Effect of Ethical Leadership Practices on the Performance of Professional Regulatory Bodies in Kenya
Keywords:
Ethical leadership practices, Ethical tone, Codes of conduct, Ethical Rewarding, Performance, Professional regulatory bodiesAbstract
Professional regulatory bodies in Kenya serve as custodians of public trust, professional standards, and statutory compliance. However, ethical vulnerabilities such as conflict of interest, compromised enforcement, weak accountability, and political interference may undermine institutional performance within these bodies. This study investigated the influence of ethical leadership practices, specifically ethical tone, code of ethics, and ethical rewarding, on the performance of professional regulatory bodies in Kenya. The study was anchored on Strategic Leadership Theory and employed a quantitative descriptive- correlational research design. The findings showed that ethical leadership practices were rated positively across the professional regulatory bodies, with a composite mean of 3.96 and a standard deviation of 0.917. Correlation results showed a strong positive relationship between ethical leadership practices and organizational performance (r = 0.712, p < 0.05). Regression results further indicated that ethical leadership practices had a positive and statistically significant effect on organizational performance (B = 0.603, β = 0.712, t = 10.823, p < 0.05). At the same time, the model was statistically significant (F = 117.132, p <0.05) and explained 50.7% of the variance in performance (R² = 0.507). The study concludes that strengthening ethical tone, codes of ethics, ethical rewarding, accountability, integrity, and compliance mechanisms can significantly improve the performance of professional regulatory bodies in Kenya.
References
Al Halbusi, H., Williams, K. A., & Ramayah, T. (2021). Linking ethical leadership and ethical climate to employees’ ethical behavior: The moderating role of person- organization fit. Journal of People, Work and Organisations, 50(1), 159–185. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2019-0522
Ali, B. J., & Anwar, G. (2021). Strategic leadership effectiveness and its influence on organizational effectiveness. International Journal of Electrical, Electronics and Computers, 6(2), 1–9.
Alizadeh, A., Diran, K. M., & Qiu, S. (2021). Ethics, code of conduct and ethical climate: Implications for human resource development. European Journal of Training and Development, 45(8-9), 674–690. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-04-2020-0077
Barko, T., Cremers, M., & Renneboog, L. (2022). Shareholder engagement on environmental, social, and governance performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 180(2), 777–812. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04845-4
Dey, M., Swadip, B., Monowar, M., Md Aftab, U., & Biswas, S. R. (2022). Ethical leadership for better sustainable performance: Role of employee values, behavior and ethical climate. Journal of Cleaner Production, 337, 130527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130527
Government of Kenya. (2003). Public Officer Ethics Act, 2003. National Council for Law
Reporting.
Government of Kenya. (2012). Leadership and Integrity Act, 2012. National Council for Law
Reporting.
Jerab, D., & Mabrouk, T. (2023). The role of leadership in changing organizational culture.
SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4574324
Khuong, M. N., Truong An, N. K., & Thanh Hang, T. T. (2021). Stakeholders and corporate social responsibility programme as key sustainable development strategies to promote corporate reputation: Evidence from Vietnam. Cogent Business & Management, 8(1),
1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2021.1917333
LaMacchia, C. S. (2021). Enhancing employee engagement to improve financial performance
(Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).
National Council for Law Reporting. (2010). The Constitution of Kenya, 2010. National
Council for Law Reporting. http://www.parliament.go.ke/sites/default/files/2017-
05/The_Constitution_of_Kenya_2010.pdf
Okemwa, V. B., & Ratemo, B. M. (2021). Factors affecting compliance to ethical standards in public procurement in Kenya: A behavioral model of ethical and unethical decision- making perspective. International Journal of Scientific Research and Management (IJSRM), 9(12), 2804–2825.
Sims, R. (2022). The ethically responsible organization. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://bookstore.emerald.com/the-ethically-responsible-organization-hb-
9798887301112.html
Sivasubramaniam, S., Dlabolová, D. H., Kralikova, V., & Khan, Z. R. (2021). Assisting you to advance with ethics in research: An introduction to ethical governance and application procedures. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 17, 1–18.
Treviño, L. K., Weaver, G. R., & Reynolds, S. J. (2006). Behavioral ethics in organizations: A review. Journal of Management, 32(6), 951–990. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206306294258
Vem, L. J., Cheah, J. H., Ng, S. I., & Ho, J. A. (2023). Unethical pro-organizational behavior: How employee ethical ideology and unethical organizational culture contribute. International Journal of Manpower, 44(4), 577–598.
Verne, C. D. (2023). Ethical leadership and ethical organizational culture: Two pillars for fighting against corruption in the organizations. In Sustainable finance and financial crime (pp. 127–140). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-
031-28752-7_7
Waheed, A., & Zhang, Q. (2022). Effect of CSR and ethical practices on sustainable competitive performance: A case of emerging markets from stakeholder theory perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 175(4), 837–855.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2026 Risper Awuor Olick, Teresia K Linge, Caren A Ouma
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
