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Ethical Leadership in South Africa and Botswana

Author

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  • Cheteni, Priviledge
  • Shindika, Emmanuel

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the extent of ethical leadership practices in African public utilities, given the relatively high corruption reported in its institutions, with consequences of seriously constrained development of the national economy and significant hindrance to good governance. Our aim was to establish potential benefits from ethical leadership in public sector agencies, by analysing ethical leadership characteristics of leaders in the public sector from Botswana and South Africa. We measured ethical leadership perceptions utilizing a combination of scales in an attempt to encompass the larger breadth of ethical leadership scales in literature, to determine how employees perceived their managers in terms of being moral people and moral managers. A total of 108 respondents completed questionnaires. Results indicate that there were significant differences between the perceptions of managers’ moral conduct. South African leaders were perceived as relatively weaker moral managers as compared to those in Botswana.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheteni, Priviledge & Shindika, Emmanuel, 2016. "Ethical Leadership in South Africa and Botswana," MPRA Paper 80968, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Mar 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:80968
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. F. K. L. Kgobe & K. R. Chauke, 2021. "Ethical leadership and public accountability: Problematiques of South Africa's State-Owned Enterprises," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 26(1), pages 43-53, Decembrie.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; Corruption; Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS); Managers; Moral;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations
    • M0 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - General

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