Abstract

The main purpose of our study was to gain a deeper understanding of how culture influences the interpretation of ethical leadership by both leaders and followers in Zambia and Sweden. The study was conducted using an interpretative narrative inquiry with a small sample of ten participants selected using a purposive sampling method. The participants were drawn from six small and medium local authorities in Sweden and Zambia. The empirical data was collected using semi-structured interview guides with interview sessions lasting 45 minutes on average. The data collected was transcribed and analyzed using narrative and thematic analysis. Based on this analysis, we came up with four main themes regarding the interpretation of ethical leadership by leaders and followers, and these are: Morality, Law, Humanity and Nature which constitute our Culture-Ethical Leadership interpretation model. The empirical narratives demonstrated some similarities in the interpretation of ethical leadership between leaders and followers in Sweden and Zambia. The leaders and followers from both countries affiliated ethical leadership to morality, humanity, adherence to the law, and, caring and protecting nature. Our research also led us to conclude that there is a degree of variance in the interpretation of ethical leadership which relates to the differences in the cultural contexts. In Zambia, leaders and followers show high inclination to the law as being ethical which is reflected in Bello ’s statement that failure to follow rules and regulations is a manifestation of unethical leadership while in Sweden, leaders and followers are inclined to high morality and humanity influenced by high levels of trust as narrated by our participants from Sweden.