Ethical
Leadership
From Research to Practice
What can we learn from research?
Tim Hatcher
NCSU
Ethical Leadership is the study
of leaders who are fair and
principled decision-makers;
care about people and the
broader society; behave
ethically in their personal and
professional lives
Brown & Trevino, 2006
Authentic
•Balanced processing
•Moral perspectives
•Relational transparency
•Self-awareness
•Idealized influence
•Inspirational motivation
•Intellectual stimulation
•Individualized
consideration
Transform
ational
Ethical
Spiritual
•Vision
•Hope
•Faith
•Altruistic love
•Empathy
•Stewardship
•Healing
•Build community
Servant
Brief summary of research:
•Ethical leadership – Trevino (2005); Brown, Trevino,
Harrison (2005) Hatcher (2002) Ethical Leadership Scale –
Brown & Trevino (2002)
•Spiritual leadership – Fry (2005)
•CrossCultural ethical leadership - Resick, et al (2006)
•Unethical leadership - Price (2007) Einarsen, Aasland &
Skogstad (2007)
•Limited conclusions, e.g., based on survey; few exp or
q-exp ; limited in verifying C[ldrshp]-E[perf]
•Weak measures and theories
•Limited contexts
•Limited generalizability (quant) & transferability
(qual)
Implications for research & practice:
•Theoretical rigor & Valid/reliable measures
•Quasi/Experimental Designs
•Vary contexts/participants: NFP, NGO, MNC,
ethnicity, culture, etc
•Leader development around empathy, care and
community
•Nurture and serve multiple stakeholders (triple
bottom line)
Conclusions:
•Ethical leadership is important and an emerging
research construct
•Related to other positive leadership constructs
including unethical/destructive leadership
•Need rigorous conceptual and theoretical
frameworks
•Need rigorous research designs
•Need valid and reliable measures
•Develop research with clear implications for
practice
•Leadership development should build selfawareness, empathy, care, power sharing and
social responsibility (triple bottom line)
Ethical
Leadership
From Research to Practice
What can we learn from research?
Thanks for listening!
Tim Hatcher
tim_hatcher@ncsu.edu