Ethical leadership, ethical dilemmas and decision making among school administrators

Abstract

Ethical dilemmas are an inevitable element in decision making. For school organizations, the emergence of an ethical dilemma in decision making is almost a daily occurrence. The purpose of this research is to reveal the impact of ethical leadership on leaders’ decision making by comparing two samples of school administrators in the Israeli education system using the Ethical Leadership Questionnaire. The research questions were about the factors that influence ethical decision making. They were used to investigate whether or not personal characteristics have any influential role on ethical decision making and whether there are any differences between the two cultures that affect ethical decision making and the dimensions of ethical leadership. The results of this study revealed that ethical leadership and the moral behavior of school members have only positive effects on the evaluation and interpretation of social values, the better treatment of moral dilemmas and the enhancement of ethical decision making. Moreover, in both cases, high positive correlations were found with the variables ethic critique, sensitivity and culture, and the ethic of care. The dimensions of ethical leadership, and hence the ways ethical dilemmas are handled, present similarities between the two cultures.