Chapter 6: Is Values-Based Leadership Ethical Leadership?

Management scholars and practitioners have often equated values-based leadership with ethical leadership but we propose that these two constructs are distinct. In this chapter we review the social scientific literature on values-based leadership and find that values content and the values transmission process have been largely ignored. We also review the emerging ethical leadership literature. We observe that ethical leadership involves much more than transmitting a set of ethical values to followers. We discuss the overlaps and differences between these two constructs and provide suggestions for future research.