An empirical and theoretical exploration of disconnections between leadership and ethics

Andrea Hornett, Susan Fredericks

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

A comparison of two groups of college students, at a public state university and a private religious school, yields the same results: undergraduates' interpretations of recent business scandals make distinctions between public and private behavior. Students admire "family men" even when they are caught at fraud. The students' interpretations illustrate a significant gap in ethical theories: the benefits of a group perspective for corporate citizenship versus individual family values. Most leadership theories, including stakeholder theories, do not address this disjunction. This article describes the phenomenon and maps the ethics literature to locate the dynamic forces underlying the empirical and theoretical disconnections between leadership and ethics.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)233-246
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Business Ethics
Volume59
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2005

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Business and International Management
  • General Business, Management and Accounting
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Law

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