Ethical leadership - What are the ways of implementing ethical leadership and what are the distractions that challenge leaders in their implementation?
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Date
2024
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Management and International Business (MIB)
Language
en
Pages
74+13
Series
Abstract
The topic of the thesis is ethical leadership. Ethics gives a guideline for people’s values and actions while allowing them to act correctly in decision-making and other activities for successful leadership. Ethical leadership is important because it supports psychological safety and continual learning at work. Ethical leadership has an impact on employees’ work attitudes and behavior and is associated with certain characteristics related to the implementation of ethical practices in an organisation. Sustainable development supports organisational learning. Ethical leadership is part of sustainable development and a learning organisation with the support of ethical leadership is favourable for developing and achieving the goals set for the organisation’s success. Recent research on sustainable leadership theory is limited. The topic should be further explored, considering how ethical leadership is linked to SME performance, especially in community-based organisations. The aim of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of leaders’ perspectives on ethical leadership and to find reasons why the implementation of ethical leadership is not always unambiguous. The study was conducted with qualitative research methods with a phenomenological approach. The approach of data analysis is data-driven content analysis. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, the aim of which was to find answers to the research questions. The research questions were related to the characteristics of ethical leadership, the ways of implementing them, and factors that possibly challenge ethical leadership. Ten interviewees participated in the study. In the time of the interviews the participants worked either as a leader or as a supervisor in different organisations of different sizes and industries. Their experiences in their current positions varied from one year to more than ten years. The results showed that, regardless of the industry, leaders believe that the ethical treatment of employees is strongly linked to the success of the organisation, for example when evaluating performance. On the other hand, someone may produce excellent results for an organisation, while still working in a way that is not ethically sustainable. Based on the results, implementing the features of ethical leadership is based on the shared values of the organisational strategy. The values of the organisation and the work community do not consider the values of individuals, but individuals are committed to following shared values, however, if individual values are socially sustainable regarding the leader and the personnel, they can be combined with the organisation's value base to guide daily operations. In addition, according to the interviews, different values are often intertwined, and challenges may arise from inside or outside the organisation that hinder the implementation of values and thus ethical leadership. In conclusion, ethical leadership has an important role in supporting employee satisfaction and the achievement of sustainable development, expected results and long-term success of the organisation.Description
Thesis advisor
Pälli, PekkaKeywords
ethical leadership, social sustainability, sustainable leadership, sustainable development goals, corporate social responsibility