The Full Range of Implicit Ethical Leadership Theories: a Q-method Study

The results reported in Chapter 3 are consistent with the premise of this dissertation that a comprehensive understanding of how ethical leadership works requires a closer look at the variation in followers’ expectations of the leader. To date, such empirical research on follower expectations of ethical leadership has been limited. However, Chapter 3 belongs to a small group of studies that reveal interesting crosscultural (e.g., Keating et al., 2007; Martin et al., 2009; Resick et al., 2006; Resick et al., 2011; Resick et al., 2009) and within-cultural differences in the a priori assumptions, beliefs, and expectations that followers have of ethical leadership (Van den Akker et al., 2009). Such differences in what are known as implicit ethical leadership theories (IELT) of followers may be an important explanation for why they differ in their perceptions of ethical leadership (Resick et al., 2006; Resick et al., 2009; see also Hannah and Jennings, 2013). The research in Chapter 3 however, is limited in scope and comprehensiveness. The present chapter thus follows up on the results of Chapter 3 by conducting a more extensive and systematic exploration of the range of implicit ethical leadership theories that may occur. Its main purpose is to gain an in-depth understanding of the withinculture variation in IELT and show that underneath the seemingly universal appeal of the