IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-05009371.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Leadership and business ethics: A conceptual framework for responsible management

Author

Listed:
  • Billel Ferhani

    (SUAD_SAFIR - SUAD - Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, PRISM Sorbonne - Pôle de recherche interdisciplinaire en sciences du management - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, SUAD - Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi)

Abstract

Ethical leadership has emerged as a fundamental determinant of corporate governance and sustainable organizational practices, necessitating a deeper examination of its strategic dimensions. This paper explores the intersection of leadership and business ethics, proposing a conceptual framework for responsible management. Despite the extensive scholarship on ethical leadership, a critical gap persists in understanding the extent to which strategic leadership incorporates ethical considerations into decision-making processes. By identifying and analyzing various leadership styles within an ethical framework, this study elucidates both the convergences and divergences across these approaches. Through a synthesis of theoretical perspectives, this paper advances a structured approach to embedding ethics within leadership paradigms. The findings contribute to the academic discourse by offering a strategic framework that integrates ethical leadership with corporate governance and long-term organizational performance. Additionally, this study provides practical insights for business leaders seeking to cultivate ethical organizational cultures while maintaining competitive advantage. By bridging theoretical constructs with managerial applications, this research enhances both scholarly inquiry and business practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Billel Ferhani, 2025. "Leadership and business ethics: A conceptual framework for responsible management," Post-Print hal-05009371, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05009371
    DOI: 10.22495/cocv22i1art9
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05009371v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-05009371v1/document
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22495/cocv22i1art9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Akanksha Bedi & Can M. Alpaslan & Sandy Green, 2016. "A Meta-analytic Review of Ethical Leadership Outcomes and Moderators," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 517-536, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kurt T. Dirks & Patrick J. Sweeney & Nikolaos Dimotakis & Todd Woodruff, 2022. "Understanding the Change and Development of Trust and the Implications for New Leaders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 711-730, October.
    2. Kaili Zhang & Bin Zhao & Kui Yin, 2024. "When Leaders Acknowledge Their Own Errors, Will Employees Follow Suit? A Social Learning Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(2), pages 403-421, January.
    3. Robert Cialdini & Yexin Jessica Li & Adriana Samper & Ned Wellman, 2021. "How Bad Apples Promote Bad Barrels: Unethical Leader Behavior and the Selective Attrition Effect," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(4), pages 861-880, February.
    4. Albérico Travassos Rosário & Anna Carolina Boechat, 2025. "How Sustainable Leadership Can Leverage Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-27, April.
    5. Liden, Robert C. & Wang, Xing & Wang, Yue, 2025. "The evolution of leadership: Past insights, present trends, and future directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    6. Charles H. Schwepker & Sean R. Valentine & Robert A. Giacalone & Mark Promislo, 2021. "Good Barrels Yield Healthy Apples: Organizational Ethics as a Mechanism for Mitigating Work-Related Stress and Promoting Employee Well-Being," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 143-159, November.
    7. Muel Kaptein, 2019. "The Moral Entrepreneur: A New Component of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 1135-1150, June.
    8. Guillem C. Cabana & Muel Kaptein, 2021. "Team Ethical Cultures Within an Organization: A Differentiation Perspective on Their Existence and Relevance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 761-780, May.
    9. Mushtaq Ahmed & Muhammad Ishfaq Khan, 2024. "Unpacking the paradoxical impact of ethical leadership on employees’ pro-social rule-breaking behavior: The interplay of employees’ psychological capital and moral identity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(8), pages 1-25, August.
    10. Alex C. Diambrang, Jr., 2024. "Structural Equation Model on Workplace Well-Being of Workers in the Contexts of Self-Efficacy at Work, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Ethical Leadership of Supervisors," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(11), pages 1595-1648, November.
    11. Kalra, Ashish & Briggs, Elten & Schrock, Wyatt, 2023. "Exploring the synergistic role of ethical leadership and sales control systems on salesperson social media use and sales performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    12. Maria Saleem & Faisal Qadeer & Faisal Mahmood & Antonio Ariza-Montes & Heesup Han, 2020. "Ethical Leadership and Employee Green Behavior: A Multilevel Moderated Mediation Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-16, April.
    13. Islam, Asadul & Lee, Wang-Sheng & Triyana, Margaret & Xia, Xing, 2023. "Improving Health and Safety in the Informal Sector: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Bangladesh," IZA Discussion Papers 16150, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Millissa F. Y. Cheung & W. M. To, 2021. "The Effect of Consumer Perceptions of the Ethics of Retailers on Purchase Behavior and Word-of-Mouth: The Moderating Role of Ethical Beliefs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 771-788, July.
    15. Nathan Eva & Alexander Newman & Qing Miao & Dan Wang & Brian Cooper, 2020. "Antecedents of Duty Orientation and Follower Work Behavior: The Interactive Effects of Perceived Organizational Support and Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(3), pages 627-639, January.
    16. Junghyun Lee & Se-Hyung Oh & Sanghee Park, 2022. "Effects of Organizational Embeddedness on Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior: Roles of Perceived Status and Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 111-125, February.
    17. Shirel Damti & Guy Hochman, 2022. "Personality Characteristics as Predictors of the Leader’s Ethical Leadership in Regular Times and in Times of Crisis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-17, August.
    18. Byung-Jik Kim & Min-Jik Kim & Julak Lee, 2024. "Code green: ethical leadership’s role in reconciling AI-induced job insecurity with pro-environmental behavior in the digital workplace," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.
    19. Tuan, Luu Trong & Ngan, Vu Thanh, 2021. "Leading ethically to shape service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior among tourism salespersons: Dual mediation paths and moderating role of service role identity," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    20. Ahmed Mohammed Sayed Mostafa & Sam Farley & Monica Zaharie, 2021. "Examining the Boundaries of Ethical Leadership: The Harmful Effect of Co-worker Social Undermining on Disengagement and Employee Attitudes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 355-368, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05009371. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.