Does Ethical Leadership Reduce Workplace Corruption? A Quantitative Analysis of Organizations in the UAE

Abstract

Although the UAE has implemented various policy-level and institutional frameworks to combat corruption. While qualitative research has been conducted, quantitative empirical work is very rare on how leadership especially ethical management affects views of corruption in UAE. This cross-sectional quantitative study, consists of survey questionnaire gathered data from 300 employees who participated voluntarily across both private and public sectors in the UAE. SPSS version 25 was used to analyze the results via reliability, descriptive, and inferential analysis.  The reliability via Cronbach Alpha was (0.9). For H1, statistically significant negative association between Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS) and Workplace Corruption Perception (WCP) was evaluated (r = 0.358, p < 0.01). For H2 transparency has a significant positive effect on lowering corruption perception (β = 0.343, p < 0.001), while accountability has a negative yet significant effect (β = -0.138, p = 0.016) partially accepting H2. For H3 statistically significant positive relationship between perceived integrity and WCP (r = 0.309, p < 0.01) was observed. The results show that leadership in ethics are crucial in both public and private sectors in UAE, yet cannot stand alone. It is affected by management, its work culture, and employee’s involvement. It is important to set ethical rules to make sure that leadership anti-corruption policies appropriately. The findings demonstrate how EL influences the workplace corruption and supports initiatives to combat corruption. However, transparent leaders possessing integrity may not always foster an anti-corrupt perception on employees.