Building Future for Education Through Ethical Leadership: The Educational Administrators’ and Planners’ Lens

Abstract

In order for school leaders to reconcile their duties as leaders and managers under one roof, they must integrate values into school management. This study depicts the practice of ethical leadership based on seven characteristics as espoused by Vikaraman et al., 2018: “honesty, fairness, people orientation, power sharing, ethical guidance, role clarity, and concern for sustainability (a subset of value-based leadership)”. Ethics in leadership refers to the ability of a given leader to distinguish the good from bad, and right from the wrong for the purpose of achieving pre-determined goals of the organisation and also impact on subordinates. That is, ethical leaders set norms, follow them, and work to enforce them. It is important to stress that ethical leadership is essential for the future of education at all levels. It is important therefore that ethical codes should be in a written form for the school leaders at all levels so that decisions can be made with objectivity, honesty and ethics, particularly regarding personnel issues, and that ethical leadership should be integrated into current school leadership practices to better understand its significance.