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Interest in leadership ethics began in the late twentieth century, particularly because of the many scandals in corporate organizations and the political realm.

“The misery caused by unethical leaders drives home an important point: Ethics is at the heart of leadership” (Johnson, 2012, xviii). People realized that leaders have the ethical responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect.

Concurrently, there was a recognition of the need to establish an ethical climate for the benefit of organizations and society. Writings on leadership ethics began to appear in 1996. A set of working papers written by a small group of scholars was collected by W.K. Kellogg. These scholars examined how the introduction of the ethical dimension to leadership theory and practice could be used to build a more caring and just society (Northouse, 2013, 423).

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1.5.2.1 Characteristics of Ethical Leadership

Brown and Trevino recognized the value of the research done by Den Hartog, Kirkpatrick, Kouzes and Posner, and several others, whose research proved that leader’s personal traits, such as integrity, honesty and trustworthiness are closely related with perceived leadership effectiveness. Another discovery by researchers was in the area of cognitive trust. This explored the exercise of care in work, being professional, dependable, and how these contribute to effective styles of leadership (Brown and Trevino, 2006, 596).

Building on this work, Trevino and colleagues conducted exploratory research designed to further understand ethical leadership. They identified a number of characteristics: “Ethical leaders were thought to be honest and trustworthy.

Beyond that, ethical leaders were seen as fair and principled decision-makers who care about people and the broader society, and who behave ethically in their personal and professional lives” (Brown and Trevino, 2006, 597). These characteristics were labelled as the ‘moral person aspect’ of ethical leadership, representing the leader's personal traits, character, and altruistic motivation. In addition, Johnson identified four virtues of ethical leadership: courage, prudence, optimism and integrity (Johnson, 2012, 80). Theses virtues are woven into the inner life, and shape the way leaders see and behave. Being virtuous, makes them sensitive to ethical issues and encourages them to act morally (Johnson, 2012, 80).

Trevino and colleagues also discovered what they called the ‘moral manager dimension’. “This aspect of ethical leadership represents the leader's proactive efforts to influence followers' ethical and unethical behaviour” (Brown and Trevino, 2006, 597). Moral managers make ethics an explicit part of their leadership agenda. They communicate clearly to followers the ethics and values they uphold by visibly and intentionally role-modelling ethical behaviour and by using rewards and discipline to hold followers accountable for ethical conduct (Brown and Trevino, 2006, 597). “Such explicit behaviour helps the ethical leader to make ethics a leadership message that gets followers’ attention by standing out

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as socially salient against an organizational backdrop that is often ethically neutral at best” (Treviño et al., 2000, 2003; Brown and Trevino, 2006, 597).

1.5.2.2 Definition of Ethical Leadership

Brown and colleagues defined ethical leadership as ‘‘the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement and decision-making’’ (Brown and colleagues, 2005, 120). They also developed a ten-item instrument to measure perceptions of ethical leadership, the Ethical Leadership Scale (Brown and Trevino, 2006, 597).

They then conducted multiple construct validation studies, finding that:

Supervisory ethical leadership was positively associated with, yet empirically distinct from leader consideration, interactional fairness, leader honesty, as well as the idealized influence dimension of transformational leadership (Bass &

Avolio, 2000). Ethical leadership is also positively related to affective trust in the leader and negatively related to abusive supervision, but it is unrelated to either rater demographics or perceived demographic similarity between leader and subordinate. Perhaps most importantly, subordinates’ perceptions of ethical leadership predict satisfaction with the leader, perceived leader effectiveness, willingness to exert extra effort on the job, and willingness to report problems to management (Brown and Trevino, 2006, 597).

Brown and colleagues suggest that ethical leaders are characterized as honest, caring, and principled individuals who make fair and balanced decisions. They communicate with their followers about ethics, set clear ethical standards and use rewards and punishments to make sure those standards are followed. Most importantly, ethical leaders do not just talk a good game - they walk the talk, and are proactive role models for ethical conduct (Brown and Trevino, 2006, 597).

1.5.2.3 Orientations of Ethical Leadership

Based on the works mentioned above, Eisenbeiss took an interdisciplinary integrative approach to ethical leadership and, drawing on ancient and modern Western and Eastern moral philosophies and world religions, identified four ethical principles he believed to be the central to ethical leadership. “These orientations reflect a cross-disciplinary and intercultural view of the normative foundation of ethical leadership and consider both the leadership components of

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setting goals and influencing others” (Eisenbeiss, 2012, 794). The four central orientations of ethical leadership are as follows:

Humane orientation means to treat others with dignity and respect, and to see them as ends not as means. It is expressed by the leader’s recognition of the rights of others, and by compassion and concern for the well-being of people (Eisenbeiss, 2012, 795). This mirrors the fundamental ethical principle of respect for the dignity and human rights of people and expressions compassion, charity, and altruism. These reflect the thinking of different philosophers and world religions (Eisenbeiss, 2012, 795).

Justice Orientation refers to making fair and consistent decisions and not discriminating against others (Eisenbeiss, 2012, 796). Leventhal and colleagues suggest that for a leader to be perceived as fair, “procedures have to be applied consistently regarding people and time, to be non-biased by any third party's interest, and to include gathering and employing accurate information”

(Eisenbeiss, 2012, 796). Justice orientation is “expressed by leaders’ consistent decision making, respect for diversity, and non-discriminatory treatment of others with regard to sexual differences, nationality, religion, political beliefs, economic or social status” (Eisenbeiss, 2012, 796).

Responsibility and Sustainability Orientation refers to “leaders’ long-term views on success and their concern for the welfare of society and the environment”

(Eisenbeiss, 2012, 797). It is reflected in a leader’s sense of responsibility to the surroundings, including the larger society and the environment (Kolshoven, 2011, 53). It is often expressed by acting beyond self-interest, and focusing on organizational performance and decision-making that will have a good impact on the larger society and the natural environment; they take into consideration the interests and needs of future generations (Kolshoven, 2011, 53; Eisenbeiss, 2012, 797).

Moderation Orientation refers to “temperance and humility and balanced leader behaviour” (Eisenbeiss, 2012, 796). This is demonstrated by self-control of emotions, personal desires, expressed in humility, and wise attempts to find a

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balance between organizational objectives and stakeholder interests. For example, finding balance between financial profit and socially responsible investment, between short-term and long-term objectives, between organizational and team interests (Eisenbeiss, 2012, 796).

Ethical leadership emphasizes that what we need is organizational leaders with character and good moral behaviour, who are honest, trustworthy, fair, principled decision-makers who care about people, the larger society and the environment.

Although several scholars have done empirical research in the area of ethical leadership, and discovered its characteristics and orientations, ethical leadership is still in its early stages of development and open to future research.