Structural Model of Categories Influencing the Design of an Ethical Leadership Model with Emphasis on Managers of Educational Organizations
Keywords:
Ethics, Ethical Leadership, Educational OrganizationsAbstract
Ethical leadership plays a significant and fundamental role in organizations and exerts profound and extensive effects on organizational culture, performance, and interpersonal relationships. Today, the influence of ethical leadership on various dimensions of organizational performance and employee behavior is undeniable. It should also be noted that ethical dilemmas constitute an inevitable element of managerial decision-making processes. Therefore, ethical leadership represents a fundamental organizational necessity, and attention to it is considered an essential requirement for organizational growth and development, particularly for organizations that prioritize continuous improvement and advancement. Ethical leadership is effectively realized within an organization when it is first implemented at the upper managerial levels, thereby encouraging subordinates to adhere to ethical leadership principles. The present study was conducted to examine and test a structural model of the categories influencing the design of an ethical leadership model for managers of educational organizations. In terms of purpose, the research is applied, and methodologically it adopts a quantitative approach with an exploratory design. Within this framework, the existing conditions were examined using a descriptive survey method. The statistical population consisted of managers of educational organizations in Tehran. Based on Cochran’s formula, a sample size of 252 participants was determined, and sampling was conducted using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Model fit results obtained through AMOS and PLS software indicated that convergent validity was confirmed, and reliability was calculated and verified using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The examined structural model demonstrated satisfactory goodness of fit. Furthermore, the findings revealed that among contextual conditions, only contextual and intervening factors had a significant direct effect on interactional factors, whereas causal factors did not have a significant effect on interactional factors. In addition, the indirect effect of causal factors on outcome factors was not significant, while the indirect effects of intervening and contextual factors on outcome factors were statistically significant.
Downloads
References
1. Ahmad I, Gao Y, Hali SM. A review of ethical leadership and other ethics-related leadership theories. European Scientific Journal. 2017;13(29):10-23. doi: 10.19044/esj.2017.v13n29p10.
2. Zangiabadi Nasirzadeh F. The Impact of Ethical Leadership Style on Reducing Dark Personality Traits of Individuals Involved in Earnings Management. Journal of Accounting Knowledge. 2022.
3. Neves P, Almeida P, Velez MJ. Reducing intentions to resist future change: Combined effects of commitment‐based HR practices and ethical leadership. Human Resource Management. 2018;57(1):249-61. doi: 10.1002/hrm.21830.
4. Arokiasamy ARA, Maheshwari G, Nguyen KL. The Influence of Ethical and Transformational Leadership on Employee Creativity in Malaysia's Private Higher Education Institutions: The Mediating Role of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour. Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management. 2022;17:001-33. doi: 10.28945/4896.
5. Jafari H, Shirzadkebria B. The Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Teachers' Job Performance and Self-Efficacy (Case Study: Junior High School Teachers in District 9 of Education in Tehran). Journal of Educational Management Innovations. 2022:17-29.
6. Salehnia M. The Effect of Ethical Leadership on Organizational Ethical Climate. Quarterly Journal of Ethics in Science and Technology. 2012;7(2):1-13.
7. Ghalavandi H, Kabiri A, Soltanzadeh V. The Relationship between Social Responsibility and Teamwork among Urmia University Employees. Journal of Applied Sociology. 2014;25(1):111-20.
8. Martin K, Cullen J. Continuities and Extensions of Ethical Climate Theory: A Meta-Analytic Review. Journal of Business Ethics. 2016;69(2):175-94. doi: 10.1007/s10551-006-9084-7.
9. Shapira O, Rosenblatt Z. School ethical climate and teacher's voluntary absence. Journal of Educational Administration. 2010;48(2):164-81. doi: 10.1108/09578231011027833.
10. Rabbi A, Khan R, Ahmed S. Ethical leadership and affective organizational commitment: The mediating role of ethical climate. Journal of Business Ethics. 2025;197(3):551-68.
11. Ali SH. The Moderating Effect of Ethical Leadership between Psychological Ownership of Knowledge and Knowledge Hiding: An Empirical Study on the Public Universities in Northern Iraq. Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica. 2021;30(2):178.
12. Mohebbifar R, Bakhshian M, Rafiei S. The Effect of Organizational Reward on Employee Performance with the Mediating Role of Motivation in Teaching Hospitals of Qazvin. Scientific Quarterly Journal of Health-Oriented Research. 2016;2(3):223-32.
13. Abbasi Akhgari NVB, Fakhrosadat. Investigating the Relationship between Ethical Leadership Style and Organizational Transparency with Organizational Agility. Quarterly Journal of Ethics in Science and Technology. 2019;16(4):172-5.
14. Setiawan A. Ethical Decision-Making in Educational Leadership: Insights From Islamic Scholars. Edu Spectrum. 2024;1(1):15-27. doi: 10.70063/eduspectrum.v1i1.29.
15. Stansberry Beard K. Sensemaking and engagement in ethical decision-making (SEED): A United States decision-making framework for educational administration and school leadership. Educational Management Administration & Leadership. 2025. doi: 10.1177/17411432241309749.
16. Rao S. Servant Leadership: A Pathway to Ethical and Effective Organizational Leadership. Innovapath. 2025;1(3):5. doi: 10.63501/v0gjhe26.
17. Mohammadi H, Islampanah M, Karam Afrooz MJ, Malkian F. Presenting a Futuristic Leadership Model in the Education Organization Emphasizing an Ethical Approach. Ethics in Science and Technology. 2024;19(4):213-8.
18. Mohammadi Komroudi MJ, Ahmadi M, Farhadi Mahalli A. Designing an Ethically-Oriented Management Model for Employee Education Development in Higher Education Using Grounded Theory (Case Study: Free Universities of Mazandaran Province). Iranian Journal of Educational Sociology. 2024;7(2):114-23. doi: 10.61838/kman.ijes.7.2.14.
19. Keshtegar Nastizayi N. The Impact of Ethical Leadership on Purposeful Organizational Forgetting with the Mediating Role of Organizational Learning. Quarterly Journal of Organizational Knowledge Management. 2021;3(11):171-211.
20. Younesifar M, Teymouri H, Esfahani AN. Designing a Dynamic Organizational Training Model with a Mixed Approach. Journal of Teaching and Learning Research. 2022;19(1):103-16.
21. Amini-Bagh A, Salimi J. Explaining the Dimensions and Components of Ethical Leadership in Schools with a Meta-Synthesis Approach. Journal of New Advances in Educational Management. 2025;6(1):1-23.
22. Sheikhabadi I, Bagheri M, Jahed H. Identifying the Supervisory Components of Instructional and Educational Leaders of Primary Schools in order to Providing a Comprehensive Pattern for Iran's Government Education. Sociology of Education. 2024;10(1):295-304. doi: 10.22034/ijes.2023.2008390.1446.
23. Nwafor RN, Okoye FO. Relationship between principals' ethical leadership behavior and school organizational climate in public secondary schools in Anambra State. UNIZIK Journal of Educational Research and Policy Studies. 2024;17(1):58-67.
24. Park S, Kim J, Lee H. Longitudinal effects of servant leadership on ethical and legal responsibility dimensions: A three-year follow-up study. Journal of Educational Administration. 2024;62(3):345-67. doi: 10.1108/JEA-11-2023-0214.
25. Shafei R, Azizi N. A Study of Organizational Social Responsibility in Universities and Higher Education Centers of Western Iran (Designing an Evaluation Model). Quarterly Journal of Organizational Behavior in Education. 2013;1(2):5-22.
26. Hansen SD, Alge BJ, Brown ME, Jackson CL, Dunford BB. Ethical leadership: Assessing the value of a multifoci social exchange perspective. Journal of Business Ethics. 2013;115:435-49. doi: 10.1007/s10551-012-1408-1.
27. Asif M, Qing M, Hwang J, Shi H. Ethical leadership, affective commitment, work engagement, and creativity: Testing a multiple mediation approach. Sustainability. 2019;11(16):4489. doi: 10.3390/su11164489.
28. Bahrami S, Zardashtian S, Yousefi B. The Impact of Job Satisfaction on Affective Commitment of Employees in the Ministry of Sports and Youth. New Approaches in Sports Management. 2015;2(4):87-96.
Downloads
Published
Submitted
Revised
Accepted
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Firouz Kazemi Loyeh (Author); Naghi Kamali; Mohammad Mojtabazadeh (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
