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Research: Moral and Ethical Views on Leadership

The following links are some of our favorite research articles on the topic of moral and ethical views on leadership. Please share your favorites with us as well by either posting your favorites on our LinkedIn group, or by sending them to ppl@louisville.edu.


  1. Banks, G. C., McCauley, K. D., Gardner, W. L., & Guler, C. E. (2016). A meta-analytic review of authentic and transformational leadership: A test for redundancy. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(4), 634-652. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984316000163
  2. Brown, M. E., Treviño, L. K., & Harrison, D. A. (2005). Ethical Leadership: A Social Learning Perspective for Construct Development and Testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97(2), 117-134. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749597805000397
  3. Chen, Z., Zhu, J., & Zhou, M. (2015). How does a servant leader fuel the service fire? A multilevel model of servant leadership, individual self identity, group competition climate, and customer service performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(2), 511. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-43037-001
  4. Cianci, A. M., Hannah, S. T., Roberts, R. P., & Tsakumis, G. T. (2014). The effects of authentic leadership on followers’ ethical decision-making in the face of temptation: An experimental study. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(3), 581-594. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984313001549
  5. Crossan, M. M., Byrne, A., Seijts, G. H., Reno, M., Monzani, L., & Gandz, J. (2017). Toward a framework of leader character in organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 54(7), 986-1018. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joms.12254?casa_token=FHk55N_9M_gAAAAA%3AaIHh3aKI2jNR4aPo8orSVunbOU9uZKoGH6M1SnVCjidUZCSDgWZEdHb-4d-GCPZamvK_O-JzXQe97qk
  6. Greenleaf, R. K. (1982). The Servant as Leader. Indianapolis, IN: Robert K. Greenleaf Center. https://www.amazon.com/Servant-as-Leader-Robert-Greenleaf/dp/0982201222/ref=sr_1_3?crid=5YM47VDB2RO1&keywords=servant+as+leader+greenleaf&qid=1582922562&s=books&sprefix=servant+as+%2Cstripbooks%2C176&sr=1-3
  7. Hoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2018). Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A meta-analysis. Journal of Management, 44(2), 501-529. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0149206316665461?casa_token=nb6KI-GDLqYAAAAA%3A0fDojPUForJRJXPPqnLxUTWt-fIsAyP_NKTsipbqLyk-Qxjc-jVlyCyIPSti7oHO7HEbSC3lR9Zfpg
  8. Kwak, W. J., & Kim, H.-K. (2015). Servant leadership and customer service quality at Korean hotels: Multilevel organizational citizenship behavior as a mediator. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 43(8), 1287-1298. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/sbp/sbp/2015/00000043/00000008/art00006
  9. Lemoine, J. G., Hartnell, C. A. and Leroy, H. (2019). Taking Stock of Moral Approaches to Leadership: An Integrative Review of Ethical, Authentic, and Servant Leadership. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1): 148-187. https://journals.aom.org/doi/pdf/10.5465/annals.2016.0121
  10. Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Liao, C., & Meuser, J. D. (2014). Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5), 1434-1452. https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2013.0034
  11. Mayer, D. M., Kuenzi, M., Greenbaum, R., Bardes, M., & Salvador, R. B. (2009). How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108(1), 1-13. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749597808000551
  12. Palanski, M. E., Cullen, K. L., Gentry, W. A., & Nichols, C. M. (2015). Virtuous leadership: Exploring the effects of leader courage and behavioral integrity on leader performance and image. Journal of Business Ethics, 132(2), 297-310. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-014-2317-2
  13. Solinger, O. N., Jansen, P. G. W., & Cornelissen, J. (2019). The Emergence of Moral Leadership. Academy of Management Review, Forthcoming. https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amr.2016.0263
  14. Zhang, Y., Zhou, F., & Mao, J. (2018). Ethical Leadership and Follower Moral Actions: Investigating an Emotional Linkage. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1-11. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01881/full