Ethical Coaching as a Tool for Strengthening Servant Leadership and Reducing Administrative Corruption: A Grounded Theory-Based Analysis

Using a grounded theory approach, this study sought to design a conceptual process model that explores and explains the role of “ethical leadership” in fostering “servant leadership” and reducing “administrative corruption” in government organizations. Qualitative research methodology was conducted using the structuralist grounded theory approach of Strauss and Corbin, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 18 senior managers and expert professors in Tehran and analyzed using a three-stage coding method. The resulting exploratory model identified “development of professional ethical conscience” as a central phenomenon. Ethical leadership (the intervening phenomenon) leads to strengthening servant leadership (intermediate outcome) and ultimately reducing administrative corruption (ultimate outcome) through mechanisms such as “creating a safe space for ethical reflection” and “strengthening value self-awareness.” By linking the three areas of leadership, servant leadership, and administrative corruption, this research presents a new conceptual framework for anti-corruption interventions based on the individual's internal development. Its main contribution is to present a qualitative-exploratory model of a multi-level process that shows how individual interventions at the leadership level, under conditions of organizational support, can lead to tangible behavioral changes in combating corruption.