Developing an Ethical Leadership Model Based on the Organizational Sensemaking Mechanism

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a model explaining the formation of ethical leadership through organizational sensemaking, with particular emphasis on how cognitive biases shape leaders’ ethical and unethical decisions. This qualitative study employed a descriptive–exploratory design and a grounded theory strategy. The participants comprised 20 experts, academics, and practitioners with relevant knowledge and experience in psychology, management, cognitive psychology, and ethical leadership. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, which continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were collected through in-depth, face-to-face semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 60–120 minutes and were analyzed using MAXQDA. Following the grounded theory approach, data analysis involved open, axial, and selective coding to establish relationships among causal conditions, the central phenomenon, contextual conditions, intervening conditions, strategies, and consequences and to construct the final conceptual model. Content validity, informant feedback, methodological coherence, recurrence of findings, and researcher sensitivity were employed to enhance the credibility of the qualitative analysis. The findings indicated that leaders’ sensemaking functions as the principal mechanism through which cognitive biases influence leadership behavior. Independent biases, including biases related to ethical perception and justification, decision-making processes, social pressure, judgment and control, and responsibility avoidance, promoted unethical leadership by strengthening distortive sensemaking. Conversely, moderating and inhibitory biases facilitated ethical leadership by reinforcing corrective and reflective sensemaking while simultaneously weakening distortive sensemaking. Accordingly, greater dominance of corrective sensemaking increased the likelihood of ethical decision-making and ethical leadership, whereas the dominance of distortive sensemaking increased the likelihood of unethical decisions and unethical leadership. The model therefore identified the relative strength of corrective versus distortive sensemaking as a key determinant of the ethical orientation of leadership behavior. Ethical leadership is not determined solely by leaders’ personal characteristics but emerges through the interaction of cognitive biases and sensemaking processes within individual, organizational, and situational contexts. Strengthening corrective sensemaking mechanisms and controlling distortion-producing cognitive biases may therefore improve ethical decision-making and reduce unethical leadership behavior in organizations.