GAUGING THE INFLUENCE OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP ON BRIBERY AND FAVORITISM IN NIGERIAN PUBLIC SECTOR

For years, the ethical situations among leaders and followers in Nigeria particularly within the Nigerian public sector organizations had continued to worsen leading to at one time Nigeria been crowned as the most corrupt (Number One) country on earth by Transparency International (TI). Inorder to minimized and address the problem, several regulatory and enforcement agencies were established, but still the issues continue to permeate. This study examined the effect of ethical leadership on bribery and favoritism in the Nigerian public sector organizations. Data for the study was collected from 208 public sector leaders/managers and followers/employees using the cross-sectional method. Results of the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that Ethical Leadership has significant negative relationship with both bribery and favoritism. The study concluded that promoting ethical leadership style within the public sector organizations will reduces the negative effect of bribery and favoritism. Thus, ethical leadership, if encouraged, will be an important leadership style capable of fighting bribery and favoritism in the public sector organization.