Blazing New Trails - Connexions

Self-Efficacy and Principal Involvement in Character Education 215
style conducive to an effective implementation of a program designed to promote characterbuilding
and moral development (McCormick, 2001). The following section will highlight
certain leadership theories which contain elements that closely align with the leadership
qualities and skills needed to evoke changes in students’ character and moral thinking.
However, the demanding expectations placed on campus principals in discharging
their responsibilities and obligations for effective character education will require more than
the application of leadership skills, concepts, and styles (Jenson et al., 2003). Positive and
transformational change will depend on the administrator having knowledge of and
understanding his or her self-efficacy for implementing a character education program, and
the administrator then responding accordingly.
Ethical Leadership
Germane to research on a school administrator’s perceived self-efficacy beliefs is the
study of ethical leadership. Hitt (1990) explained the salient relationship between ethics and
leadership:
Ethics and leadership go hand-in-hand. An ethical environment is conducive to
effective leadership, and effective leadership is conducive to ethics. Effective
leadership is a consequence of effective leadership. Ethics and leadership function as
both cause and effect. (p. 1)
Leadership literature is replete with descriptions of core leadership values that should
characterize the school leader. Drummond, Ellis, Hook, Murray, and Seymour (2002) noted
the relationship between a leader and ethics:
To be effective, a leader must understand and embrace a strong set of ethics,
communicate them as a valued standard to co-workers, and live by them. Integrity is
the cornerstone on which trusting relationships are built and from which all honest
consensus is created. (p. 3)
The same authors also detailed how ethical behavior becomes an integral theme of the
organization by noting:
It is clear that leaders must consider a multiplicity of issues and concerns in making
consistently ethical decisions and in developing a code of ethical behavior for their
organizations. It is the leader’s role to set a clear and uniform example of ethical
behavior and to articulate specific expectations and goals so that ethical behavior
becomes an integral theme of the organization. (Drummond et al., 2002, p. 5)
However, in addition to the communication and modeling of value standards, school leaders
must understand that their own motivation will be a determining factor in whether or not the
organization’s ethical code will serve itself as a motivating factor.
According to Trautman (1998) of the National Institute of Ethics, leaders who
encourage their staff to maintain high ethical behavior and who desire to maximize their
potential will inherently (a) convey sincere interest in others, (b) satisfy the needs of their
employees, (c) develop a commitment to the organization, (d) demonstrate integrity when
dealing with fellow employees, (e) allow co-workers to actively participate in decision-