ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND THE ENACTMENT OF JUSTICE IN HIGHER EDUCATION GOVERNANCE: EVIDENCE FROM PRIVATE FAITH-BASED UNIVERSITIES
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Objective: Drawing on ethical leadership and organizational justice theory, this study examines how justice is enacted through leadership practices in private Islamic higher education institutions in South Sumatra, Indonesia. Method: Adopting a qualitative multiple-case study design, data were collected through in-depth interviews with institutional leaders and lecturers, supported by document analysis. Results: The findings reveal that perceptions of fairness are shaped less by distributive outcomes than by procedural justice embedded in governance practices. Ethical leadership emerges as a key mechanism enabling justice through transparency, consistency, and moral justification in decision-making processes, even under conditions of financial and structural constraint. Conversely, misalignment between ethical rhetoric and enacted practices generates ethical dissonance and undermines leadership legitimacy. Novelty: Justice in higher education governance is increasingly recognized as a critical ethical concern, particularly in relation to leadership practices that shape budget management, workload distribution, and reward systems. This study contributes to ethical leadership theory by repositioning ethical leadership as a governance capability rather than an individual moral trait, and extends organizational justice research by highlighting the primacy of procedural justice in resource-constrained academic environments. By offering contextually grounded insights from faith-based higher education institutions in the Global South, the study addresses a significant gap in the predominantly Western-centric literature on leadership and justice in higher education.
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