Ethical leadership communications scale: Development and validation of a measure and multi-level test

Abstract

Ethical leadership emphasizes the promotion of ethical behavior through two-way communication with followers. This article introduces the development of an ethical leadership communication scale that was created based on three categories of an ethical leadership conceptual framework, namely, the leader being an example of ethics in action, the leader treating his/her followers fairly, the leader actively managing morality. Relevant items were developed and subjected to factor analysis with a sample of 175 respondents from organization A, resulting in a 1-factor solution with 15 items. Using a 522-person sample from organizations B and C, we verified the 1-factor solution with 15-item with confirmatory factor analysis. We further validated the 15-item ethical leadership communication scale by regressing outcomes with structural equation modeling (SEM) from Organization D. We then tested the ethical leadership communication scale with the ethical leadership questionnaire and ethical leadership survey (ELS), and analyzed the data using multi-level hierarchical regression. Results suggest that the ethical leadership communication scale as a construct is a unique contribution beyond the ethical leadership constructs in explaining organizational citizenship behaviors. The new ethical leadership communication scale (the Ethical Leadership Communication Scale-15) demonstrates adequate reliability, validity, and across organization generalizability. Findings of this study further the model of ethical leadership and communication behavior and help to re-conceptualize the role of dyadic communication in ethical leadership. This study paves the way for finer-grained theorizing and analysis of ethical leadership and communication dynamics in the workplace.