What Are the Similar Ethical Characteristics of Leaders When Working in Different Cultures?

In the digital era, the role of ethical leadership across cultural contexts has been brought to attention frequently in everyday society. This paper aims to focus on the emerging construct of ethical leadership in cross-cultural contexts and identify whether there are any similar characteristics across Eastern and Western cultures (e.g., Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, Ireland, and Germany). In order to understand these concepts, we need to understand the three main questions in ethical leader decision-making process and how these factors influence cultural leaders. We also identify that the four concepts of universally ethical leadership that has been accepted across cultures are character/integrity, altruism, collective motivation, and encouragement. At the end of this study, implications are provided for human resources practitioners to plan learning and development programs and help leaders prepare themselves before being sent to different countries in the near future.