Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which
educational leaders in the western cluster public universities of Ethiopia are
ethical. Ethical leadership variables such as fairness, equity, multicultural
competence, modeling ethical behaviors and altruism are considered in
describing the ethical behaviors of the leaders. Descriptive survey research
design with quantitative method was employed for it fits the purpose of the
study. Data was collected from instructors and educational leaders holding
various leadership positions in the sample universities. Accordingly, 107
instructors, 12 department heads, 6 college deans, 2 academic quality
assurance officers, 3 ethical officers, 1 vice president and 1 president
participated in the study. Questionnaires were mainly used to collect data
from the respondents. T-test and ANOVA, among other data analysis tools,
were used to analyze the data. The results of the study revealed that leaders
in the sample universities practice ethical leadership moderately. The leaders
failed to demonstrate the ethical leadership practices to the expected level.
They have been found to demonstrate low multicultural competence, low at
altruism, and low at modeling ethical behavior. And hence, it could be
concluded that the educational leaders in public universities failed to meet
the standards and expectations of ethical leadership. As a result, it is
recommended that the academic leaders in the public universities need to be
provided with leadership development opportunities. Moreover, public
universities can establish leadership development programs that will enable
leaders to continually update themselves and practice ethical leadership to
the expected level.
