Stakeholder Orientation of Ethical Leadership: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

To date, ethical leadership studies have focused on leader follower relationships for accomplishment of organizational goals. This study, extends research by considering stakeholder perspective of ethical leadership and its importance in context of higher education. The purpose of this paper is to identify the dimensions of stakeholder oriented ethical leadership in universities. The theoretical underpinning for stakeholder-oriented perspective of ethical leaders emerges from stakeholder theory reflecting ethical behaviour of leaders to promote interests of stakeholders. This paper identifies the different stakeholder categories of university and behaviour of ethical leadership for these categories of stakeholders. Descriptive and qualitative exploratory research method fit the purpose of this paper. For this purpose, in depth interviews from 20 informants have been conducted in Central University of Rajasthan. This study combines literature review and data collected from interview to identify themes and subthemes for stakeholders of universities through qualitative analysis. The paper provides tools to education policy makers to effectively manage stakeholders of university through extended views of ethical leaders focused on leader stakeholder relationships.

Keywords: Ethical Leadership, Stakeholders, Stakeholder Orientation, Higher Education, Universities

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