Ethical leadership in multinational companies’ control practices: culture as a moderating factor

Purpose Determining the role of ethical leadership in multinational companies’ (MNCs) control practices, purpose this paper is to extend Eisenbeiss’ (2012) four central orientations into contexts – culturally diversified environment. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a multiple-case research design, authors gather qualitative data from MNC subsidiaries located China, that connects three potentially diverse cultural contexts: German, Japanese and Chinese. Findings The findings confirm compliance (or violation) positively negatively) contributes internalization organizational practice transfer, moderated by distance between foreign managers subsidiaries’ employees. results reveal informal trust act as lubricants process. Originality/value This evidences connections leadership, transfer subsequent performance, along with inclusive moderating factors.