■ Academic Paper Public sector leadership-subordinate ethical diffusion conundrum: perspectives from developing African countries Emmanuel Yeboah-Assiamah 1 *, Kwame Asamoah 2 , Justice Nyigmah Bawole 2 and Thomas Buabeng 2 1 School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosh, South Africa 2 Public Administration & Health Services Management, University of Ghana Business School, Legon, Greater Accra, Ghana The interaction between organizational superiors and their subordinates has a practical implication on the entire or- ganizational life cycle in terms of ethical conduct. This study explores how ethics among public leadership could trickle down on the conduct of public employees by using two empirical cases from developing African countries con- text. Using the attraction–selection–attrition and social learning models, the study assesses how superiors influence street level bureaucrats’ interaction with clients or customers. Drawing from existing cases and other secondary data, we propose a leadership-ethical diffusion model that argues that subordinates’ perception and experience of superiors’ behavior tend to create a kind of organizational ‘ethical groupthink’, which spans the rank and file of the organiza- tion. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords: public leadership, ethical leadership, Africa, organizational learning, ripple effect As corporations are searching for ways to decrease unethical employee activity, it is important to note that team members who perceived their team leader to have high integrity were less likely to commit unethical acts that impact the team itself and the organization (White & Lean 2008,. P. 774). I will never believe I have done anything criminally wrong… If I bent any rules, who doesn’t? If you are going to punish me, sweep away the system. If I am guilty, there are many others who should be by my side in the dock (on trial). (an organizational member - on trial - indicted for unethical corrupt conduct; Chibnall & Saunders 1977, p. 142). INTRODUCTION A story — mostly in the African context of public Admin- istration — is told of a young police constable who got recruited into the police service and initially was so committed to upholding integrity in his line of duty. This officer was inspecting drivers as well as vehicles, he was was so committed that, any minor offense he would not get compromised but arrested the drivers to the office. To his utter dismay, whenever he brought these drivers to the office, his superiors set- tled the issue through some ‘transactions and compro- mises’ without due process of prosecuting offenders. Later, this young officer had no option but to be bap- tized into this organizational culture exhibited by the superior. The conjectural scenario portrays a clear case that superior–subordinate relationship has a ripple effect on the ethical behavior of organizations. From the scenario above and arguing from Bandura’s *Correspondence to: Emmanuel Yeboah-Assiamah, School of Public Leadership, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602 Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa. E-mail: 19301537@sun.ac.za Journal of Public Affairs Volume 16 Number 4 pp 320–330 (2016) Published online 5 November 2015 in Wiley Online Library (www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pa.1589 Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.