Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed many areas of strength, weakness, opportunity, and potential threat in businesses, organizations, and societies around the world. The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare the need for leaders who have integrity and moral leadership. Extant theories on leadership pay scant attention to the moral dimension of leadership. This chapter contends that to reset and rebuild businesses, industries, organizations, and societies after COVID-19 in a sustainable manner, moral leadership is imperative. Moral leaders are those who demonstrate compassion and respect for others, they are humane and humble, they value and speak the truth, and they actively listen. In today’s world, such leaders are more important than ever before. In this chapter, moral leadership is defined, the traits of moral leaders are examined, the case for moral leadership is made and the consequences of a lack of moral leadership in a post-COVID-19 world are considered.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Banks, G. C., Fischer, T., Gooty, J., & Stock, G. (2020). Ethical leadership: Mapping the terrain for concept cleanup and a future research agenda. The Leadership Quarterly, 32, 101471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2020.101471
Bao, Y., & Li, C. (2019). From moral leadership to positive work behaviors: The mediating roles of value congruence and leader-member exchange. Frontiers of Business Research in China, 13(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-019-0052-3
Bass, B. M., & Riggio, R. E. (2006). Transformational leadership. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Brammer, S., Branicki, L., & Linnenluecke, M. (2020). COVID-19, Societalization and the future of business in society. Academy of Management Perspectives, 34(4), 493–507. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2019.0053
Brown, M., Treviño, L. K., & Harrison, D. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97(2), 117–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.03.002
Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. Harper and Row.
Cheng, B.-S., Chou, L.-F., Wu, T.-Y., Huang, M.-P., & Farh, J.-L. (2004). Paternalistic leadership and subordinate responses: Establishing a leadership model in Chinese organizations. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 7(1), 89–117. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-839X.2004.00137.x
Daugbjerg, C. (2017). Responding to non-linear internationalisation of public policy: The world trade organization and reform of the CAP 1992–2013. Journal of Common Market Studies, 55(3), 486–501. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12476
Dewar, C., Keller, S., Sneader, K., & Strovink, K. (2020). The CEO moment: Leadership for a new era. McKinsey Quarterly. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Featured%20Insights/Leadership/The%20CEO%20moment%20Leadership%20for%20a%20new%20era/The-CEO-moment-Leadership-for-a-new-era-v3.pdf?shouldIndex=false
Drouillard, S. E., & Kleiner, B. H. (1996). Good leadership. Management Development Review, 9(5), 30–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/09622519610131554
Fehr, R., Yam, K. C. S., & Dang, C. (2015). Moralized leadership: The construction and consequences of ethical leader perceptions. The Academy of Management Review, 40(2), 182–209. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2013.0358
Galloway, S. (2020). Post Corona: From crisis to opportunity. Portfolio Penguin.
Gates, B. (2015, March). Bill Gates: The next outbreak? We’re not ready [Video file]. https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready?language=en
Goethals, G. R., Sorenson, G. J., & Burns, J. M. (2004). Encyclopedia of leadership: Volume 1. SAGE.
Goodwin, D. K. (2018). Lincoln and the art of transformative leadership. Harvard Business Review, 96(5), 126–134.
Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Pantheon/Random House.
Hanrieder, T. (2020). Priorities, partners, politics: The WHO’s mandate beyond the crisis. Global Governance, 26(4), 534–543. https://doi.org/10.1163/19426720-02604008
Kellerman, B. (2004). Thinking about … leadership. Warts and all. Harvard Business Review, 82(1), 40–45.
Kentikelenis, A., & Voeten, E. (2020). Legitimacy challenges to the liberal world order: Evidence from United Nations speeches, 1970-2018. The Review of International Organizations, 15(4), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-020-09404-y
Kiel, F. (2015). Measuring the return on character. Harvard Business Review, 93(4), 20–21.
Linzey, J. F. (2015). Moral leadership: The 9 leadership traits. Resource Publications.
Maldonado, N., & Lacey, C. H. (2001). Defining moral leadership: Perspectives of 12 leaders. Florida Journal of Educational Research, 41(4), 79–101.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership theory and practice. SAGE.
Pijanowski, J. C. (2007). Defining moral leadership in graduate schools of education. Journal of Leadership Education, 6(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.12806/V6/I1/TF1
Schwab, K., & Malleret, T. (2020). COVID-19: The great reset. ISBN Agentur Schweiz.
Shakeel, F., Kruyen, P. M., & Van Thiel, S. (2019). Ethical leadership as process: A conceptual proposition. Public Integrity, 21(6), 613–624. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2019.1606544
Shakeel, F., Kruyen, P. M., & Van Thiel, S. (2020). Development of a broader conceptualization and measurement scale of ethical leadership. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 13(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.22543/0733.131.1299
Spector, B. (2019). Moral leadership? Be careful what you wish for. Leadership, 15(1), 123–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715017736659
Trevino, L. K., Hartman, L. P., & Brown, M. (2000). Moral person and moral manager: How executives develop a reputation for ethical leadership. California Management Review, 42(4), 128–142. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166057
United Nations. (2020). Development policy and multilateralism after COVID-19.https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/publication/development-policy-and-multilateralism-after-covid-19/
Yukl, G., & Lepsinger, R. (2004). Flexible leadership: Creating value by balancing multiple challenges and choices. Wiley.
Zaccaro, S. J. (2014). Leadership memes: From ancient history and literature to twenty-first century theory and research. In D. V. Day (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations (pp. 13–39). Oxford University Press.
Zakaria, F. (2020). Ten lessons for a post-pandemic world. W.W. Norton & Company.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Makka, A. (2022). Moral Leadership in a Post-COVID-19 World. In: K. Dhiman, S., F. Marques, J. (eds) Leadership After COVID-19. Future of Business and Finance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84867-5_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84867-5_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-84866-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-84867-5
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)