A Meta-analytic Review of Ethical Leadership Outcomes and Moderators

A growing body of research suggests that follower perceptions of ethical leadership are associated with beneficial follower outcomes. However, some empirical researchers have found contradictory results. In this study, we use social learning and social exchange theories to test the relationship betw...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2016-12, Vol.139 (3), p.517-536
Main Authors: Bedi, Akanksha, Alpaslan, Can M., Green, Sandy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Bias
Business and Management
Business Ethics
Citizenship education
Decision making
Education
Equity
Ethical behavior
Ethics
Hypotheses
Leadership
Learning
Management
Management styles
Meta-analysis
Moral relativism
Morality
Normative ethics
Perception
Perceptions
Philosophy
Professional ethics
Public sector
Quality of Life Research
Religious ethics
Role ethics
Role models
Social ethics
Social exchange theory
Social learning
Studies
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Summary:A growing body of research suggests that follower perceptions of ethical leadership are associated with beneficial follower outcomes. However, some empirical researchers have found contradictory results. In this study, we use social learning and social exchange theories to test the relationship between ethical leadership and follower work outcomes. Our results suggest that ethical leadership is related positively to numerous follower outcomes such as perceptions of leader interactional fairness and follower ethical behavior. Furthermore, we explore how ethical leadership relates to and is different from other leadership styles such as transformational and transactional leadership. Results suggest that ethical leadership is positively associated with transformational leadership and the contingent reward dimension of transactional leadership. With respect to the moderators, our results show mixed evidence for publication bias. Finally, geographical locations of study samples moderated some of the relationships between ethical leadership and follower outcomes, and employee samples from public sector organizations showed stronger mean corrected correlations for ethical leadershipfollower outcome relationships.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-015-2625-1