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A Qualitative Investigation of Perceived Executive Ethical Leadership: Perceptions from Inside and Outside the Executive Suite
Abstract
Senior executives are thought to provide the organization’s ethical ‘tone at the top’. We conducted an inductive interview-based study aimed at defining the perceived content domain of executive ethical leadership. We interviewed two types of key informants - corporate ethics officers and senior executives - about executive ethical leadership and then a contrasting category we labeled ‘ethically neutral’ leadership. Systematic analysis of the data identified multiple dimensions of ethical and ethically neutral leadership. The findings suggest that ethical leadership is more than traits such as integrity and more than values-based inspirational leadership. It includes an overlooked transactional component that involves using communication and the reward system to guide ethical behavior. Similarities and differences between ethics officers’ and senior executives’ perceptions also led to insights about the importance of vantage point and social salience in perceptions of executive ethical leadership. In order to be perceived as an ethical leader by those outside the executive suite, the executive must engage in socially salient behaviors that make the executive stand out as an ethical figure against an ethically neutral ground.
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“Some executives in Treviño et al's (2000) qualitative development of ethical leadership did mention concern for stakeholders (critical to servant leadership theory), and the authors themselves propose that ethical leaders should be interested in the greater good (Treviño et al., 2003), but these emphases were not included in the formal ethical leadership construct (Brown et al., 2005).”
From Taking Stock of Moral Approaches to Leadership: An Integrative Review of Ethical, Authentic, and Servant Leadership (2019) · cites this paper as Treviño et al., 2003
In the citing paper
“The ethical leader seeks to make these duties and norms a salient part of the day-to-day mindset of followers (Treviño et al., 2000) through active attempts to institutionalize those norms as part of team cultures (Treviño et al., 2003).”
From Taking Stock of Moral Approaches to Leadership: An Integrative Review of Ethical, Authentic, and Servant Leadership (2019) · cites this paper as Treviño et al., 2003
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Metadata
- Authors
- Treviño, L. K., Brown, M., & Hartman, L. P.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- DePaul University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Treviño, Linda Klebe
- Brown, Michael
- Hartman, Laura Pincus
- Venue
- Human Relations
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2003-01
- Volume
- 56
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 5-37
- ISSN
- 0018-7267 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-282X
- OpenAlex
- W2109981236
- Cited by
- 1,372
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 84 · 2025: 69 · 2024: 85 · 2023: 90 · 2022: 79 · 2021: 91 · 2020: 91 · 2019: 85 · 2018: 85 · 2017: 75 · 2016: 73 · 2015: 81 · 2014: 79 · 2013: 66 · 2012: 67
- FWCI
- 18.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Human Relations (publishedVersion)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Leadership and Management in Organizations
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Keywords
- tone at the top, ethical leadership, top managers, transactional leadership, reward systems, organizational communication, social salience, vantage point, leadership perceptions, integrity, inspirational leadership
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