INTEGRITY-BASED COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP AS A GOVERNANCE INSTRUMENT: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR SUSTAINABLE LOCAL IN MALAYSIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJLGC.1145016Keywords:
Community Leadership, Conceptual Framework, Governance, Integrity, Local Government, MalaysiaAbstract
This paper aims to develop an integrity-based conceptual framework that positions community leadership as a governance instrument within Malaysia’s local development landscape while community participation has long been recognized in development discourse, community leadership remains largely framed as a grassroots phenomenon rather than as a structural mechanism embedded in governance design. At the same time, integrity scholar continues to focus predominantly on formal institutions and bureaucratic accountability, with limited attention given to integrity practices operating at the community level. This conceptual gap limits the theoretical integration between leadership studies, governance theory and integrity frameworks. Drawing on transformational leadership with collaborative governance theory, institutional trust perspectives and integrity-based governance principle. Therefore, this paper is reconceptualizing community leadership as a normative and structural governance mechanisms that can strengthens institutional trust, collaborative governance capacity, and sustainable local development outcomes. The study proposes an integrity-based conceptual framework to the Malaysian governance context and contributes to governance scholarship by bridging fragmented theoretical domains. The framework provides a basic for designing local governance ecosystems through integrity-oriented community leadership.
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