Acting Ethically: The Experience of Top Leaders

This phenomenological study investigated the lived experience of acting ethically for top organizational leaders. The questioning of ethical behavior of top leaders has surfaced concerns regarding ethical leadership and trust in leaders in all types of organizations. However, little is known about how top leaders, who have a reputation for acting ethically, see themselves as acting in ethically challenging situations. In order to gain insight into this experience, eight top leaders from different organizational and social contexts engaged in in-depth conversational interviews to describe their experience of acting ethically. The criteria for selection of these leaders included their having been in a top leadership position for more than two years so that they had been challenged with ethical situations and their having a reputation (confirmed by two sources) for acting ethically. Through an analysis of the interview text, three essential themes emerged: (1) personifies espoused values; (2) builds relationships for harmony and purpose; and (3) works for mutually beneficial solutions. From the analysis of the essential themes, two models were constructed: the Ethical Leadership Values model that portrayed the top leaders' value system and the Ethical Action Leadership model that depicted six ethical leadership components and their interactions. Both the themes and the models provided clarity about values and behaviors important to acting ethically, and the importance of leaders living out their value system. The findings from the study provided insight into the ways top leaders saw themselves acting ethically, confirmed emerging research on ethical leadership, and supported the relevance of authentic and spiritual leadership concepts to top organizational leaders who lead and guide followers and work at solving ethically-challenging situations.

Through an analysis of the interview text, three essential themes emerged: (1) personifies espoused values; (2) builds relationships for harmony and purpose; and (3) works for mutually beneficial solutions.