Employees are likely to perform better and be committed to the organization when they are supervised by ethical leaders, even when working remotely. Ethical leadership is evident in an organization when employees recognize values such as integrity, fairness and care for others through the actions of a leader.

Coming out of the pandemic, we were interested in the shift to remote work and how it impacts employees when they are not able to observe and interact with managers face-to-face. Given that our research team has over 60 years of combined leadership experience in multiple industries and over 40 years of combined academic experience, we could envision the shift to remote work being impactful. These findings are based on three studies of salespeople conducted between 2021 and 2024 aimed at understanding how ethical leadership is perceived in a remote work environment.

Across the studies, our results showed that when salespeople perceive their leaders as ethical, they feel significantly more committed to the organization. That commitment, in turn, leads to greater well-being and better performance.

Interestingly, even as the percentage of remote supervision increases, these positive effects hold steady, suggesting that ethical leadership remains powerful and effective, even in fully remote positions.

In-depth interviews with sales professionals who worked remotely highlighted four key factors that help reinforce ethical leadership in a remote setting: consistent and transparent communication, occasional in-person interactions, modeling integrity, and establishing clear ethical standards.

Read the full article on The Conversation.

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This essay was written by Harbert College of Business marketing faculty Mark Gleim and Emory Serviss, along with Kelly Manix (Middle Tennessee State University), Matt Howard (University of South Alabama) and Matthew Oglesby (University of North Alabama); it was published on The Conversation on April 17, 2025.