Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership
Abstract
Executives should not take a reputation for ethical leadership for granted. Based on interviews with senior executives and corporate ethics officers, this article reveals that a reputation for executive ethical leadership rests on two essential pillars: the executive's visibility as a moral person (based upon perceived traits, behaviors, and decision-making processes) and visibility as a moral manager (based upon role modeling, use of the reward system, and communication). Developing a reputation for ethical leadership pays dividends in reduced legal problems and increased employee commitment, satisfaction, and employee ethical conduct. The alternatives are the unethical leader, the hypocritical leader (who talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk), and the ethically neutral leader (who may be an ethical person, but employees don't know it because the leader has not made ethics and values an explicit part of the leadership agenda). The article also offers guidelines for cultivating a reputation for ethical leadership.
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Unlike the other approaches to moral leadership, ethical leaders use transactional discipline to reinforce norm-based expectations.
“Unlike the other approaches to moral leadership, ethical leaders use transactional discipline to reinforce norm-based expectations (Brown et al., 2005;Treviño et al., 2000).”
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., 2000
The ethical leader seeks to make duties and norms a salient part of the day-to-day mindset of followers through active attempts to institutionalize those norms as part of team cultures.
“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., 2000
Concern for stakeholders and interest in the greater good were mentioned in the development of ethical leadership but were not included in the formal ethical leadership construct.
“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., 2000
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Self-citationEthical leadership: A review and future directions
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Behavioral Ethics in Organizations: A Review
Treviño, L. K., Weaver, G. R., & Reynolds, S. J. (2006) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/0149206306294258 · Cited by 1,837 · see citing works
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Encouraging employees to report unethical conduct internally: It takes a village
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Does Ethical Leadership Motivate Followers to Participate in Delivering Compassion?
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- Authors
- Treviño, L. K., Hartman, L. P., & Brown, M.
- Venue
- California Management Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2000-07
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 128-142
- ISSN
- 0008-1256 (ISSN-L)
- 2162-8564
- OpenAlex
- W2071010852
- Cited by
- 1,341
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 78 · 2025: 82 · 2024: 78 · 2023: 83 · 2022: 79 · 2021: 91 · 2020: 86 · 2019: 69 · 2018: 78 · 2017: 87 · 2016: 66 · 2015: 65 · 2014: 55 · 2013: 61 · 2012: 55
- FWCI
- 14.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- California Management Review (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and 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 › Strategy and Management › Corporate Identity and Reputation
- Keywords
- ethical leadership, executive reputation, role modeling, reward systems, organizational communication, employee commitment, legal risk reduction, leadership development
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