Fostering inclusive organizations through virtuous leadership

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an integrative framework of virtuous behaviors and inclusion in a variety of organizations. In so doing, we draw on earlier virtuous leadership models in view of delineating the virtuous leadership construct and advancing extant theoretical developments in the field. We elaborate on research streams focusing on virtue theory in business and management and suggest fruitful ways to expand on these issues. The chapter is intended to explore precisely how virtuous leadership can claim conceptual distinctiveness with respect to related values-based leadership theories. The chapter specifies dispositional and situational predictors of virtuous leadership that in turn address employee needs for both self-actualization through, and belongingness to, a business community. Virtuous leadership is by nature inclusive insofar as it generates multilevel beneficial outcomes by placing an emphasis on how leaders enact virtuous behaviors from which a diversity of organizational stakeholders can significantly benefit. Furthermore, virtuous leadership is socially beneficial by fostering equitable, inclusive, and more humane workplaces, as well as by being more sensitive to a bundle of societal and communal expectations