The Effect of Ethical Leadership on Employee‟s Virtuous Behavior – A Study of Marketing Agencies in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract

This study examined the effect of ethics-based leadership on employee virtuous-ethical behavior with an aim to improve the ethical behaviors among employees in the marketing agencies in Ho Chi Minh City. Qualitative method was applied and questionnaire survey was directly delivered to 283 respondents. This study argued that in order to increase employee virtuous-ethical behavior, marketing agencies should do the followings a) conduct the ethical course in their educational program, b) emphasize the people have ethically behavior and make them good examples the ethical behavior roles model, c) add the ethical codes and check if the leaders follow these codes. Besides, the empirical results showed that the employee virtuous-ethical behavior was directly affected by factors of ethical leadership, inspirational motivation, contingent reward ethical leadership, ethical promotion focus, and ethical prevention focus. In addition, the factors of ethical leadership and contingent reward ethical leadership indirectly affected employee virtuous-ethical behavior.

Role of Healthy Work Environments in Sustainability of Goal Achievement; Ethical Leadership, Intention to Sabotage, and Psychological Capital in Jordanian Universities

“…Brown et al [11] reported that little research has been done on the ethical dimension of leadership. While several styles of leadership have emerged (e.g., transformational and authentic leadership), most of the recent attention had been paid to ethical leadership as part of these styles, not as an independent style [9,10,[12][13][14]16]. Brown et al [11] constructed an instrument to assess ethical leadership and examine its predictive validity for significant staff results.…”

“…Many previous researchers empirically showed that employee positive ethical behavior was directly affected by factors of ethical leadership [9,[12][13][14]. This study attempted to further explore the possible relationship between ethical leadership and psychological capital.…”

“…Previous research showed that employees with higher self-esteem showed more of an effect from ethical leadership on their organizational behavior [13,55]. Khuong and Duc [13] investigated the factors of ethics-based leadership that affected employees' virtuous-ethical behavior.…”

“…It has also been defined as "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making" [11] (p. 120). It is considered to be "essential leadership behavior" [12] (p. 22).Many previous researchers have shown the importance of the effects of ethical leadership on attitudes, fostering positive behaviors [9,[12][13][14], followers' job satisfaction and dedication [11] (p. 117), fostering ethical behaviors in organizations and inspiring them [15], and decreasing deviant behavior [16][17][18][19][20].Brown and Treviño [16] proposed followers would show pro-social behavior increases and counterproductive and deviant behavior decreases in the presence of ethical leadership. Studies have so far focused on leadership behaviors, but have ignored the expectations of followers and the contextual environment [2], which have been taken into consideration in this study.Work and service sabotage is a major problem and is believed to be a source of other issues for organizations today.…”

“…Many previous researchers have shown the importance of the effects of ethical leadership on attitudes, fostering positive behaviors [9,[12][13][14], followers' job satisfaction and dedication [11] (p. 117), fostering ethical behaviors in organizations and inspiring them [15], and decreasing deviant behavior [16][17][18][19][20].…”