Drawing on social learning and moral identity theories, this research examines antecedents
and consequences of ethical leadership. Additionally, this research empirically
examines the distinctiveness of the ethical leadership construct when compared
to related leadership constructs such as idealized influence, interpersonal justice, and
informational justice. Consistently with the theoretically derived hypotheses, results
from two studies of work units (n’s 115 and 195 units) provide general support for
our theoretical model. Study 1 shows positive relationships between ethical leadership
and leader “moral identity symbolization” and “moral identity internalization” (approaching
significance) and a negative relationship between ethical leadership and
unit unethical behavior and relationship conflict. In Study 2, both leader moral
identity symbolization and internalization were positively related to ethical leadership
and, with idealized influence, interpersonal justice, and informational justice controlled
for, ethical leadership was negatively related to unit outcomes. In both studies,
ethical leadership partially mediated the effects of leader moral identity.