Week 7 Literature Review: Final Submission 1
Ethical and Moral Leadership
William Fa
School of Business, Liberty University
Author Note
William Fa
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to William Fa. Email:
WFFA@liberty.edu
Week 7 Literature Review: Final Submission 2
Abstract
Leadership and management ethics are receiving increased attention. Industries are experiencing
similar commitment in ethical leadership standards as with strategy and supervision. All too
many corporate misconduct and failures are caused by management and executives' lack of
ethics and morals. The latter is real despite professional executive leadership and correct plan
application. Organizations who take this matter seriously and include moral and ethical
principles into their strategic planning usually improve their market standing and prevent
scandals. This research on moral and ethical leadership were from articles and scholarly books.
Numerous literature address ethical and moral leadership. To provide a thorough overview of the
issue, other arguments would be examined.
Keywords: Ethical leadership, moral leadership, business ethics, morals, ethical,
leadership, unethical behavior, knowledge-sharing, knowledge-hiding, management
Week 7 Literature Review: Final Submission 3
Ethical and Moral Leadership
In every aspect of managers and leaders, the topic of ethical and moral responsibility in
mangers is something that has been attracting an increasing level of interest. Numerous
companies in a variety of industries are coming to the realization that leadership is a vital
element in the process of establishing ethical and moral standards within an organization (Zhu et
al., 2019). Not that it is a moral thing for doing, but mostly because everyone is responsible for
upholding ethical standards. The making of irresponsible choices is detrimental to a company's
bottom line, but whenever researchers examine the challenges and difficulties in businesses over
the previous two decades, authors find that many of those issues originated on the inside because
of unethical choices made by management.
In businesses, there is sometimes a struggle going on between maintaining privacy and
being open with information, which can lead to misunderstandings. By no means are
prominent top executives the only effective leaders, but the prevailing leaders such
as authoritative military commanders, notable sports coaches, or highly
appreciated and recognized politicians are today's most effective leaders, who are not chief
executives. Furthermore, several studies have discovered that even an inadequacy of
poor leadership can culminate in the collapse of governments, the failure of corporations and
industries, and a wider context of disorientation among overall population.
The fundamental cause of diminishing production technical skills and a weaker global
standing of businesses on a world level is incompetent leaders in all these business organizations.
While compiling this assessment of the findings, information on ethical and moral leadership
was collected from a wide range of academic publications and reviews. This study investigates
Week 7 Literature Review: Final Submission 4
the rationale behind questionable practices and draws attention to the ways in which big
corporations use customers in practices that are permitted but unacceptable.
Ethics
Ethics is the claimed socially constructed proposed action of ethical behavior
distinguished by someone with a profound consideration in how his\her choices will impact the
wellbeing of everyone; this issue gives the impression that ethical leaders understand very much
about the best interest for his\her workforce, company, and community than they do beyond their
personal ego (De Roeck & Farooq, 2018). Risk to the consumer, injustices, and unethical
conduct committed by corporations has notably received a significant amount of notice from the
press. As an illustration, in the year 2016, Wells Fargo was exposed for engaging in unethical
conduct, which caused a disadvantage for the company as being highly respectable to
becoming among the most disliked American businesses (Kuenzi et al., 2020). The financial
institution generated huge amounts of fraudulent transactions and coerced many of
their consumers into purchasing vehicle policies they did not need. Furthermore, understanding
the basic factors that contribute to both ethically sound and unethical decisions is a major
objective of psychological corporate ethics (DeTienne et al., 2021).
Ethical Leadership
In the realm of leadership, the crucial elements of ethical leadership include the
recognition of morally reasonable conduct by personal decisions and professional relationships,
including the promotion of such behaviors to employees through numerous communication
channels, guidance, and ethical decision (Zhu et al., 2019). In addition, ethical leadership is
universally applicable supporting acceptable behavior using multiple communications, feedback,
and adoption of decisions. More importantly, ethical leadership is built on the foundations of
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truthfulness, equality, moral character, and respect for others, especially his\her supporters and
wider community (Anser et al., 2021). Furthermore, corporate citizen status, workplace
fulfillment, communication, teamwork, and productivity have all been found to improve under
the direction of an ethical leader.
An ethical leader has moral character, tells the truth, treats everyone the same, takes
responsibility, and cares about the professional and personal needs of their employees (Anser et
al., 2021). In addition, ethical leadership involves elements that impact workers, like exhibiting
authenticity, justice, and care for everyone else, and employing incentive and disciplinary
procedures to convey proper conduct to coworkers. The moral character (responsible for
communicating) and moral leader (responsible for implementation) elements of ethical
leadership are accountable for the procedure of interpretations and putting application into effect
(Kuenzi et al., 2020). Furthermore, for professional ethics to be applied, a leadership's social
attributes and conduct must be carefully considered.
Ethical leadership is concerned with not just the results that individuals produce, but also
with how those results are reached (Men et al., 2020). Individuals have a greater chance of
engaging in personal proactivity, demonstrating cooperation and understanding appreciation with
colleagues, and exhibiting ethics when they work for companies with honest leadership. The only
way for leaders to be productive is to perform ethically and socially responsible conduct that
brings ethics in qualities, moral standards, and core concepts in which a leader employs in
determining what is good and what is unethical (Satterlee, 2018). Whenever managers and
supervisors connect with their workers honestly and openly, shared values and personal loyalty
are developed.
Week 7 Literature Review: Final Submission 6
Researchers found that honest leadership are more concerned with the wellbeing of the
company, its employees, and the general society than they are with achieving their personal goals
(De Roeck & Farooq, 2018). When workers see honest leaders' kindness, compassion,
dedication, and understanding, they will have better qualities of partiality, engagement,
involvement, integrity, and cooperation. The most successful managers are those who recognize
his\her own imperfections, admit when they really do not understand some things, and turn to the
communities in which they operate and individuals working at their side to
address themselves on what has been going on. Similarly, the most successful businesses are
those that foster an environment in which people feel comfortable sharing their problems with
their managers.
Significance of Ethical Leadership
Leaders can dissuade their staff members from engaging in actions that hide information
and establish a supportable business-minded edge by adopting ethical practices and reinforcing
individual views of the meaning and value of their job (Anser et al., 2021). In addition, leaders
must be able to recognize their errors, flaws, shortcomings, and needs for assistance without fear
of retaliation to foster subordinates' insecurity trustworthiness. According to one research,
Fortune 500 firms lose a combined annual total of $31 billion due to the practice of concealing
information (Men et al., 2020). Furthermore, ethical leaders can generate a strategic and
competitive edge and dissuade staff members from engaging in activities that conceal
information by exhibiting ethical practices themselves and strengthening individual beliefs that
their job is valuable.
To help their workforce become more efficient and still encourage them to take advantage
of some useful programs and services, like support, recommendations, and direction from other
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supervisors, ethical leaders provide them with resources that can help, including community
resources (Anser et al., 2021). Being consistent and offering resilience to the individuals among
ourselves is an important aspect of leading ethical practices because individuals are exposed to
those in positions of authority who deliver a safe and stable environment. When subordinates
know they are working for an ethical business and are involved in ethical behaviors in the
working environment, it makes them gain a sense of purpose in their professions. Additionally,
ethical leaders are far more willing to open and share company ethics or standards with workers,
which helps staff members understand rules and regulations (Kuenzi et al., 2020).
Ethical leaders can show their community the value of qualities often including
politeness, empathy, fairness, and truthfulness when they demonstrate morally correct conduct by
serving as role models for others to follow (Bavik et al., 2018). Anyone can still be regarded a
leader if everyone else goes along with, because leaders are about as powerful as with the
relationships they build. More importantly, faith and loyalty in a leader's ethical character
encourages individuals to openly communicate and embrace the consequences of disclosing
unethical conduct to managers (Afsar & Shahjehan, 2018). Furthermore, ethical leaders that
demonstrate concern for their subordinates' growth and wellbeing create a physically and
emotionally secure atmosphere.
Morals
Morals is the ability of an individual to make informed decisions, as well as their
understanding of and desire to focus on moral concerns (Zhu et al., 2019). People who are moral
do what they believe is right, focus their efforts on professional ethics, show care for everyone,
accept accountability for their acts, and are led by concepts of fairness and equality, amongst
other virtues. More importantly, moral standards help individuals act correctly with integrity,
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justice, and impartiality. Furthermore, morals depend on an individual's upbringing and values in
humanity.
Moral Leadership/Management
Moral standards are only one part of ethical leadership; morally applying leadership tasks
is more crucial (Afsar & Shahjehan, 2018). Morality is a necessary and highly regarded attribute
for everyone, but it is extremely important for leaders and managers. The capacity to put one's
confidence in another is the process of bringing all connections and relations collectively,
personally and professionally. Individuals must be willing and capable of trusting those they
support to function at their best as moral leaders and managers.
When deciding on a course of action, managers and leaders must consider the rights and
responsibilities of everyone, and their own moral standards, before making a choice (Afsar &
Shahjehan, 2018). Workers are more likely to respect choices made by leadership when they are
provided with an explanation of the reasoning behind the decision making, even when the
workforce disagrees with those plans. As it happens the responsibilities of moral leaders and
managers will prioritize the needs of others over his or her own. Additionally, moral leaders
and managers will require his or her subordinates or supporters to consistently report levels of
satisfaction with the job that they are performing.
Significance of Moral Leadership
For moral leaders to create an ethical work environment, managers must demonstrate
morality by promoting a favorable and impartial workplace culture by treating employees with
compassion (Zhu et al., 2019). Leadership on a moral level is essential, and it requires
individuals to make decisions that are for the wellbeing of everyone while at the same
time working to persuade everybody to share their perspectives on a variety of topics. Just as
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moral leadership may establish connections and motivate many, this can also generate
significance for individuals, empower them to foresee a positive world, and aid them to make
good choices. Furthermore, moral leadership is educating people to be able to take responsibility,
be considerate, and truthful to create positive change, efficiency, and improve corporate
reputation.
Leadership
Leadership is a position granted to a single person, a set of people, groups functioning
together, or several elements of workgroups where organizational leaders deliberately allocate
authority through one or more focus point divisions (Ford & Harding, 2018). In addition,
leadership comprises a person, team, or company's capacity to organize, manage, or direct
multiple people, projects, or enterprises. More importantly, leadership is inspiring everybody to
willingly generate an overall result which would not have happened without their contributions
(Benzel, 2021). Moreover, there should never be any favoritism shown by leaders, and followers
should be treated with the highest courtesy and consideration. Furthermore, to be a great leader,
one must be capable of keeping prejudices and injustice out of the workplace.
Comparisons of Ethical and Moral Leadership
Being a moral leader is essential to being an ethical leader (Zhu et al., 2019). Ethics and
morality are inseparable. Morality is a prerequisite for being ethical. By utilizing moral
interpersonal mentorship, ethical leaders can change the behaviors of their team (Men et al.,
2020).
Even though ethics is a system of moral standards, moral authority is the ethical process
of making decisions based on correct morals. Past research suggest that ethical leadership
increases workplace behaviors (Bavik et al., 2018). Innovations that advance ethical behavior
Week 7 Literature Review: Final Submission 10
among leaders, management, and employees are created and implemented through moral
leadership. Reducing shared resources restrictions can be achieved by the ethics policy,
compensation and benefits, and communication systems (Bavik et al., 2018).
Conclusions and Recommendations
Overall, scholarly studies show a strong link between ethical leadership and ethical
business practices. Several studies have found a connection between ethical leadership and moral
conduct. The absence of significant moral action makes it hard for leaders to sustain ethical
norms. A large amount of study has been done on ethical leadership.
Established insights and important details from reputable sources are necessary to
succeed. Many of these studies techniques have a narrow scope. In addition, scholars are
required to specialize on a given social situation, industry, or area since ethics is a broad topic.
Due to its importance to today's businesses, there is a lack of research.
A measure or notion of ethical leadership is not widely accepted in other nations.
Research study is often narrowed by error. Further study is needed on the moderating effect and
the moral comparability between leaders and employees when it comes to the moral voices of
workers.
References
Week 7 Literature Review: Final Submission 11
Afsar, B., & Shahjehan, A. (2018). Linking ethical leadership and moral voice: The effects of
moral efficacy, trust in leader, and leader-follower value congruence. Leadership &
Organization Development Journal, 39(6), 775-793. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-01-
2018-0015
Anser, M. K., Ali, M., Usman, M., Rana, M. L. T., & Yousaf, Z. (2021). Ethical leadership and
knowledge hiding: An intervening and interactional analysis. The Service Industries
Journal, 41(5-6), 307-329. https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2020.1739657
Bavik, Y. L., Tang, P. M., Shao, R., & Lam, L. W. (2018). Ethical leadership and employee
knowledge sharing: Exploring dual-mediation paths. The Leadership Quarterly, 29(2),
322-332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.05.006
Benzel, E. (2021). Leadership. World Neurosurgery, 152, xvii-xvii.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2021.06.001
De Roeck, K., & Farooq, O. (2018). Corporate social responsibility and ethical leadership:
Investigating their interactive effect on employees' socially responsible
behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(4), 923-939. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-
017-3656-6
DeTienne, K. B., Ellertson, C. F., Ingerson, M., & Dudley, W. R. (2021). Moral development in
business ethics: An examination and critique. Journal of Business Ethics, 170(3), 429-
448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04351-0
Ford, J., & Harding, N. (2018). Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy and
illusion. Leadership (London, England), 14(1), 3-24.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715015621372
Week 7 Literature Review: Final Submission 12
Kuenzi, M., 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
Men, C., Fong, P. S. W., Huo, W., Zhong, J., Jia, R., & Luo, J. (2020). Ethical leadership and
knowledge hiding: A moderated mediation model of psychological safety and mastery
climate. Journal of Business Ethics, 166(3), 461-472. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-
018-4027-7
Satterlee, A. (2018). Principles of management and leadership: A Christian perspective (1st ed.).
McGraw-Hill Custom.
Zhu, W., Zheng, X., He, H., Wang, G., & Zhang, X. (2019). Ethical leadership with both moral
person and moral manager aspects: Scale development and cross-cultural
validation. Journal of Business Ethics, 158(2), 547-565. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-
017-3740-y
