RUNNING HEAD: ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
CARLA GINART
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
BMIS501_B01_202520
FEBRUARY 5, 2025
ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
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Abstract
The aim of this paper is to create an Annotated Bibliography and Outline with references for the
Literature Review on the subject of "Ethical Leadership". There will be a number of articles that
discuss a wide range of topics related to this topic. The literature review's specific topics and
quotations will be included in the outline. The outline will include an introduction, a few
common topics and their sub-themes, a conclusion, and any other suggestions I think are
needed. The objective is to present a collection of data that demonstrates how ethical leadership
is a requirement to run a successful company and how this can have a direct impact on
employee engagement, which in turn also affects an organization's productivity and success.
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Adiguzel, Z. (2019). Relationships among Leader Effectiveness, Learning Orientation, Effective
Communication, Team Creativity and Service Innovation in the Service Sector. Business
and Economics Research Journal, 10(1), 131-148.
https://doi.org/10.20409/berj.2019.159
The author of this article, Zafer Adiguzel, was an assistant Professor at the Instanbul Medipol
University, School of Business and Management Sciences. He has 152 publications. Some of his
skills and expertise are in the areas of management, strategic management, leadership, strategic
planning, innovation, business development, and human resource management. Analyzing the
connections among team creativity and service innovation, learning orientation and successful
communication, and leader effectiveness is the aim of this study. His investigations showed that
learning orientation and effective leadership had a beneficial effect on service innovation, team
creativity, and successful communication. This suggests that an organization's ability to
effectively lead and focus on learning has a beneficial impact on team creativity, effective
communication, and service innovation in the service industry. This source helps prove that
effective communication is important, and I feel like part of ethical leadership is effective
communication. Unethical leadership won’t care about the team or employees and won’t
practice communication. They would focus more on power and negative reinforcement to get
the job done, regardless of who it hurts.
Fu, J., Long, Y., He, Q., & Liu, Y. (2020). Can Ethical Leadership Improve Employees' Well-
Being at Work? Another Side of Ethical Leadership Based on Organizational Citizenship
Anxiety.=Frontiers in psychology,=11, 1478. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01478
The authors of this article include Jingtao Fu, Yijinh Long, Qi He, and Yazhen Liu. Fu works
Hainan University in China at the School of Management and has 14 publications out. I could
not find information on Yijinh Long. He has a PhD and has 5 publications out. Liu is affiliated
with Central South University and has 5 publications out. The results of this study showed that
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employees' perceptions of organizational citizenship anxiety and ethical leadership are
significantly and favorably correlated. They also found that employees' perceptions of
organizational citizenship anxiety completely mediate the relationship between ethical leadership
and employee well-being at work. Furthermore, organizational concern motivation not only
lessens the negative correlation between employees' organizational citizenship anxiety and well-
being at work, but also lessens the indirect negative effect of ethical leadership on employee
well-being at work through organizational citizenship anxiety. This is a second supporting
article that will help support that ethical leadership is a good thing, but it can also come with
negative things as well. Again, the company would have to determine if the good outweigh the
bad and I feel like it does.
Halbusi, H. A., Williams, K. A., Ramayah, T., Aldieri, L., & Vinci, C. P. (2021). Linking ethical
leadership and ethical climate to employees' ethical behavior: the moderating role of
person–organization fit. [Linking ethical leadership and ethical climate]=Personnel
Review,=50(1), 159-185. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2019-0522
The authors of this article include Hussam Al Halbusi, Kent A., Williams, Thurasamy, Ramayah,
Luigi, Aldieri, and Concetto Paolo Vinci. Halbusi is a researcher at Sultan Qaboos and at
A’Sharqiyah University. He is also an Assistant Professor at Ahmed bin Mohammed Military
College. He is also a lecturer for the University of Malaya and Fatih University. He has also
published 14 different articles. Williams works for Acadia University as an Assistant Professor
and also works at Dalhousie University as an Adjunct Professor. He has a Doctorate of Social
Science. He has received grants for his work and has written 13 different journals. I could not
find information on the other three authors of this journal. Through the ethical climate, this study
examined how ethical leadership affects how employees present ethical behavior. The
moderating role of person-organization fit in relation to ethical climate and employee ethical
behavior was particularly examined in this study. This journal also helps highlight how an
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organization’s ethical atmosphere or climate has significant impact on the ethical behavior of its
employees. If you put unethical leaders in place it will hurt the organization.
Kalra, A., Singh, R., Badrinarayanan, V., & Gupta, A. (2025). How Ethical Leadership and
Ethical Self-Leadership Enhance the Effects of Idiosyncratic Deals on Salesperson Work
Engagement and Performance. Journal of Business Ethics., 196(1), 169–188.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05717-9
This journal was written by Ashish Kalra, Rakesh Singh, Vishag Badrinarayanan, and Aditya
Gupta. Kalra is an Assistant Professor at the University of Dayton and teaches courses that
cover Management and Marketing. He has a PhD, an MA, and a BC. Rakesh is currently
employed at a Fortune 500 company in the United States as an Information Technology Leader
(CTO). He graduated from the University of Delhi with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He has
also obtained multiple degrees and certifications in sustainability, digital transformation, servant
leadership, and technology leadership from esteemed universities like MIT, Cornell University,
UC Berkeley, and Stanford University. Badrinarayanan is a Professor at Texas State University.
He has written multiple articles and has received many awards and grants for his works. Gupta
is an Associate Professor at Texas State University, and he has a PhD in Marketing. He also has
written several articles and has received many awards and grants for his work. Through the
moderating effects of ethical leadership and self-leadership, the study in this journal explored
how idiosyncratic deals improve salespeople's social and change engagement. It concludes that
ethical leadership creates a supportive environment that optimizes the advantages of I deals for
both organizations and employees. The journal also discussed the importance of ethical
leadership in sales organizations, the impact of I deals on workplace dynamics, and the function
of self-leadership in improving employee engagement.
Kuenzi, M., Mayer, D. M., Greenbaum, R. L., Mayer, D. M., & Greenbaum, R. L. (2020).
Creating an ethical organizational environment: The relationship between ethical
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leadership, ethical organizational climate, and unethical behavior. Personnel
Psychology., 73(1), 43–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12356
The authors of this article are Maribeth Kuenzi, David M. Mayer, and Rebecca L. Greenbaum.
Kuenzi works for Southern Methodist University in the Department of Management and
Organizations and has 14 publications on similar material out. Dave Mayer, Ph.D., is a professor
at Michigan Ross University in the Management and Organizations Department. He is a highly
regarded and in-demand educator and speaker, an award-winning researcher, and an authority on
ethics, diversity, and leadership. Rebecca Greenbaum is an Associate Dean for Academic
Affairs are Rutgers. She has a Master’s in Human Resource Management and her research
appears in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of
Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel
Psychology. This article aims to offer a more comprehensive perspective on the ethical
organizational environment. It shows that there is growing evidence that indicators in the
workplace environment, in addition to an employee's personal traits, are a significant factor in
identifying unethical behavior. Formal procedures for hiring and choosing employees,
orientation and training, policies and regulations, rewards and penalties, accountability and
responsibility, and decision-making systems make up organizations. There are certain ethical
rules, guidelines, and practices in each of these systems. Employees in a unit or organization
develop opinions about the ethical climate of the unit or organization when these policies,
procedures, and practices are shared and consistent. In order to create an ethical environment,
we would have to make sure to have ethical leadership.
Liu, Y., Shao, Y., Jin, Y., & Yan, J. (2024). The double‐edged sword of ethical leadership:
Investigating when and why ethical leadership promotes versus inhibits team
performance. Applied Psychology., 73(4), 2129–2152.
https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12542
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This article was written by Ye Liu, Yan Shao, and Jin Yan. Liu works for the School of
Sociology, China University of Political Science and Law. Shao works for Amsterdam Business
School, University of Amsterdam. Yan works for Zhejiang University and has a PhD and a BS
in Psychology. He has also written for the Asia Pacific journal of management. This article
proposed that ethical leadership may have unexpected, counterintuitive impacts on interpersonal
dynamics within the team and, ultimately, team performance, even though prior research
indicated a favorable correlation between ethical leadership and team performance. Using the
social information processing theory as a guide, the article suggest that moral leadership can
have both positive and negative effects on team performance through two different channels:
task and relationship conflicts, depending on the informal power imbalance within the team. In
particular, the article suggest that moral leadership suppresses task conflict, which has a negative
indirect effect on team performance, while minimizing relationship conflict has a favorable
indirect effect. This helps show that ethical leadership does have positive effect, but it can also
have a downside, just like any study for anything else would show. There can be positive and
negative to everything. Organizations just have to decide if the positive outweigh the negatives.
Mirčetić, V., Sretić, M., Maksimović, M., & Karabašević, D. (2019). LEADERS' EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION TOOLS AND THEIR IMPACT ON FOLLOWERS'
DEVELOPMENT LEVEL.=Quaestus,= (14), 133-143.
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/
scholarly-journals/leaders-effective-communication-tools-their/docview/2278866585/
se-2
The authors of the article are Vuk Mircetic, Milena Sretic, Mladjan Maksimovic, and Darjan
Karabasevic. Vuk Mircetic is a Faculty of Applied Management, Economics and Finance. His
studies center on human resource management, leadership, and management. I could not find
any details regarding Milena Sretic's background and how that would tie into her help with this
ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
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paper. Dr. Maksimovic teaches at the Faculty of Applied Management, Economics, and Finance
as an assistant professor. His primary area of competence is management. Associate Professor
Dr. Karabasevic teaches at the Faculty of Applied Management, Economics, and Finance. He
has a doctorate in management. He studies human resource management, leadership, decision-
making theory, and informatics. This study looks at how the leader's communication affects the
followers' developmental stage as well as the relationship between the message's content and
coding based on the recipient's level of competence. With a flexible appearance of
bidirectionalities in the communication process, the authors of the research suggested
communication tools, task and report forms, and their dynamics. Leaders will be able to
maximize organizational performance and effectively modify their communication style with
followers by utilizing the new information and resources they have gained from this effort. This
can help support my argument for ethical leadership being important “good” or “ethical” leaders
are going to do what is necessary in order to communicate with their employees and motivate
them to do their jobs. They will automatically want to do the right things that will make
employees trust their motivation and leadership. Unethical leaders really wouldn’t care about
maintaining good communication with their employees.
Zheng, Y., Epitropaki, O., Graham, L., & Caveney, N. (2022). Ethical Leadership and Ethical
Voice: The Mediating Mechanisms of Value Internalization and Integrity Identity.
Journal of Management, 48(4), 973-1002. https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063211002611
The authors of this article is Yuyan Sheng, Olga Epitropaki, Les Graham, and Nick Caveney.
Zheng works for the University of Sheffield, Management School, and has written 11 different
articles on similar topics. Epitropaki has written 7 different articles on similar topics, and the
subjects that they cover include Social Sciences and Humanities, Management and Organization
Studies, Psychology and Counseling, Geriatrics, Health Sciences, and Sociology. Graham works
for Durham University, has written 4 different articles on similar topics and his subjects cover
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Social Sciences and Humanities, Criminology and Criminal justice, and then Management and
Organization Studies. Caveney works for the University of Northampton, and his subjects cover
Management and Organization Studies, and Social Sciences and Humanities. In this article, they
contend that moral leaders encourage followers to internalize the organization's ethics-related
ideals and, in doing so, engage followers' ethics-related identities. They paid particular attention
to follower integrity identification, which is the degree to which people view their dedication to
moral values as an intrinsically valuable aspect of who they are. This article helps support that
ethical leadership is important and that it matters, and that it has a positive effect on work
attitudes and job performance.
10
Running Head: Ethical Leadership
I Introduction
a Many firms place a high value on effective leadership and employee
engagement. To be effective one must be considered ethical. This is
where ethical leadership comes into play. Emotional dedication, good
attitudes and behaviors, and participation in achieving objectives and
visions are all components of employee engagement. Since leaders are
typically the ones responsible for developing, promoting, and carrying
out policies, procedures, and vision, ethical leadership is crucial. This
implies that inspiring and motivating staff members to be the greatest
versions of themselves and in accordance with the organization's
objective constitutes a significant portion of their responsibility. When
making decisions, an ethical leader always acts with honesty, fairness,
respect, and integrity, prioritizes the common good, and leads by
example, inspiring others to follow suit within their team or organization.
In other words, they prioritize the needs of their people and community
over their own interests. Because bad leadership and low employee
engagement can have an impact on a workplace's culture, quality, and
productivity, it is crucial to research the relationship between these two
ideas.
b Themes include: effective communication, integrity, organizational
environment, ethical climate, employee well-being.
II Effective Communication
a In the business world, the primary goal of an interaction is to exchange
thoughts and feelings in order to seize profitable commercial possibilities.
The process of being able to communicate is crucial. Since effective
communication among employees within a business is dependent on their
communication abilities, ethical leaders play a significant role in creating
these conditions. Since businesses communicate with their clients on a
regular basis, they ought to focus more on the quality of their
communications. Effective communication is, in fact, a necessary skill
for successful management, particularly for people in management
positions and from diverse cultural backgrounds. Effective
communication is one of the most crucial requirements for a leader to be
effective. It also guarantees that the organization's operations are more
efficiently managed.” To be effective, a leader's influence should leave a
positive impression not only on direct followers but also on the whole
organization.” (Adiguzel, 2019)
b The effectiveness of a leader in a team encourages a creative culture that
rewards, supports, and anticipates creativity. (Adiguzel, 2019)
c “Relationships are an important part of structuring, evaluating, and
understanding messages in personal environments. Thus, relations are formed by
interpersonal communication” (Adiguzel, 2019)
d “Through communication of ethical standards, and the guidance and feedback
they provide on ethical issues, ethical leaders provide cues about the importance
of the organization’s ethical values and help followers to align their own values
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with these.” (Zheng, 2022)
i Adiguzel, Z. (2019). Relationships among Leader Effectiveness,
Learning Orientation, Effective Communication, Team Creativity
and Service Innovation in the Service Sector. Business and
Economics Research Journal, 10(1), 131-148.
https://doi.org/10.20409/berj.2019.159
ii Zheng, Y., Epitropaki, O., Graham, L., & Caveney, N. (2022).
Ethical Leadership and Ethical Voice: The Mediating
Mechanisms of Value Internalization and Integrity Identity.
Journal of Management, 48(4), 973-1002.
https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063211002611
iii
III Integrity
a Integrity is the quality of being honest and strong and having morale
principles. It means doing the right things, even when no one is watching.
Ethical leaders would have integrity. When they witness ethical
transgressions in the workplace, people with high integrity identities are
more likely to speak up since doing so gives them the chance to validate
their identity. Thus, we propose that followers' readiness to participate in
ethical voice conduct is positively correlated with their integrity identity.
(Zheng, 2022)
b “Although integrity identity shares common traits with other self-identities
such as moral identity (i.e., honesty), it is unique in its emphasis on
internal consistency and coherence between values and behavior.
“Integrity is commitment in action to a morally justifiable set of principles
and values and requires consistency within one’s sets of principles and
coherence between principle and action.” (Zheng, 2022)
c “we argue that ethical leaders, by facilitating followers’ internalization of
organizational values, further engage followers’ integrity identity.”
(Zheng,2022)
i Zheng, Y., Epitropaki, O., Graham, L., & Caveney, N. (2022).
Ethical Leadership and Ethical Voice: The Mediating
Mechanisms of Value Internalization and Integrity Identity.
Journal of Management, 48(4), 973-1002.
https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063211002611
IV Organizational Environment
a Organizational environment is the collection of external forces and institutions
that impact and organization’s operations, performance, and resources. Ethical
leaders will make sure to work in an organizational environment that
encourages it’s employees to follow good policies and procedures. There is
growing evidence that indicators in the organization’s environment, in addition
to an employee's personal traits, are a significant factor in identifying unethical
behavior. Formal procedures for hiring and choosing employees, orientation
and training, policies and regulations, rewards and penalties, accountability and
responsibility, and decision-making systems make up organizations. There are
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ethical rules, protocols, and practices in each of these systems. Employees in a
unit or organization develop opinions about the ethical climate of the unit or
organization when these policies, procedures, and practices are shared and
consistent. (Kuenzi, 2019)
b “Organizations need to provide guidance to employees as to what constitutes
appropriate workplace behavior.” (Kuenzi, 2019)
c “Ethical leadership has two components that influence employees: (a) the
moral person aspect, which includes demonstrating integrity, fairness, and a
concern for others, and (b) the moral manager aspect, which focuses on
transactional efforts, such as using reward and punishment systems to
communicate appropriate ethical behavior to subordinates“ (Kuenzi, 2019)
d “Ethical leaders model appropriate behavior, communicate ethical standards,
and punish and reward employees based on ethical compliance. In turn,
leader actions contribute to employee perceptions of the policies, practices,
and procedures leaders set, implement, and enforce” (Kuenzi, 2019)
i Kuenzi, M., Mayer, D. M., Greenbaum, R. L., Mayer, D. M.,
& Greenbaum, R. L. (2020). Creating an ethical
organizational environment: The relationship between ethical
leadership, ethical organizational climate, and unethical
behavior. Personnel Psychology., 73(1), 43–71.
https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12356
V Ethical Climate
a The common view of what constitutes morally right and wrong action
inside an organization is known as the ethical climate. It's the ethical
standards of a business and the moral climate of the workplace.
Leadership is one of the factors that influence ethical climate. The
literature has extensively emphasized that an organization's ethical climate
or atmosphere significantly influences its employees' ethical behavior. The
ethical climate of the organization has a significant impact on employees'
ethical behavior. Subordinates are more likely to provide services and
behave well in an organization with a strong ethical climate because they
believe that it affects organizational policies, decision-making processes,
and the remuneration system. (Halbusi, 2021)
b “the ethical leader sets ethical norms and standards within the team and
uses rewards to reinforce normatively appropriate behaviors and
punishments to reduce unethical, deviant behaviors” (Liu, 2024)
c “With its strong emphasis and reinforcement on norms and standards,
ethical leadership nurtures a uniform norm that sets expectations regarding
individual actions and the outcomes of these actions. As a result, team
members comply with moral principles similar to those of their leader's,
despite the differences they might have.M“ (Liu, 2024)
i. Halbusi, H. A., Williams, K. A., Ramayah, T.,
Aldieri, L., & Vinci, C. P. (2021). Linking ethical
leadership and ethical climate to employees' ethical
behavior: the moderating role of person–
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organization fit. [Linking ethical leadership and
ethical climate] Personnel Review, 50(1), 159-185.
https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2019-0522
ii. Liu, Y., Shao, Y., Jin, Y., & Yan, J. (2024). The
double‐edged sword of ethical leadership:
Investigating when and why ethical leadership
promotes versus inhibits team performance. Applied
Psychology., 73(4), 2129–2152.
https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12542
VI Employee Well-Being
a According to research, workplace well-being enhances productivity, fosters mental and
physical health, and lowers the likelihood of employee turnover. As a result, it should go
without saying that workplace wellbeing is important. Currently, the majority of research
merely views ethical leadership as a motivating factor for workers' favorable
organizational behaviors and attitudes at work. The reality, however, appears to be more
nuanced than the findings of previous studies. The extra effects of ethical leadership must
be investigated further, taking into consideration the welfare of workers at work as well
as any potential mediating and moderating mechanisms that might be at play. (Fu, 2020)
b It is significant to note that because of the high demand for organizational citizenship
behaviors that align with ethical leadership, this has become a specific work requirement
for employees. As a result, people experience pressure to fulfill organizational citizenship
behaviors by facing responsibilities and obligations. Employees' state anxiety rises as a
result. The TWA states that greater management standards and requirements for
employees are linked to ethical leadership; hence, employees are held to higher role
expectations. Ethical pressure and emotional distress are created in order to meet the high
standards set by the leadership. Therefore, we hypothesized that employees who
experience ethical leadership develop organizational citizenship anxiety. (Fu, 2020)
c “Ethical leadership motivates employees to engage in organizational citizenship behavior,
which pressurizes them as well as increasing their workload and challenges.” (Fu, 2020)
i. Fu, J., Long, Y., He, Q., & Liu, Y. (2020). Can Ethical Leadership
Improve Employees' Well-Being at Work? Another Side of Ethical
Leadership Based on Organizational Citizenship Anxiety. Frontiers in
psychology, 11, 1478. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01478
VII Conclusion and Recommendations:
a What are the contributions of the literature to understanding the research?
i. Most would consider ethical leadership to be easily explainable and a
good thing. All the literature that is reviewed helps break down what
ethical leadership is and why it is a good thing. But some literature also
helps show what the possible downside of ethical leadership would be, so
that companies can make informed decisions on whether or not they are
going to push for it, like so many companies do now a days.
b What are the overall strengths?
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i. The strengths include the fact that ethical leadership helps motivate
employees, it opens the lines of communication, and it encourages
employee engagement. It also encourages everyone to have integrity in
the workplace and promotes a good organizational environment.
C What are the overall weaknesses?
i. Weaknesses include that it could cause anxiety and stress in employees, and it could
break down communication for some tasks. The push to be ethical all the time could be
hard. It could end up inhibiting team performance. Overall, there seems to be a positive
relationship between ethical leadership and high or steady levels of employee
engagement, which then yields desirable results that organizations often seek.
Companies are pushing for ethical standards; this means that they must have ethical
leadership in place so that those standards will be met
