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Ethical leadership scale provides new measurement tool for researchers

America's recent business scandals, such as Enron, Worldcom and Tyco, have sent business researchers back to their roots, looking for ways to better understand ethical leadership in the work place. Penn State Erie faculty member Michael E. Brown has opened the door to more in-depth research on ethical leadership with a paper published recently in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. "In light of the recent corporate scandals, there's a renewed call for ways to measure and determine the organizational factors that promote ethical leadership," said Brown, assistant professor of management in the Sam and Irene Black School of Business at Penn State Erie. "Over the past five years we've completed seven studies that, when viewed together, strengthen our belief that managers are ethical role models -- good or bad -- for their employees. Our research lays the groundwork for others to investigate ethical leadership in the work place."

As a result of studies conducted with top executives, middle-managers, supervisors, masters of business adminstration students and college seniors, Brown and two Penn State colleagues, Linda K. Trevino and David A. Harrison, created a tool, the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS), that can be used for measurement in future studies. The ELS includes 10 items that measure dimensions of ethical leadership including trustworthiness, fairness, demonstrating concern for employees, setting ethical standards and disciplining those who violate these standards, and modeling ethical behavior to employees.

"Our premise is that people take their cues on how to behave from people in power," said Brown, "so it's important that individuals in leadership positions (from top executives to front-line supervisors) be ethical. Employees come to organizations with varying knowledge of and commitment to ethical conduct. The culture surrounding an employee also will also affect his or her actions, and that influence will be even stronger if it's coming from the leader." He pointed out that formal ethics policies in an organization may differ from what a leader actually does, a situation that sets a bad example.

"Because ethical leadership results in a number of important outcomes, including satisfaction with the leader, job dedication and willingness to report problems to management, it's an important aspect of managing organizational behavior," said Brown. "By taking a social learning perspective and developing this Ethical Leadership Scale, we hope to build interest in further studies as well as assist organizations in their efforts to promote ethical conduct in the workplace."

Last Updated November 18, 2010

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