Chapter 4: Employee-Centered Ethical Leadership

Employee-centered ethical leadership involves participation and communication in ethical decision-making between leaders and followers. The key to employees’ participation in improving ethics relates directly to their engagement with leaders in an organizational structure that values transparency and openness. The ability for employees to identify issues, ask questions, and support the values and principles of the organizational culture provides major organizational benefits. Ethical leadership requires both character and competence of managers and employees. This chapter provides significant evidence that ethical leadership involves social learning, leadership–follower exchanges, two-way communication, and the recognition that employee participation in ethical decision making is important in managing positive organizational outcomes.