Burns and Ethical Leadership Like Heifetz (1994), Burns (1978) argued that leadership (especially

transformational leadership, as described in Chapter 9) is about helping followers achieve higher ethical
standards when differing values conflict—especially when conflict is confronted during difficult
situations. He argued that the interaction of leaders and followers should raise the ethical behavior and
character of both. Leaders would do this by assisting followers to emphasize values such as equality,
justice, and liberty (Burns, 1978; Ciulla, 1998). Both perspectives emphasize the relationship between
leaders and followers and argue that this relationship is at the heart of ethical leadership. The ideas
presented by these scholars are similar to and in agreement with Gilligan’s (1982) ethic of caring. This
has become a central principle in ethical leadership research and is considered of paramount
importance to organizations because it is of critical importance in developing collaboration and trust
among leaders and followers (Brady, 1999).