Ethical behavior in leadership: a bibliometric review of the last three decades

Abstract

Although much has been written about ethical behavior and leadership, few studies have analyzed the relationship between them. The purpose of this review is to identify the main research topics, their evolution over time, the areas and countries that dominate the focus of the research, the authors and journals, and the methodologies used. The authors identified 291 articles published in 65 Web of Science-indexed journals between 1987 and 2020. The review found that the knowledge base on leaders’ ethical behavior has grown since 1987 at an accelerating rate and with increasing gender and geographic diversity