Ethics and Leadership: Examining the Roles of Honesty and Integrity

Muhammad Nabil Aditama; Ratih Purbasari; Sam'un Jaja Raharja; Herwan Abdul Muhyi

doi:10.52300/jmso.v6i1.18138

Authors

Muhammad Nabil Aditama Universitas Padjadjaran
Ratih Purbasari Universitas Padjadjaran
Sam'un Jaja Raharja Universitas Padjadjaran
Herwan Abdul Muhyi Universitas Padjadjaran

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52300/jmso.v6i1.18138

Keywords:

Ethics, Honesty, Integrity, Leadership, Virtue

Abstract

Objective – This literature review aims to examine the importance of honesty and integrity in the practice and theories of leadership, and how both are fundamentally attached to the concept itself, particularly to the types of leadership that are characterized by the presence of ethics.
Design/Methodology/Approach – It is written to elaborate the existing literatures on this very topic in a systematic manner and to examine them thematically, creating an organized discussions on how the understanding of the correlation of those two qualities with leadership developed.
Findings – This paper elaborates on the very definition of leadership; how different perspectives may define the concept differently and how it shapes the practice of leadership itself. It highlights the gaps in previous theorization of transformational leadership and how it does not place heavy emphasis on moral values such as honesty and integrity. Furthermore, it explains the various perspectives on honesty and integrity and their connection to leadership, how the two qualities shape both the leader as the moral agent and the people or the organization as the extension of the given leader.
Implications – Integrity and Honesty are indeed fundamental to leadership and its overall practice and theorization.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Aristotle. (2009). Nicomachean ethics (D. Ross, Trans.; L. Brown, Ed.). Oxford University Press. (Original work published [ca. 350 BCE])

Abasilim, U. D. (2024). Exploring the concept of leadership. Humanities and Social Sciences Quarterly, 31(1), 7–32. https://doi.org/10.7862/rz.2024.hss.01

Badrinarayanan, V., Madhavaram, S., & Ramachandran, I. (2017). Mirroring the boss: Influence of ethical leadership on salesperson ethical behavior and performance. In A. Brem, É. Viardot, & P. Nylund (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th International Marketing Trends Conference (pp. 903–904). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45596-9_165

Becker, T. E. (1998). Integrity in organizations: Beyond honesty and conscientiousness. Academy of Management Review, 23(1), 154–161. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.192969

Bellucci, G., Park, S. Q., & Molter, F. (2019). Neural representations of honesty predict future trust behavior. Nature Communications, 10(1), Article 5251. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13261-8

Bojović, I., & Jovanović, S. (2020). Transformational leadership and psychological needs of employees. Technium Social Sciences Journal, 7(1), 226–235. https://doi.org/10.47577/tssj.v7i1.512

Bush, J. T., Welsh, D. T., Baer, M. D., & Waldman, D. (2020). Discouraging unethicality versus encouraging ethicality: Unraveling the differential effects of prevention- and promotion-focused ethical leadership. Personnel Psychology, 74(1), 29–54. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12386

Cleary, M., & Horsfall, J. (2013). Integrity and mental health nursing: Factors to consider. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 34(9), 673–677. https://doi.org/10.3109/01612840.2013.794179

Cox, D., La Caze, M., & Levine, M. (2021). Integrity. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2021 ed.). Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2021/entries/integrity/

Das Neves, J. C., & Vaccaro, A. (2013). Corporate transparency: A perspective from Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(4), 639–648. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1682-6

Effelsberg, D., Solga, M., & Gurt, J. (2013). Transformational leadership and followers’ unethical behavior for the benefit of the company: A two-study investigation. Journal of Business Ethics, 120(1), 81–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1644-z

Ganguly, S., & Pandey, N. (2024). Deployment of AI tools and technologies on academic integrity and research. Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics, 15(2), 28–32. https://doi.org/10.62865/bjbio.v15i2.122

Gottlieb, J. Z., & Sanzgiri, J. (1996). Towards an ethical dimension of decision-making in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 15(12), 1275–1285. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00411813

Hannah, S. T., Lester, P. B., & Vogelgesang, G. R. (2005). Moral leadership: Explicating the moral component of authentic leadership. In W. L. Gardner, B. J. Avolio, & F. O. Walumbwa (Eds.), Authentic leadership theory and practice: Origins, effects and development (pp. 43–81). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3571(05)03002-9

Hattke, F., & Hattke, J. (2019). Lead by example? The dissemination of ethical values through authentic leader inspiration. International Journal of Public Leadership, 15(4), 224–237. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpl-06-2019-0034

Holtug, N. (2021). Social cohesion and identity. In Social cohesion and identity (pp. 45–79). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198797043.003.0003

Kannan-Narasimhan, R., & Lawrence, B. S. (2012). Behavioral integrity: How leader referents and trust matter to workplace outcomes. Journal of Business Ethics, 111(2), 165–178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1199-9

Liu, T. Q., & Stening, B. W. (2015). The contextualization and de-contextualization of Confucian morality: Making Confucianism relevant to China’s contemporary challenges in business ethics. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 33(3), 821–841. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-015-9415-2

Mehrotra, S., Jorge, C. C., Jonker, C. M., & Tielman, M. L. (2024). Integrity-based explanations for fostering appropriate trust in AI agents. ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems, 14(1), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1145/3610578

Miao, Q., Newman, A., Eva, N., Nielsen, I., & Herbert, K. (2019). Ethical leadership and unethical pro-organisational behaviour: The mediating mechanism of reflective moral attentiveness. Applied Psychology, 69(3), 834–853. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12210

Mihelič, K. K., Lipičnik, B., & Tekavčič, M. (2010). Ethical leadership. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (IJMIS, 14(5), Article 11. https://doi.org/10.19030/ijmis.v14i5.11

Miller, C. B. (2021). Honesty. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197567494.001.0001

Mohi Ud Din, Q., & Zhang, L. (2023). Unveiling the Mechanisms through Which Leader Integrity Shapes Ethical Leadership Behavior: Theory of Planned Behavior Perspective. Behavioral Sciences, 13(11), 928. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13110928

Palanski, M. E., & Yammarino, F. J. (2009). Integrity and leadership: A multi-level conceptual framework. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(3), 405–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.03.008

Palanski, M. E., Cullen, K. L., Gentry, W. A., & Nichols, C. M. (2014). Virtuous leadership: Exploring the effects of leader courage and behavioral integrity on leader performance and image. Journal of Business Ethics, 123(2), 203–223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2317-2

Parry, K. W., & Proctor-Thomson, S. B. (2002). Perceived integrity of transformational leaders in organisational settings. Journal of Business Ethics, 35(2), 75–96. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013077109223

Peterson, M. F., & Sorenson, R. L. (1991). Cognitive processes in leadership: Interpreting and handling events in an organizational context. Annals of the International Communication Association, 14(1), 501–534. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.1991.11678805

Pratch, L. S. (2014). Integrity (pp. 80–108). Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/columbia/9780231168366.003.0006

Reynolds, C. J., Jayawickreme, E., Furr, R. M., & Stokes, E. (2023). Truthfulness predominates in Americans’ conceptualizations of honesty: A prototype analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231195355

Rhode, D. L. (Ed.). (2006). Moral leadership: The theory and practice of power, judgment, and policy. Jossey-Bass.

Roberts, R. C., & West, R. (2020). The virtue of honesty (pp. 97–126). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190666026.003.0004

Tang, K. N. (2019). Leadership styles and organizational effectiveness (pp. 11–25). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8902-3_2

Westover, J. (2024). Building trust and loyalty in the workplace. Human Capital Leadership Review, 13(1), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.13.1.6

White, D. W., & Lean, E. (2007). The impact of perceived leader integrity on subordinates in a work team environment. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(4), 765–778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9546-6

Wiltshire, J., Bourdage, J. S., & Lee, K. (2013). Honesty-humility and perceptions of organizational politics in predicting workplace outcomes. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(2), 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-013-9310-0

Yusup, M. (2022). The concept of leadership in traditional and modern. Indonesian Journal of Education (INJOE, 2(1), 41–49. https://doi.org/10.54443/injoe.v2i1.9