Ethical leadership, team leader’s cultural intelligence and ethical behavior of team members: implications for managing human resources in global teams

Purpose
Drawing from Social Learning Theory and Multiple Loci of Intelligence Theory, the purpose of this paper is to assert that, through the mechanisms of social learning and role modeling, perceived ethical leadership is positively and significantly related to ethical behavior of individual members of global teams. Moreover, this study argues that perceived cultural intelligence (CQ) of leaders which consists of perceptions of members regarding leader’s cultural knowledge and skills on how to act ethically in different cultural contexts would moderate the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical behavior of individual members of global teams.

Design/methodology/approach
To test these assertions, a survey study was conducted involving individual members of global teams in Australia (n=234).

Findings
Results demonstrate that perceived ethical leadership is positively and significantly related to an individual’s ethical behavior. Furthermore, results show that perceived leader’s CQ serves as a moderator in strengthening the relationship between perceived ethical leadership and individual member’s display of ethical behavior.

Originality/value
This study fills the gaps in the literature by examining ethical behavior of individual members of culturally diverse teams and the role that leaders play in influencing their individual display of ethical behavior. Such knowledge can provide insights particularly for human resource practitioners on how to effectively generate and ensure the display of ethical behavior in contexts that are culturally diverse like in global teams.