Exploration of pioneering as a major element of ethical leadership in nursing
A qualitative study
Keywords:
Content analysis, Ethical leadership, Pioneering, Nursing, Qualitative studyAbstract
Background: Commitment to ethical behavior is considered as an essential part of occupational responsibilities of nursing, and leaders' pioneering in ethical growth and development has led to the emergence of the concept of ethical leadership.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to explain the nursing leaders' perception and experiences of pioneering in the field of ethical leadership.
Methods: In this qualitative study, data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews. A total of 14 nursing leaders at different levels who were selected by purposeful sampling method participated in the study. Latent content analysis was used to analyze the data.
Results: Of 14 participants of the study, 8 were male and 6 were female aged 38 to 56 years old with a mean managerial experience of 12 years. In the analysis of interviews, 4 subcategories of “Role Modeling”, “Empowerment”, “Knowledge and Skill”, and “Recognition” were obtained which formed two main categories. These categories included "Leader as mentor" and "Professional insight".
Conclusion: Pioneering leaders are an important part of ethical leadership, and nursing leaders should not only be moral people, but also go a step further and actively promote moral behavior with a role as a mentor and model as well as having professional insight. Nursing leaders with a better understanding of these aspects can develop their capacity of strong ethical leadership and consider the aspects in their activities.
References
Hamrin E, Potdar NS, Anand RK. Ethical values in health care: an Indian-Swedish co-operation. Nurs
Ethics. 2002; 9(4): 439–44. doi: 10.1191/0969733002ne527xx. PMID: 12219406.
Shahriari M, Mohammadi E, Abbaszadeh A, Bahrami M, Fooladi MM. Perceived ethical values by Iranian
nurses. Nurs Ethics. 2012; 19(1): 30-44. doi: 10.1177/0969733011408169. PMID: 22140186.
Crall J. Ethical behavior of supervisors: effects on supervisee experiences and behavior. Pensylvania. USA:
Lehigh University; 2011: 106.
Smith KV, Godfrey NS. Being a good nurse and doing the right thing: a qualitative study. Nurs Ethics.
; 9(3): 301–12. doi: 10.1191/0969733002ne512oa. PMID: 12035435.
Nikkhah-Farkhani Z, Rahimnia F, Kazemi M, Shirazi A. Modeling the ethical behavior of nurses using the
theory of virtue ethics. Iran J Med Ethics Hist Med. 2015; 7(6): 29–48.
Bjarnason D, LaSala CA. Moral leadership in nursing. J Radiol Nurs. 2011; 30(1): 18–24. doi:
1016/j.jradnu.2011.01.002.
Benjamin M, Curtis J. Ethics in nursing: cases, principles, and reasoning. 4rd rev. New York: Oxford
University Press; 2010; 300.
Gustafsson LK, Stenberg M. Crucial contextual attributes of nursing leadership toward an ethic care. Nurs
Ethics. 2015. doi: 10.1177/0969733015614879. PMID: 26643484.
De Coninck JB. Outcomes of ethical leadership among salespeople. J Bus Res. 2015; 68(5): 1086–93. doi:
1016/j.jbusres.2014.10.011.
Padash F, Golparvar M. Relationship between moral based leadership with intrinsic motivation for
innovation and personnel’s creativity. Ethics Sci Technol. 2010; 5(1-2): 103–10.
Brown ME, Treviño LK, Harrison DA. Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct
development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 2005; 97(2): 117–34.
doi: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.03.002.
Lu CS, Lin CC. The effects of ethical leadership and ethical climate on employee ethical behavior in the
international port context. J Bus Ethics. 2014; 124(2): 209–23. doi: 10.1007/s10551-013-1868-y
Rowold J. Relationships among transformational, transactional, and moral based leadership: Results from
two empirical studies. Leadersh Rev. 2008; 8: 4-17.
Trevino LK, Hartman LP, Brown ME. Moral person and moral manager: How executives develop a
reputation for ethical leadership. Calif Manage Rev. 2000; 42(4): 128-142. doi: 10.2307/41166057.
Fathi G, Javanak M, Taheri M, Shohoudi M. Modeling the relations of ethical leadership and clinical
governance with psychological empowerment in nurses. J Kermanshah Univ Med Sci. 2014; 18(4): 204–
Toor S, Ofori G. Ethical leadership: Examining the relationships with full range leadership model,
employee outcomes, and organizational culture. J Bus Ethics. 2009; 90: 533–47. doi: 10.1007/s10551-009- 0059-3.
Davis AL, Rothstein HR. The effects of the perceived behavioral integrity of managers on employee
attitudes: A meta-analysis. J Bus Ethics. 2006; 67(4): 407–19. doi: 10.1007/s10551-006-9034-4.
Chughtai A, Byrne M, Flood B. Linking ethical leadership to employee well-being: The role of trust in
supervisor. J Bus Ethics. 2015; 128(3): 653-63. doi: 10.1007/s10551-014-2126-7.
Neubert MJ, Carlson DS, Kacmar KM, Roberts JA, Chonko LB. The virtuous influence of ethical
leadership behavior: Evidence from the field. J Bus Ethics. 2009; 90(2): 157–70. doi: 10.1007/s10551-009- 0037-9.
Den Hartog DN, De Hoogh AHB. Empowering behaviour and leader fairness and integrity: Studying
perceptions of ethical leader behaviour from a levels-of-analysis perspective. Eur J Work Organ Psychol.
; 18(2): 199–230.
Makaroff KS, Storch J, Pauly B, Newton L. Searching for ethical leadership in nursing. Nurs Ethics. 2014;
(6): 642-58. doi: 10.1177/0969733013513213. PMID: 24418739.
Gray MT. Nursing leaders’ experiences with the ethical dimensions of nursing education. Nurs Ethics.
; 15(3): 332–45. doi: 10.1177/0969733007088358. PMID: 18388168.
Frisch C, Huppenbauer M. New insights into ethical leadership: A qualitative investigation of the
experiences of executive ethical leaders. J Bus ethics. 2014; 123(1): 23–43. doi: 10.1007/s10551-013-1797- 9.
Treviño LK, Brown ME, Hartman LP. A qualitative investigation of perceived executive ethical leadership:
Perceptions from inside and outside the executive suite. Hum relations. 2003; 56(1): 5–37. doi:
1177/0018726703056001448.
Maldonado NL, Lacey CH. Defining moral leadership: Perspectives of 12 leaders. Florida J Educ Res.
; 41(1): 79-101.
Kalshoven K, Den Hartog DN, De Hoogh AHB. Ethical leadership at work questionnaire (ELW):
Development and validation of a multidimensional measure. Leadersh Q. 2011; 22(1): 51–69. doi:
1016/j.leaqua.2010.12.007.
Afshar L, Joolaee S, Vaskouei K, Bagheri A. Nursing ethics priorities from nurses aspects: a national study.
Iran J Med Ethics Hist Med. 2013; 6(3): 54–63.
Elenkov DS, Manev IM. Top management leadership and influence on innovation: The role of
sociocultural context. J Manage. 2005; 31(3): 381–402. doi: 10.1177/0149206304272151.
Barkhordari-Sharifabad M, Ashktorab T, Atashzadeh-Shoorideh F. Ethical competency of nurse leaders A
qualitative study. Nurs Ethics. 2016. doi: 10.1177/0969733016652125. PMID: 27301416.
Barkhordari-Sharifabad M, Ashktorab T, Atashzadeh-Shoorideh F. Ethical leadership outcomes in nursing:
A qualitative study. Nurs Ethics. 2017; 969733016687157. doi: 10.1177/0969733016687157. PMID:
Nasrabadi AN, Lipson JG, Emami A. Professional nursing in Iran: an overview of its historical and
sociocultural framework. J Prof Nurs. 2004; 20(6): 396–402. doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2004.08.004. PMID:
Valizadeh L, Zamanzadeh V, Habibzadeh H, Alilu L, Gillespie M, Shakibi A. Experiences of Iranian
Nurses that Intent to Leave the Clinical Nursing: a Content Analysis. J Caring Sci. 2016; 5(2): 169–78. doi:
15171/jcs.2016.018. PMID: 27354981.
Shirazi M, Emami AH, Mirmoosavi SJ, Alavinia SM, Zamanian H, Fathollahbeigi F, et al.
Contextualization and standardization of the supportive leadership behavior questionnaire based on socio- cognitive theory in Iran. Med J Islam Repub Iran. 2014; 28: 125. PMID: 25679004, PMCID:
PMC4313444.
Hsieh HF, Shannon SE. Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qual Health Res. 2005; 15(9):
–88. doi: 10.1177/1049732305276687. PMID: 16204405.
Graneheim UH, Lundman B. Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and
measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Educ Today. 2004; 24(2): 105–12. doi:
1016/j.nedt.2003.10.001. PMID: 14769454.
Mokhtari Nouri J, Ebadi A, Alhani F, Rejeh N. Importance of role-model teaching in nursing students’
education. Educ Strateg. 2011; 3(4): 149–54.
Newton SE. Faculty role modeling of professional writing: One baccalaureate nursing program’s
experience. J Prof Nurs. 2008; 24(2): 80–4. doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2007.06.025. PMID: 18358441.
Beeri I, Dayan R, Vigoda-Gadot E, Werner SB. Advancing ethics in public organizations: The impact of an
ethics program on employees’ perceptions and behaviors in a regional council. J Bus Ethics. 2013; 112(1):
–78. doi: 10.1007/s10551-012-1232-7.
Freeman RE, Stewart L. Developing Ethical Leadership. Virginia: Business Roundtable Institute for
Corporate Ethics, 2006; 2-9. Available from: http://www.corporate-ethics.org/pdf/ethical_leadership.pdf.
Hazrati M, Alvani SM, Memar Zadeh GR. The Presentation of Modeling an Ethical Leadership Consistent
with Public Organizations in Iran. Eur Online J Nat Soc Sci. 2015; 2(3 (s)): 3429–39.
Brown ME, Treviño LK. Ethical leadership: A review and future directions The Leadersh Q. 2006; 17(6):
–616. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.10.004.
Heres L, Lasthuizen K. Ethical leadership: A variform universal phenomenon. Annual Conference of the
European Group for Public Administration. 2010. 1–36. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228710718_Ethical_leadership_A_variform_universal_phenome
non.
Moorman RH, Grover S. Why does leader integrity matter to followers? An uncertainty management-based
explanation. Int J Leadersh Stud. 2009; 5(2): 102–14.
Palanski ME, Yammarino FJ. Integrity and leadership: A multi-level conceptual framework. Leadersh Q.
; 20(3): 405–20. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.03.008.
Javed B, Khan AA, Bashir S, Arjoon S. Impact of ethical leadership on creativity: the role of psychological
empowerment. Curr Issues Tour. 2016; 1–13. doi: 10.1080/13683500.2016.1188894.
Zhu W. The effect of ethical leadership on follower moral identity: The mediating role of psychological
empowerment. Leadersh Rev. 2008; 8(3): 62–73.
Paktinat E, Fathizadeh A. Empowerment of Employees: requirements and solutions. J Manag Res. 2008;
: 33–47.
Bello SM. Impact of ethical leadership on employee job performance. Int J Bus Soc Sci. 2012; 3(11).
Binns J. The ethics of relational leading: Gender matters. Gender, Work Organ. 2008; 15(6): 600–20. doi:
1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00418.x.
Brun JP, Dugas N. An analysis of employee recognition: Perspectives on human resources practices. Int J
Hum Resour Manag. 2008; 19(4): 716–30. doi: 10.1080/09585190801953723.
Noe RA, Hollenbeck JR, Gerhart B, Wright PM. Fundamentals of Human Resource Management. 4rd rev.
New York: Mcgraw Hill Irwin; 2011. 552.
Nekouei-Moghadam M, Pirmoradi N. The role of individual differences and personality traits in
organizational behavior. Asre Modiriat. 2010; 4(14): 126–31.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 KNOWLEDGE KINGDOM PUBLISHING
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
