Ethical Leadership and Its Role in Conflict Management: A Study of Ethiopian National Sports Federations

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of ethical leadership on conflict management within Ethiopian national sports federations, addressing gaps in the literature on sports organizations. Method: This research employed a mixed-methods, particularly embedded research design, which combines the quantitative data from 296 administrators and qualitative insights from 15 administrators. In this study, four hypotheses were tested examining the roles of leader integrity, fairness, role modeling, and communication about ethics in conflict management.

Results: The data from the quantitative method were analyzed with a confidence level of 95% by using SPSS version 28. Multiple linear regression analysis confirmed that all four factors (leader integrity, fairness, role modeling, and communication about ethics) significantly impact conflict management, with role modeling (β = 0.889, p < 0.05), followed by communication about ethics (β = 0.488, p < 0.05), leader integrity (β = 0.316, p < 0.05), and fairness (β = 0.273, p < 0.05). Qualitative data were analyzed with NVivo, and the findings supported the quantitative results by highlighting how ethical leadership develops trust, transparency, and association, thereby reducing conflicts arising from resource distribution and employee disagreements. This result also underlined the importance of ethical leadership in Ethiopian national sports federations.

Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of ethical leadership in mitigating conflicts within these sport federations. Therefore, training in ethical leadership and communication is recommended to enhance conflict resolution and promote organizational unity.