If agency is understood as the capacity for acting on behalf of others, then moral
agency is conceived as a person’s ability or capacity to perform as agent in a moral
way. Moral agency is a person’s ability to make moral judgments based on some commonly
held notion of right and wrong, to do so on behalf of others, and to be held
accountable for these actions (Angus, 2003). Moral agency requires that a leader’s
ways and means be consistent with what is seen as ethical or virtuous living.
Therefore, school principals who act as moral agents have given attention to their
own development of moral character, have taken on the responsibility of following
the principles of ethics, have committed to ethical care for others, and have a sense
of stewardship of others or of a principal cause (Hester & Killian, 2011, p. 96).