Estudo de adaptação e validação de uma escala de perceção de liderança ética para líderes Portugueses

Leaders influence their organizations, including their ethical dimension, being likewise influenced by their expectations, interpretations and interactions regarding others, including their own followers (Glynn & Jamerson, 2006; Kellerman, 2004). They are often involved in different contexts, which makes it difficult for "good" people "to make good decisions in bad situations" (Glynn & Jamerson, 2006, p. 154). Ethical leadership can be regarded as "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, in addition to the promotion of such conduct within followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision making" (Brown, Treviño, & Harrison, 2005, p. 120). The present study aimed to adapt and validate the Hanges and Dickson (2004) scale of ethical leadership for Portuguese leaders based on the adaptation and validation of scale achieved by De Hoogh and Den Hartog (2008). The results show adequate psychometric qualities, with high internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis reveals a structure that points to the existence of two factors: Ethical Leadership/Despotic Leadership. In the future, an analysis of the scale’s stability should be performed using new samples, in order to verify the consistency of our results in different contexts.