Ethical Leadership: Need for Cross-Cultural Examinations

Open Access

Abstract

This study examined the difference in perceptions among college students on ethical leadership. Ethical leadership has become an increasingly important business issue as corruptions and scandals grow in the 21st century. Unethical leadership has been known to cause major embarrassment for institutions from government to business, and is not a well-researched area among leadership researchers. The procedure included creating an online survey based on the GLOBE study, which examined the Character/Integrity, Altruism, Collective Motivation, and Encouragement aspects of ethical leadership. This online survey was than assessed to students from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Students were recruited from a large mid-western university. Findings suggest that ethical leadership is perceived differently by certain cultural groups, showing how viewpoints may conflict on what is considered ethical or not by various peoples around the world. Major findings support that students of European heritage differed in their viewpoints on Character/Integrity and Encouragement from non-European students. Latin students did not differ significantly from non-Latin students on Collective Motivation . Students of Asian heritage differed in viewpoints on Altruism from non-Asian students.