Key concepts of ethical leadership: A review of the literature
1 Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health and Care Sciences, University of West Attica, Egaleo Park, 12243 Athens, Greece.
2 Faculty of Health, Science, Social Care and Education, Kingston University, London KT2 7LB, UK.
3 Department of Business Administration and Tourism, School of Management and Economics Sciences, Hellenic Mediterranean University, 71410 Heraklion, Greece.
Review Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2024, 21(03), 2227–2232
Publication history:
Received on 12 February 2024; revised on 19 March 2024; accepted on 21 March 2024
Abstract:
Leadership styles are closely related to policy-making decisions and management of human resources. Services’ efficiency, organisational sustainability, quality improvement and staff retention are affected by the leadership practices and the specific attributes that leaders possess. Ethical leadership is valued for its components of moral excellence, authenticity and integrity. It is suitable for the development of staff and organization and has a positive influence on employees and service users. The aim of this review is to identify and synthesize the key concepts of ethical leadership as well as issues of practicing ethical leadership in the contemporary organisational and social contexts. A literature search was performed in PubMed and Google Scholar to identify studies published from 2014 to 2023. The keywords used were “ethical leadership”,“leadership styles”, and “ethical leaders”. Following the examination of the relevant literature, three main categories emerged, namely: a) Ethical leadership in the era of change, b) Key-elements of ethical leadership, and c) Preparing ethical leaders. The results highlighted that elements of ethical leadership are valued more in our contemporary era where ethical principles are strongly challenged in working and social environments. Development of ethical leaders is a priority for higher education institutions and for organisations that intend to promote ethical practices, value-driven employees and an ethical culture in their mission and philosophy.
Keywords:
Ethical leadership; Leadership styles; Ethical leader; Management; Organisation; Staff retention; Quality improvement
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Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0