182 Copyright © 2014, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 9 Ethics and Leadership: The Role of Prevention and Promotion Oriented Approaches to Leadership ABSTRACT Leadership and ethics continue to be important areas of research. The devastating results of failed lead- ership in numerous Enron-like situations have ensured that this is the case. This chapter suggests how various leadership approaches and behaviors lead to or develop diferent types of employee behaviors that impact organizational outcomes. The framework reviews ethical, transformational, and servant leadership, and their relationship to self-regulatory focus. Specifcally, promotion-oriented leaders tend to refect transformational and servant-leadership behaviors and resulting organization cultures, while prevention-oriented leaders match the ethical leadership style and related organization culture. The prevention orientation is a conservative mindset guiding consistent leader and employee behavior, while the promotion orientation provides more opportunity for unique and innovative behaviors. INTRODUCTION In the current business environment, leadership and ethics continue to be important areas of research. This is particularly relevant given the frequency of Enron, Fannie Mae, and J. P. Morgan & Company-like corporate scandals that have continued to occur throughout the beginning of the 21 st century. Despite the prevalence of such scandals, a recent review by Brown and Trevino (2006) concluded “ethical leadership remains largely unexplored” (p. 595). Existing research focuses on identified contexts, attitudes, and en- vironments relating to unethical leader behavior and its impact on employees. Creating or fostering ethical leadership received less emphasis, reveal- ing a conspicuous disparity between highlighting negative aspects of unethical leadership and in- complete discussion on the application of positive, ethical leadership. The work presented here is Nathan S. Hartman Illinois State University, USA Thomas A. Conklin Georgia State University, USA DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-5840-0.ch009