International Journal of Behavior Studies in Organizations

Organizations that encourage a trusting culture are believed to have a competitive advantage on ethical decision-making. Part of a leader’s functions is to work with employees to find problems within an organization and solve them. The ease at which a leader gains access to the information they need to make ethical decisions and solve problems depends on how much employees trust them, and how much they (leaders) trust employees. This study examines the role of employee trust on ethical leadership decision making. It explores the role of employees trust towards their leaders’ ethical decision making and how a lack of employee trust (mistrust) in an organization affects ethical leadership decision making. The research methodology employed in this study is literature review and it was aimed at addressing critically the role of employee trust (and lack of that) towards leadership ethical decision making. The findings of this study indicate that when leaders are trusted by their employees, they are forced to prove their competence and ethics in the decisions they make. It also shows that when employees are trusted by their leaders, they encounter a feeling of indefinite responsibility to show signs of goodness towards their leaders and this influences ethical decision making. A lack of trust between employees and their leaders weakens relationships, causes suspicion, deception and affects a leader’s decision making ethics.