University governance: the challenge of having ethical leadership

This academic article addresses the issue of university governance in the 21st century, and the need for ethical leaders in the management of higher education institutions. In this way, some primitive, perfectible and situated guidelines are proposed, which allow progress towards reflection and formalization, of qualities and attributes that management leaders must have, attending to the demands and interpellations that society as a whole makes to The universities, it is not enough that who directs the institutions and the management team that accompanies them, have extraordinary highly qualified professional competences, but they must also have specific competences that allow them to address issues associated with ethics in the institutions they govern. In this way, from a descriptive qualitative methodological approach based on documentary analysis and empirical approaches to successful models, it is revealed what is an ethical leadership, its qualities and attributes, as well as some strength ideas of how a managerial leader can move towards an ethical leadership in its management. As a result, the article proposes some guidelines referring to sensitivities, principles, values, and personal dispositions, which allow the leader to face and live ethical conflicts, even when his own values are put into play.