Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership, and Moral Reasoning

Despite the centrality of research concerning both ethics and leadership styles in education administration, our knowledge of the relations between them is limited. The present study closes this gap by investigating the relations of transformational and transactional leadership with multiple ethical paradigms that have been suggested as relevant to solving moral dilemmas in education. Participants self-reported on their leadership behaviors, and the Ethical Perspectives Instrument (EPI) was administered to assess their moral reasoning. Transformational leadership predicted resorting to the ethics of critique and profession, whereas transactional leadership predicted use of the ethics of utilitarianism. The study’s findings are discussed.