Abstract
Due to the unethical conduct of leaders in the private and public sectors in South Africa, ethical leadership is being recognised as the key driver of good corporate governance. The aim of this paper is to examine what an ethical leader is by using ethics and leadership theories. The paper also analyses the relationship between ethics and leadership theories and corporate governance frameworks of South Africa. This paper concludes that there is a strong alignment between ethics and leadership theories and the corporate governance frameworks however, from a leg-islative perspective, there is still room for ethical values to be further entrenched through pro-visions that will promote stakeholder inclusivity.
The paper also finds that the actions and decisions of leaders direct the trajectory of the entire company, therefore, if companies are to be ethical, directors have to demonstrate and embrace ethical values both personally and in their obligations.
Keywords: ethics, ethical leadership, corporate governance, king codes, companies act, val-ues, directors