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influence protégé ethical behaviours when Conclusion
they share the same values and attributes as
the wider organisation and group. When men- As an increasing number of corporate scandals
tors are not prototypical to the group and have been exposed over the past decade,
organisation, however, their efforts to influ- there is a growing interest in how to develop
ence protégé ethical behaviours through the ethical leadership. This doctorate thesis
provision of ethical guidance and role model- attempted to address this gap, by answering
ling may be in vain. the question of how mentoring relates to
developing protégé ethical leadership (i.e., the
Limitations focal outcome of this study) and other ethical
outcomes.
The current research is not without its limita-
tions. In so doing, two research questions (as out-
lined on page 1) were explored in two sepa-
First, the study suffered from a limited sample rate studies. We answered the first question in
size. Past research has demonstrated that study 1 by developing a psychometrically
restricted sample sizes can have a negative sound two-factor scale (mentor ethical role
effect on analysis; it is possible that this may modelling, and ethical guidance) to measure
have hampered the robustness of the derived protégé perceptions of ethics-related mentor-
results, as a result of reduced statistical power. ing.
Another limitation of this study is that it relies We began to answer the second question in
on selfreports of protégés. Although methods study 2 by finding that organisations can pro-
based on selfreported data are commonly mote and develop ethical leadership within
used in mentoring and in wider social science their organisations by employing mentoring
research, there are problems associated with programmes. Having done so, it is important
the accuracy of individuals’ responses (e.g., that organisations not only select mentors
eliciting honest responses is a challenge). who have a reputation for being ethical, but
who are also perceived by their protégé(s) as
Further, it should be noted that the results of being a prototypical member of the organisa-
this study are limited by the use of an online tion.
panel for data collection (i.e., Qualtrics online
panel). The main disadvantage of using such The implications for practitioners are outlined
panel is that some respondents are likely to be next.
cheaters or speeders, which are difficult to
control properly.
