The antecedents of leadership unethical behavior in the Algerian state-owned companies

The problem of unethical leadership behavior within the state-owned companies in Algeria has cost the country enormous efforts and resources. However, the issue did not receive much attention and remained inadequately studied. Therefore, this study has explored the antecedents of leadership unethical behavior in the Algerian stateowned companies. The study used the state-owned company SONATRACH as a unit of analysis. A mixed methodology was employed to obtain the data. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured in-depth interview was used involving 15 interviewees. On the other hand, the quantitative phase employed the DIT-2 questionnaire. A total number of 200 questionnaires were distributed and the response rate was 33%. The interviews were thematically analyzed and facilitated by the use of ATLAS.ti 8 while the DIT-2 questionnaires were scored by the Center for the Study of Ethical Development, University of Alabama. The qualitative results showed that the antecedents of leadership unethical behavior within the Algerian state-owned companies fall into two major categories. The first one is related to the situational factors that contributed to the prevalence of leadership unethical behavior. The study revealed that these
situational antecedents are conducive environment, leadership development, organizational oversight, ineffective recruitment structure, and leaders-followers relationship. The second category of the antecedents of leadership unethical behavior
is related to the individual characteristics and values of leaders. These individual antecedents are the lack of ethical awareness, irresponsibility, egocentricity, ignorance, uncontrolled access to organizational resources, and poor leadership skills & qualities. In addition, the quantitative findings disclosed that leaders of the Algerian state-owned companies have low level of moral reasoning. The theoretical implication of this study is that the antecedents of unethical leadership behavior are twofold:
situational which are linked to the structural, cultural, and organizational settings and individual, which are related to the character treats of leaders. However, in countries with weak corruption control and fragile institutions; situational antecedents seem to have greater impact on the ethical conduct of leaders. In conclusion, the study proposed a model that can help in understanding the precursors of leadership unethical behavior.