Identifying and validating the ethical leadership model of the managers of the departments of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences with a competency approach

Today, the discussion of ethical behavior and ethical values are a prerequisite for management and all managers and employees of the organization and also they must respect these principles and manifest them in their behavior. Attention and emphasis on the observance of ethical principles and standards in the scientific and academic community provides the foundations for sustainable development. Today, promoting ethics in educational organizations is considered one of the important tasks in addition; all managers need to have special moral competencies and abilities that enable them to perform their duties in the best way. The purpose of this study was to identify and validate dimensions and components of ethical leadership among the managers of the departments of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences with a competency approach.

In terms of data collection, the current research was a mixed type of research (quantitative-qualitative). The qualitative part was based on semi-structured interviews while the quantitative part was based on the questionnaire tool (made by the researcher). In the qualitative part of the research, the data collection tools in the first stage included document library studies and in the second stage, using a semi-structured interview with the academic staff members of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2019-2020. At first, using the information obtained from the interviews with the managers of the educational groups, information was collected and then coded. In order to collect information in the qualitative section, the results of semi-structured interviews were used. Sixteen academic staff members were selected through theoretical sampling method, then interview continued until theoretical saturation. In order to analyze the data obtained from the interview, the method of content analysis was used in the coding method which contained:  reading important findings related to the studied phenomenon, giving specific meanings to the extracted sentences classification of obtained concepts, referring to the main content and comparing the data , description of the studied phenomenon and finally returning them to the participants to check the reliability of the results, and then coding and extraction of categories were accomplished. In order to determine the reliability, a strategy such as reviewing the participants has been used in the quantitative section; the structure of the questionnaire was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. The final questionnaire was compiled with 85 items in the form of a 5-point Likert scale. Besides the sample size was determined using Cochran's formula. The questionnaire was distributed among 300 academic staff members of basic and clinical departments of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences by random sampling method, in addition, in order to evaluate the reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and combined reliability indices were used. To determine the validity of the convergent validity questionnaire of index (AVE index) and convergent validity index (AVE index) and Smart PLS software were used too.

The results of the qualitative data analysis of the research showed that the three dimensions of moral competence with the components: moral knowledge, moral attitude, moral skill; and technical competence with the components: technical knowledge, technical attitude, technical skill; and ethical leadership behaviors with the components: moral growth , moral strengthening, were the most important aspects of  ethical leadership in educational managers of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. The findings of the quantitative section displayed that the factor loadings related to all dimensions of ethical leadership with the competency approach had a favorable status. According to the results, the values of convergent and divergent credit indicators indicated the desirability of the variable credit of ethical leadership with a competency approach. In addition, the values of Cronbach's alpha coefficient and combined reliability pointed to the high accuracy of measuring the variable dimensions of ethical leadership, and in other words, the reliability of the instrument related to these dimensions. Cronbach alpha and combined reliability of four dimensions were higher than 0/70, while the convergent validity criterion for the four dimensions was upper than 0/50. According to the data obtained from the transverse load index, this measurement model had a suitable diagnostic validity, whereas according to the index (HTMT), this model received good diagnostic validity, and according to the index (CV Com) the model had the necessary quality.

According to the results of the research, managers had the characteristic of Ethical leadership, which provided moral guidance, moral growth, and moral strengthening through the power of authority resulting from moral competence, and specialized power resulting from technical competence. From the theoretical point of view, the present study showed that only ethical person and ethical manager were not sufficient to implement ethical leadership in the organization. Emphasis on ethical person and ethical manager had always been considered in previous researches but the current research showed that the ethical leader should be a professional person in addition to the above two characteristics. Also the current research presented that these three dimensions (moral competence, technical competence, ethical leadership behaviors) interacted and connected to each other. Accordingly, based on the interaction and connection among these three dimensions, it can be indicated that the ethical leader would be defined as an "ethical professional manager".