پژوهشهای مدیریت عمومی (May 2023)
Explanation Ethical Leadership Components in Islamic Republic of Iran's Defense Industry Organization with a Qualitative Approach
Abstract
AbstractThe purpose of the present study is to introduce those characteristics of ethical leaders. This research uses an interpretive philosophy, a qualitative approach, and a grounded strategy based on Glaser’s emergent approach. The study population was the Defense Industries Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In addition, comprehensive interviews were conducted with 22 senior and ethical managers of the organization who were knowledgeable about the components and characteristics of ethical leaders. The sampling method was based on snowball sampling. Since the data were collected using interview method, the data analysis method was based on the Glaser’s coding method, and the results of interview analysis and coding in two stages of actual and theoretical coding showed that ethical leadership components included religiosity, ethical personality, being revolutionary and having analytical insights. Each of these components comprises categories that totaled 4 components, 43 categories, and 698 concepts. Overall, considering the ethical leadership components in this indigenous study, ethical leaders in this organization have characteristics that encourage Defense Industries Organization executives to achieve these benchmarks to cope with enemy threats as well as international and economic constraints and attain organizational excellence as well as modernization and transformation in the organization so that they can drive organization employees toward organizational goals with better motivation and more efforts.IntroductionEthics and ethical leadership is one of the topics that has always been of interest to individuals and organizations and has recently been extensively studied and researched as an interesting topic (Laajalahti, 2018). The abundance of research in this area is evidence of the importance of ethics (Maroto-Sánchez, 2012). On the other hand, one of the issues that has been the concern of organizations and researchers for the past four decades is leadership styles. It is also important for government and government agencies to examine the issue of organizational ethics (Joseph et al., 2009), because research results indicate that the weakness of organizational ethics will reduce the sense of responsibility in the organization, reduce productivity, increase organizational costs and lead to the spread of unethical behavior in the organization (Duh et al., 2010). Therefore, due to the importance of ethical issues in the workplace (Caza et al., 2004), ethics has become an essential element in organizations (Trevino & Nelson, 2016), because ethical leadership can influence the formation of an ethical environment in an organization, which in turn affects and reduces deviant behavior in the workplace.Theoretical frameworkExperts and scholars have examined the term leadership from various perspectives and provided various definitions of it. Mohammed et al. (2014: 89) consider the leadership as an essential and dynamic element of employee satisfaction and organizational performance that is seen as an important issue in employee job satisfaction and as a critical factor for organizational success. Ho et al. (H2016: 160) define leadership as a process of social effectiveness through which the leader seeks to create a voluntary participation of followers to achieve the organization's interests and goals. Some others have also identified the leader as a determinative, motivating, driving, mobilizing, influential person for followers to make them perform their tasks to achieve specific organizational goals (Elbaz & Haddoud, 2017).Ethical leadership, through demonstrating ethical behavior and consequently the development of ethical behavior, leads to commitment in followers (Caldwell, 2017). Ethical leadership was conceptualized by Brown, Treviño, and Harrison (Brow, et al., 2005) as follows: demonstrating normative appropriate behavior through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and promoting such behavior for followers through empowerment, decision making, and two-way communication. Kalahan (1998) also provide a definition of theoretical normative ethics, especially virtue ethics, which focuses on the actions and practices of ethical factors, which is in line with the definition of Brown et al. (2005). The definition of ethical leadership provided by Brown, Treviño, and Harrison (Brown et al., 2005) has been accepted as the benchmark definition and has therefore been used by subsequent researchers (Brown & Treviño, 2014; Neubert et al., 2009; Piccolo et al., 2010; Stouten et al., 2012).Materials and MethodsThis research uses an interpretive philosophy, a qualitative approach, and a grounded strategy with an emergent approach, and its analysis method is based on the Glaser’s coding approach. Trustworthiness of the findings (validity and reliability) of the research was also assessed through four criteria of Guba and Lincoln that included validity, transferability, reliability, and verifiability.According to the examinations by the researchers of this study in relation to the interrelations between the concepts, it seems that in this study, the "dimensions" family in the emergent approach may best combine concepts and categories. The model of this study is embedded in the “dimension coding family”. As mentioned, the components of ethical leadership include 4 components, 43 categories, and 698 codes or concepts. The first component is religiosity, the second one is ethical personality, the third is to be revolutionary, and the last one is to have analytical insights.Case StudyThe study population is the Defense Industries Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact, the study population consisted of the employees and experts of the Defense Industries Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran who had theoretical and practical knowledge of the subject matter and had sufficient dominance over the examined phenomenon and had experienced ethical leadership.ConclusionEthical leadership generally consists of the components that efforts are made to achieve them. These components are in the form of traits that moral leaders possess. However, these components do not exist in all ethical leaders, but an ethical leader must possess all these components to necessarily and sufficiently benefit from these qualities, otherwise he may not fully implement ethical leadership. However, some traits per se enable one to become an ethical leader. For example, the religiosity feature can improve other features.Another component of ethical leadership is ethical character. Consistent with the results of this study, one author described the dimensions of ethical leadership as honesty, compassion, and fairness (Karami et al., 2016). Kalshoven (2011) also consider some aspects of ethical leadership as fairness, honesty, ethical guidance, democracy, and power sharing.Other characteristics of ethical leaders include being revolutionary and having analytical insights. A revolutionary leader puts the values of the revolution at the forefront. With the insight and vision gained through his competencies, this leader can make the best decisions at the right time and properly guide employees and the organization as a leading person.
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