TITLE:
Foundational Leadership Theory: The Inward and Outward Approach to Examine Ethical Decision-Making
AUTHORS:
La Juan Perronoski Fuller
KEYWORDS:
Leadership Decision-Making, Decision-Making, Organizational Commitment, Leadership, Moral and Ethical Decision-Making
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Leadership,
Vol.10 No.2,
June
7,
2021
ABSTRACT: Western societies tend to rely on societal norms to guide
decision making. However, decisions based solely on societal norms may fluctuate
between acceptable/unacceptable. As a result, leaders are paying heavy fines, asked
to resign and in some cases found guilty in courts due to these fluctuations. This has become problematic for ethical leadership decision-making.
This study introduces the foundational leadership theory which builds on ethic position
theory by applying leader-member exchange concepts. Research confirmed that foundational
leadership-integrity, assurance and pragmatism significantly predict organization
commitment. Therefore, foundational leadership theory establishes employees’ ethical
perception of their leader and influences organizational commitment. CEOs, leaders,
managers and supervisors should apply this foundational leadership model to evaluate
ethical decision-making.