Abstract:
The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between ethical leader
behaviour and the five factors of personality in Vhembe District, South Africa. This research
used a quantitative method. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from
a stratified random sample of n=202 participants. All categories from selected government
departments of the Vhembe District were included in the strata meaning that junior and
senior employees both participated. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
version 25 was used for descriptive and inferential statistics (Correlation and ANOVA) to
determine relationships between ethical leadership and personality factors of agreeableness,
consciousness, neuroticism, extroversion and openness to experience. The Personality
Factor Scale was used to collect data on the five factors of personality, and the ethical
Leaders Scale was used to collect data on the dependent variable of ethical leader
behaviour. The findings of this study confirmed that out of the five factors of personality,
consciousness had the most a positive significant relationship with ethical leader behaviour.
Therefore, this study concludes that selected government departments of the Vhembe
District should exhibit ethical leadership to their employees. The study also discovers that
fairness, role clarifications and power sharing were the aspect of ethical leadership which is
required in every leader to become ethical.
