Moral Entrepreneurship within Ethical Leadership under Quranic Perspective: Exploring the Effect of Moral Opportunities, along with Capabilities and Vision of Moral Entrepreneur, on Moral Entrepreneurship, and its Subsequent Effect on Ethical Leadership.

Abstract

Ethical leadership is about frontrunners that are professed as ethical by their supporters. Managers are considered as ethical leaders, primarily by being and acting ethically, that is, by accomplishing the role of ‘moral person’; furthermore, by endorsing the ethical behavior of others through two-way communique, fortification, and decision-making, that is, by accomplishing the role of ‘moral manager’ Brown et al. (2005). Kaptein (2019) claimed for a third pertinent component: i.e., the moral entrepreneur who constructs a new ethical norm. Smearing Carroll’s (1979) approach, he opposed Ethical leadership is not about subsequent consensus stretched in society. Ethical leadership leads ethics by crafting new ethical norms & being ground-breaking in ethics. It is thus through leadership in ethics that ethical standards that aren’t yet commonly accepted in society are recognized. Hence, the moral entrepreneur faces some malicious that intensely disturbs him & that he wants to be spot-on by interpreting a preferred norm into legal exclusions; nevertheless, he also puts himself at risk as he may become an outsider himself when he is not prosperous in his effort to create support for the newfangled rule or norm. Kaptein (2019) emphasized eight precursors and two outcomes in a theoretical framework. We altered Kaptein (2019) model by presenting the Quranic outlook & attempted to institute its empirical validity by relating this framework to a large cross-section of society by conducting a survey via a close-ended questionnaire. Integrating Carroll’s (1979) approach with Quranic Verses we describe moral entrepreneurs having two qualities 1. The resistance of immoral Acts, and 2. Mobilizing Power for doing moral good. These are two vital Islamic fundamentals from the Quran and are considered progressive roles in helping others to take the straight path and refrain from inexcusable acts. (Arabic: الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر, Romanized: al-amr bi-l-maʿrūf wa-nnahy ʿani-l-munkar, English:” Enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong” Subsequent to Kaptein’s research (2019), we hypothesize that moral entrepreneur have a vision, and moral scope, he also has Capabilities to impact and drive other through change. And if there’s a moral issue or void in the society, moral entrepreneur comprehends that as an opportunity, and with the vision and capabilities, he constructs moral entrepreneurship by means of resistance and mobilizing power. And this would facilitate ethical leadership and moral societal development. Data were collected from 200 employees employed in the Pakistani corporate sector & evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modeling. Antecedents of moral entrepreneur encompassed 1. The vision was measured by moral development (MD), moral identity (MI), and moral awareness (MA). 2. Capability dimension included the capability to gain power (CGP) and drive towards transition (DT). And 3. Opportunities for moral entrepreneur were assessed through anticipation of a moral issue (MIS), and present if a moral void (MV). Moral entrepreneurship was measured by resistance and mobilizing power, and lastly, factors of Ethical leadership included People Orientation (PO), Unfairness (F), Power Sharing (PS), Concern for Sustainability (CS), and Role Clarification (RC). The results suggested that moral awareness and identity seems to have a positive and significant effect on both Mobilizing power, and Resistance. Furthermore, mobilizing power also has a noteworthy and positive effect on all five dimensions of ethical leadership. Henceforth MA and MI seem to influence CS, PO, PS, and RC dimensions of ethical leadership through the Mobilizing power dimension of moral entrepreneurship. The findings imply that al-amr bi-l-maruf (Enjoining what is right) has a profound effect on ethical leadership. Furthermore, moral awareness and identification are vital influencers in this.