The Effects of Leadership Styles on Organizational Trust and Disclosure of Unethical Behaviors (whistleblowing): a Practical Research

Abstract

Today, the enterprises can hold sustainable competitive advantage only through proper guidance of human capital movement. While management is merely regarded as a medium, leadership also appears as a form of administration, which leads organizations to success, increases productivity, directs the employees toward positive psychology while they are carrying out their duties, and ensures that there is a harmonious flow (Csikszentmihalyi in Akış - Mutluluk Bilimi. Buzdağ Yayınevi, Ankara, 2017). Within the social context, the leader’s behavioral pattern that he adopts while dealing with his team shapes his style. Trust acts as a bond that connects the leader with his followers and that increases the sphere of influence and success of the leader through organizational success and increasing productivity. Thus, it is regarded as a medium that will increase the leader’s power of influence for success and to guide his followers more easily, and that ensures better control of the followers. The disclosure of unethical behavior in workplace (whistleblowing) will take shape as a reflection of the leadership style and the way the human capital behaves when the organizational codes of conduct and legal ethical rules are violated. For these reasons, these three subjects are included in this study.