explicate and strengthen the underlying (moral)
principles that they wish to instil in followers (cf. Brown et al., 2005; Resick et al., 2006;
den Hartog and de Hoogh, 2009). For this reason, the �ndings of this study are
consistent with the social learning, social exchange and social identity perspectives of
ethical leadership proposed in the literature (Brown et al., 2005; Mayer et al., 2009) and
suggest that the fundamental components and mechanisms underlying existing
models of ethical leadership are indeed applicable across di�erent organizational
contexts.
Yet the results also imply some quali�cations of the general model of ethical
leadership, as subtle di�erences were found between public, hybrid and private sector
managers' views on ethical leadership. These di�erences provide valuable insights to
aid the development of propositions and may be used to formulate a more nuanced
ethical leadership theory. Speci�cally, while the private sector managers placed more
emphasis on honesty, public and hybrid sector managers were more inclined to
emphasize that ethical leadership requires an outward, societal focus. In line with the
theoretical speculations formulated earlier, interviewees attributed this to the very
nature of their organizational tasks and mission and to the PSM of their employees.
Table 2. Summary of the results
CSV Display Table
In this article
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nature of their organizational tasks and mission and to the PSM of their employees.
Also consistent with theoretical expectations, di�erences were found in managers'
preferred style of communication: in general, the public and hybrid sector managers
were more in favour of addressing ethics-related issues frequently and explicitly in
terms like ‘ethics’ and ‘integrity’, whereas the private sector managers often wanted to
avoid these terms and preferred to use more implicit communication strategies. In
addition, women seemed to emphasize empathy and care in ethical leadership more
than men. Finally, though seemingly unrelated to speci�c individual or organizational
characteristics, there was some variation on the necessity of consistency in decision-
making and how and when to use formal reinforcements.
It seems then that ethical leadership is perhaps best understood as a variform
universal phenomenon, rather than a mere simple universal phenomenon. In cases of
variform universal phenomena, the general principles are universally stable yet the
precise meaning and enactment of those principles vary across contexts (cf. Bass,
1997; den Hartog et al., 1999; Resick et al., 2006). In other words, the results of this
study suggest that while the basic components of ethical leadership – moral person,
moral manager – may be rather consistent across di�erent types of organizations, the
way these components are interpreted and enacted may di�er, as may the relative
weight that people give to the respective components.
Limitations
Of course, this study is not without its limitations. The data presented here concern
the views of 18, non-randomly selected participants, who are not fully representative
of the general population of managers in the Netherlands. Likewise, the organizations
that the respondents represent are not exhaustive of all types of organizations that
one may �nd across the public–private continuum. This limits the external validity of
the �ndings and thus no generalizations can be made regarding (Dutch) managers'
views on ethical leadership or about the di�erences between the public and private
sector managers in this respect. However, as noted before, the study explicitly aimed
for theoretical rather than empirical generalization (cf. Yin, 1990; Ritchie and Lewis,
2003). The interviews aimed to delineate some initial insights on how the publicness of In this article
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2003). The interviews aimed to delineate some initial insights on how the publicness of
an organization could shape managers' views on ethical leadership, so as to inform
and expand theory on this issue and aid the development of hypotheses for further
testing – not to yield de�nitive conclusions on the empirical distribution of speci�c
viewpoints on ethical leadership across di�erent organizational contexts. Additional
research is required to further examine the extent to which the di�erent views
presented here are supported by a wider population of managers and whether the
publicness of an organization is indeed antecedent to the di�erences in viewpoints.
Another important limitation of the current study is that the sample does not include
employees. Therefore, no inferences can be made regarding the e�ectiveness of the
various approaches to ethical leadership proposed by the interviewees. Employees'
needs for ethical leadership may be very di�erent than how managers conceive and
exert it in practice. Employees may actually expect and want an ethical leader that
reduces ethical ambiguity by providing clear rules, as studies by Lasthuizen (2008) and
Kaptein (2003) imply. Or perhaps employees feel that implicit communication about
ethics, as some of the managers interviewed in this study seemed to prefer, is not
salient or clear enough (cf. Brown and Treviño, 2006). Indeed, there may be various
sources of discrepancy in the implicit ethical leadership theories of managers and
employees, which in turn may decrease the e�ectiveness of ethical leadership on
followers' ethical decision-making and behaviour (cf. House et al., 2002; Resick et al.,
2006; Martin et al., 2009; van den Akker et al., 2009). In future research on ethical
leadership conceptions, employees' views will therefore need to be explored as well.
Conclusion
In our view, this study warrants further inquiry into the di�erences and similarities that
may exist in conceptions and manifestations of ethical leadership. To allow for a better
understanding of the variform universal nature of ethical leadership, however, it is
imperative that we develop measurement instruments that are more context-sensitive
and allow for variety in styles of ethical leadership. Existing ethical leadership In this article
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and allow for variety in styles of ethical leadership. Existing ethical leadership
measures tend to provide little information on the speci�c expressions of the traits
and behaviours that they entail, and yet it is with respect to these speci�cs that the
most variety in ethical leadership is likely to be found.
To illustrate, existing measurement instruments include items like ‘discusses business
ethics or values with employees’ (Resick et al., 2006, p. 125) and ‘my supervisor clari�es
ethical decisions and norms concerning my work’ (den Hartog and de Hoogh, 2009, p.
594). Given the di�erent views on what communication about ethics entails, items
such as these may be understood in di�erent ways: one respondent might score a
leader on the amount of explicit communication about ethics, whereas another might
feel that this item also encompasses more implicit discussions of norms and values.
Di�erent interpretations of these measurement items might cause variance in ethical
leadership scores that is not an indication of whether someone is more or less
perceived to be an ethical leader, but which rather re�ects the di�erences in how
ethical leadership is exerted. Moreover, not all existing measures enable analysis of
the relative importance of the di�erent aspects across various contexts (see, however,
Martin et al., 2009; van den Akker et al., 2009). Recognizing the variform universal
nature of ethical leadership and developing additional measures of ethical leadership
that enable more variation to occur will advance our understanding of ethical
leadership itself, its relation to the organizational context, as well as its antecedents
and e�ects.
The study also pointed out gender di�erences in the respondents' conceptions of
ethical leadership: not only did female respondents emphasize more moral traits than
their male counterparts, they were also more inclined to stress aspects of care and
empathy as critical to e�ective ethical leadership. These results are consistent with
Gilligan's notion that men and women may di�er in their moral reasoning, with
women applying more of an ‘ethics of care’ whilst men have more of a tendency
towards an ‘ethics of justice’ (Gilligan, 1977, 1982; see also Woods, 1996 for an
overview). This latter line of research, however, has been highly contested and
criticized over the years (Walker, 1985; Rest, 1986). Meanwhile empirical research on In this article
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criticized over the years (Walker, 1985; Rest, 1986). Meanwhile empirical research on
gender di�erences in leadership styles remains inconclusive at best (Eagly and Carli,
2007). Perhaps, as Ambrose and Schminke (1999) suggest, gender di�erences are
merely perceived in ethics, and thus only perceived in the ethical leadership styles of
men and women. By contrast, precisely because there is so much ambiguity
surrounding the relationships between gender and ethics as well as gender and
leadership, the present results suggest it may be worth looking into the relation
between gender and ethical leadership more thoroughly in the future.
This study furthermore provides important information to managers and ethics
trainers. Whether the di�erent views on ethical leadership discussed in this article are
indeed e�ective in practice still remains to be tested empirically and hence this study
cannot be taken as a ‘checklist’ that one can simply tick-o� in order to become an
ethical leader. Nevertheless, the study provides a useful benchmark for managers to
assess their own ethical leadership e�orts and suggests managers should re�ect more
speci�cally on what is the most appropriate ethical leadership approach in their own
public, hybrid or private organizational context. Moreover, it indicates that ethics
training programmes need to appeal more directly to the speci�c beliefs and
experiences of their participants and provide concrete information on how managers
can apply certain ethical leadership behaviours in their speci�c sector. After all, it is the
managers who will need to incorporate the ethical leadership training within their daily
routines and it seems unlikely that they will incorporate behaviours that they perceive
to be unrealistic, un�tting or irrelevant to their everyday work environment.
More generally, this study suggests that it is important for managers to take account of
the di�erent views on and approaches to ethical leadership that may exist within their
own organizations. Di�erences in views on ethical leadership should be addressed
explicitly, as incongruence between ethical leadership expectations and practices are
likely to lessen its e�ectiveness (cf. House et al., 2002; Resick et al., 2006; Martin et al.,
2009; van den Akker et al., 2009). Similarly, inconsistencies between the organization's
formal ethics programmes and managers' own perspectives on the best means to
foster organizational ethics might lessen the e�ectiveness of such ethics programmes. In this article
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foster organizational ethics might lessen the e�ectiveness of such ethics programmes.
To assure that both managers' ethical leadership e�orts and formal ethics
programmes are optimally e�ective, one must identify inconsistencies between
expectations and approaches and consider whether such inconsistencies can be
mended to make the organization's ethical leadership e�orts more coherent and
mutually reinforcing.
Finally, we want to stress that the di�erences found in the views of public, hybrid and
private sector managers could have important implications when these di�erent
‘worlds’ meet, for instance in public–private partnerships or other forms of
cooperation such as outsourcing. When private parties carry out public tasks and
deliver public goods, they should be aware that their public counterpart holds
di�erent expectations of what ethical leadership entails and that public stakeholders
have other demands with regard to integrity. By highlighting managers' expectations
and preferences for ethical leadership in public, hybrid and private sector contexts,
this study can contribute to a better mutual understanding of managers who operate
across these di�erent organizational contexts. Where the di�erent public and private
worlds meet, these worlds could and should learn from one another on the basis of
this study.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the guest editors and the anonymous reviewers for
their very helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. We would also like to
thank Lieke Witlox and Gareth Hewer for their assistance and technical support.
Notes
To illustrate, ‘public organizations’ refers to organizations such as ministries and
municipalities, which are predominantly public on all three dimensions: they are under In this article
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municipalities, which are predominantly public on all three dimensions: they are under
substantial and direct political control, primarily depend on public funding, and
perform public tasks. By contrast, private organizations are predominantly private on
the same three dimensions and involve organizations such as retailers and
engineering companies. In such organizations, political control is limited, funding is
predominantly or fully private, and the primary aim is to reach private goals (most
notably, to make pro�t). Hybrid organizations then concern organizations where the
degree of publicness of the organization di�ers according to the three dimensions. For
instance, in the case of Dutch universities, where political control is moderate, funding
is increasingly becoming a mix of private and public sources, but the primary aim is
still to provide a public service.
A more extensive report and discussion of the results of this study can be found in
Heres (2010).
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