Enacting Moral Management: Applying Ethical Principles and Values in Leading and Correcting Subordinates’ Behaviors

Abstract

Top managers are leaders and role models for subordinates. Although numerous research papers have been published on ethical leadership, to the best of our knowledge, recent research has largely overlooked the phenomenon of how managers apply ethical principles in their everyday leadership practices. Moreover, we are interested in finding out how top managers see ethical behaviour amongst their subordinates. Our research relies on moral management theory (A. Carroll, 2000). Our central research question is how different types of moral managers understand the ethics regarding their own and subordinates’ behaviour. Current research aims to understand how types of moral managers and the roles of values interact in ethical interventions by top managers.   
We conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with top managers in Estonia, who described the ethical conflicts they encountered in workplace situations.  
Based on our study results, we demonstrate the model of moral managers regarding values and habits in the context of unethical behaviour occurring among subordinates.