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Ethical Leaders and Their Followers: The Transmission of Moral Identity and Moral Attentiveness
Abstract
In the expanding field of ethical leadership research, little attention has been paid to the association between ethical leaders’ ethical characteristics (beyond personality) and perceived ethical leadership, and, more importantly, the potential influence of ethical leadership on followers’ ethical characteristics. In this study, we tested a theoretical model based upon social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) to examine leaders’ moral identity and moral attentiveness as antecedents of perceived ethical leadership, and follower moral identity and moral attentiveness as outcomes of ethical leadership. Based upon data from 89 leaders and 460 followers in China, collected at two points in time, we found that leaders’ moral identity and moral attentiveness are associated with follower’s perceptions of ethical leadership. Ethical leadership is, in turn, associated with their followers’ moral identity and moral attentiveness. We found furthermore that ethical leadership mediates the effect of leaders’ moral identity on followers’ moral identity, but not the effect of leaders’ moral attentiveness on followers’ moral attentiveness. We discuss the findings, theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research.
... ethical leadership entails exhibiting normatively appropriate behavior in personal and professional contexts, while promoting ethical conduct within the organization. this is accomplished through the visible modeling of ethical behavior, the reinforcement of ethical actions, and the enforcement of sanctions against violations of organizational standards Brown & mitchell, 2010;Brown & treviño, 2006;mayer et al., 2012;treviño et al., 2000;Zhu et al., 2016). ...
... studies show that mD mediates the el-uPB relationship, as unethical leaders encourage the use of moral disengagement mechanisms by their subordinates (mesdaghinia et al., 2023; mo et al., 2023; moore et al., 2019; newman et al., 2020). Furthermore, el is negatively related to the subordinates' moral characteristics that predict unethical behaviors such as (a) mD (lian et al., 2022; moore et al., 2019), (b) moral attentiveness (miao et al., 2020;Zhu et al., 2016), (c) moral identity (Zhu et al., 2016), and (d) ethical evaluation (Den Hartog, 2015). therefore, the mediating roles of these variables are essential for a comprehensive understanding of uPB predictors. ...
... studies show that mD mediates the el-uPB relationship, as unethical leaders encourage the use of moral disengagement mechanisms by their subordinates (mesdaghinia et al., 2023; mo et al., 2023; moore et al., 2019; newman et al., 2020). Furthermore, el is negatively related to the subordinates' moral characteristics that predict unethical behaviors such as (a) mD (lian et al., 2022; moore et al., 2019), (b) moral attentiveness (miao et al., 2020;Zhu et al., 2016), (c) moral identity (Zhu et al., 2016), and (d) ethical evaluation (Den Hartog, 2015). therefore, the mediating roles of these variables are essential for a comprehensive understanding of uPB predictors. ...
While much of the literature on unethical behavior focuses on self-serving misconduct, this study explores employees’ violations of social norms and/or ethical standards to benefit their organizations: unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). Given the unique socio-cultural and economic dynamics in Hispanic American contexts, this study examines how critical organizational, interpersonal, and cognitive factors contribute to UPB in this region. Drawing from social identity theory, social learning theory, social exchange theory, and social cognitive theory, we hypothesize that ethical culture, ethical leadership, leader-member exchange, organizational identification, moral disengagement, and ethical evaluation play significant roles in shaping employee behavior. Data collection proceeded through an online survey with 652 employees from various industries in Ecuador and Venezuela. Findings support most of the hypotheses, shedding light on the complex dynamics of UPB within Hispanic-American organizations. The study offers theoretical and practical insights for managing UPB in similar socio-cultural environments.
... The evidence suggests that MID significantly influences how leadership affects employees' psychological mechanisms and behaviors (Shaw & Liao, 2021). Moreover, MID also acts as a moderating factor in the link between EL and psychological processes and workplace behavior among employees (Ahmed & Khan, 2023;Chuang & Chiu, 2018;Moore et al., 2019;O'Keefe et al., 2019;Taylor & Pattie, 2014;Zhu et al., 2016). ...
... Taylor and Pattie (2014) discovered a negative moderating effect of MID on the link between EL and job satisfaction. Likewise, Zhu et al. (2016) showed that employye' MID reflected a detrimental moderating effect in the correlation between EL and organizational citizenship behavior. ...
... This noteworthy discovery is consistent with prior scholarly investigations that have underscored the moderating influence of employees' MID in various leadership-related dynamics and employee outcomes (Ahmed & Khan, 2023;Chuang & Chiu, 2018;Moore et al., 2019;O'Keefe et al., 2019;Taylor & Pattie, 2014;Zhu et al., 2016). By highlighting the differential effects of employees' MID, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how individual moral orientations interact with leadership behaviors to influence employees' psychological well-being and adaptive behaviors. ...
Despite the widely recognized positive nature of ethical leadership, recent studies have reported inconsistent findings in the link between ethical leadership and employees’ behavior. Drawing on the social cognitive theory, this study seeks to address this gap by investigating the paradoxical influence of ethical leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior among employees. Additionally, the study aims to explore the mediating mechanism of employees’ psychological capital and the moderating effect of moral identity. Three time intervals data were collected from nursing professional from public and private hospitals in Pakistan. The data were evaluated employing PLS SEM. Interestingly, the findings contradict the hypothesis and demonstrate a positive link between ethical leadership and unethical pro-organizational behavior among employees. Moreover, the relationship is mediated by employees’ psychological capital. Furthermore, employees’ moral identity moderates this relationship. These findings furnish important insights into the paradoxical impact of ethical leadership within organizations and challenge its universal perception of positive leadership style having significant theoretical and practical implications.
... The moral person reflects integrity, approachability, concern, and consideration for others along with strong active listening. The moral administrator, in addition to using discipline, establishes ethical communication to insist on the importance of understanding and applying certain moral standards [7]. Through their uniqueness, the ethical leader persuades the follower with a series of associated key behaviors such as moral role modeling, where the attributes of the ethical leader do not go unnoticed by the follower. ...
... Finally, TI helps followers internalize and consistently reinforce the ethical leader's system of rewards and discipline. Being convinced of the ethical model promoted by the leader increases the follower's perception of fairness in organizational processes and reduces stressful situations [7]. ...
... reinforce the ethical leader's system of rewards and discipline. Being convinced of the ethical model promoted by the leader increases the follower's perception of fairness in organizational processes and reduces stressful situations [7]. ...
The role of ethical leadership in virtual settings is not yet clearly defined, but it may be the key to addressing employees’ emotional exhaustion. In addition, to prevent emotional exhaustion, it is important to determine the role of work autonomy and teleworking intensity. The present research examined how and when ethical leadership influences emotional exhaustion through work autonomy and teleworking intensity. Data collected from 448 workers in the Colombian electrical sector were analyzed using a SEM moderated mediation model. The results indicate a positive relationship between ethical leadership and emotional exhaustion mediated by work autonomy. The results also show that teleworking intensity moderates the mediation process. Specifically, the positive impact of ethical leadership on emotional exhaustion stopped when teleworking intensity was high. Likewise, high teleworking intensity intensified the positive relationship between ethical leadership and work autonomy. Finally, high teleworking intensity dampened the positive relationship between work autonomy and emotional exhaustion. In conclusion, working virtually five days a week is a strategy that amplifies the leader-member relationship and becomes an advantage to effectively combat emotional exhaustion. The results obtained in this research are particularly relevant because they show for the first time that ethical leadership can have opposite effects on employees’ emotional exhaustion, both positive and negative, depending on the number of days teleworked, thus contributing to a new understanding of the characteristics of the ethical leader in a virtual environment.
... Accordingly, we argued that moral attentiveness, which is defined as 'the extent to which an individual chronically perceives and considers morality and moral elements in his or her experiences' (Reynolds 2008(Reynolds , 1028, is a significant moderator of the relationship between socially responsible human resource management and moral disengagement. Moral attentiveness is a key moral cognition category that enables individuals to focus on morally relevant information (Zhu, Treviño and Zheng 2016), and thus it may influence employees' attentiveness and understanding of the moral dimensions of socially responsible human resource management. Specifically, when employees exhibit a higher level of moral attentiveness, they usually experience the more salient, vivid, and accessible moral cues from socially responsible human resource management (Zhao, Chen and Liu 2023). ...
... Specifically, when employees exhibit a higher level of moral attentiveness, they usually experience the more salient, vivid, and accessible moral cues from socially responsible human resource management (Zhao, Chen and Liu 2023). As such, employees are more likely to perceive and understand socially responsible human resource management in terms of morality and be motivated to do the right thing based on moral norms (Zhu, Treviño and Zheng 2016). Therefore, employees tend to consider and reflect upon the ethical issues and be accountable for immoral conduct, which in turn reduces moral disengagement. ...
... Therefore, we suggest that the organization should realize the importance and benefits of moral attentiveness and pay attention to the cultivation of moral attentiveness (Reynolds 2008). Indeed, previous research has also suggested that organizations should use ethical tools to create an ethical workplace, such as the cultivation of ethical leadership (Jennings, Mitchell and Hannah 2015;Zhu, Treviño and Zheng 2016) and adherence to ethical principles (Gok et al. 2023). ...
Unethical behavior may result in detrimental consequences for the organization. Therefore, scholars are proactively trying to explore its antecedents. Human resource management, as a crucial factor that controls employees' behavior for effective organizational functioning, has gained limited attention in previous studies. To complement this aspect, we argue that socially responsible human resource management with moral nature may affect employees' unethical behavior. Drawing on moral self‐regulation theory, our study constructs a theoretical model that socially responsible human resource management negatively affects employees' unethical behavior through the decrease of moral disengagement. We additionally contend that the effect becomes stronger as employees exhibit a higher level of moral attentiveness because contextual factors (i.e. socially responsible human resource management) and individual characteristics (i.e. moral attentiveness) could interactively influence employees' cognition of immoral conduct and their unethical behaviors. A survey consisted of 229 employees supports the proposed model and hypotheses. Our research contributes to the theoretical and practical implications for socially responsible human resource management and unethical behavior literatures, and we also discuss the limitations and future research directions.
... Previous studies investigated the effect of ethical leadership on unethical behavior with a focus on behaviors contradicting organizational interests (Ruiz-Palomino & Martinez-Cañas, 2011). However, further research is required to comprehend the relationship between ethical leadership and moral identity (Brown & Mitchell, 2010;Brown & Treviño, 2006;Mayer et al., 2012;Qin et al., 2018;Zhu et al., 2016). For instance, Zhu et al. (2016) stated that it needs to be addressed if ethical leaders can influence the ethicsrelated personal characteristics of their followers, such as their moral identity. ...
... However, further research is required to comprehend the relationship between ethical leadership and moral identity (Brown & Mitchell, 2010;Brown & Treviño, 2006;Mayer et al., 2012;Qin et al., 2018;Zhu et al., 2016). For instance, Zhu et al. (2016) stated that it needs to be addressed if ethical leaders can influence the ethicsrelated personal characteristics of their followers, such as their moral identity. They further argued that the followers' moral identity, erstwhile considered as trait-like and more stable, can be reformed by external stimuli, such as a strong ethical leadership. ...
... Materializing (Zhu et al., 2016;Brown & Mitchell's, 2010) recommendations, we explored the link between moral identity and unethical behavior. We also investigated moral identity as a mediator between ethical leadership and self-reported unethical behavior. ...
Abstract
This study draws on social identity, social learning, and trait-activation theories to probe if moral identity mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and unethical behavior. It investigates how ethical leadership serves as a predictor of employees’ unethical behavior and moral identity as a mediator between ethical leadership and employees’ unethical behavior. Together, these variables influence the self-reported unethical behavior of employees. The findings of this study are based on a sample of 297 oil and gas sector employees in Pakistan. For this purpose, data was analyzed through SPSS and AMOS. Consistent with trait-activation and social learning theories, employees on seeing their leaders behaving ethically develop a positive sense of the moral identity and report fewer incidences of unethical behavior. Furthermore, the findings suggested that moral identity and ethical leadership behavior are vital for predicting organizational outcomes. Thus, the originality of this study lies in the fact that it analyzed the influence of moral identity as a mediating variable.
... In recent decades, there have been numerous business scandals that have brought attention to the ethical implications surrounding the financial reporting process (Huang et al., 2020;Monteiro et al., 2022;Zhu et al., 2016). Chen (2010) emphasized that these instances were primarily driven by a lack of moral traits, such as integrity, and that unethical executives could engage in fraudulent activities, such as earnings management, to serve their own financial interests. ...
... Trevino et al. (2003) and Mayer et al. (2010) highlighted that these scandals were triggered by a lack of personal qualities like integrity and honesty in leadership positions within institutions. For example, in the Enron scandal, the management fostered a culture of conflict of interest and unethical accounting practices, ultimately resulting in the company's downfall (Zhu et al., 2016;Ponnu, Tennakoon, 2009). Goswami and Agrawal (2023) and Taylor and Pattie (2014) emphasized that the evaluation of managers based on their ability to meet analyst forecasts is a subject of ongoing debate. ...
The study presents a systematic literature review on earnings management and ethical leadership using the content analysis method. Secondary sources of data from academic journals were utilized to address the issue of earnings management. A total of 112 articles, spanning the period from 1977 to 2022, were examined. The study explores the theoretical aspects of earnings management and the conceptualization and operationalization of ethical leadership. The selected articles underwent a systematic review process, and a content analysis was conducted to provide a structured overview of the existing scholarship in this field. Effective ethical leadership plays a crucial role in overseeing and minimizing manipulated earnings. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature by suggesting ethical leadership as a means to mitigate earnings manipulation. This article is distinguished as one of the pioneering works that provides a thorough analysis of the literature on ethical leadership and earnings management. The findings of this study will be valuable to organizations aiming to reduce earnings management practices and improve the quality of financial reporting.
... Given that knowledge hiding is perpetrated by and targeted at individuals, scholars have called for more research to explore the role of personal factors in the consequences of knowledge hiding (Jiang et al., 2019). Although moral identity internalization is a relatively stable personal characteristic, it can be cultivated and altered (e.g., Gerpott et al., 2019;Shao et al., 2008;Zhu et al., 2016), thereby allowing organizations to implement appropriate management practices to better manage knowledge hiding in the workplace. Thus, our study provides new insights that can help reduce the negative consequences of knowledge hiding. ...
... Managers can act as a role model for employees by adhering to high moral standards. By observing and learning managers' moral behaviors, employees will acquire and integrate these moral values and standards into their self-concept (Zhu et al., 2016). Ethical training programs could also be developed to enhance employees' moral identity. ...
Research on knowledge hiding has largely focused on its antecedents while overlooking its consequences. Drawing on moral cleansing theory, we adopt a “perpetrator-centric view” and posit that employees who engage in playing dumb and evasive hiding–two specific knowledge hiding behaviors that involve deception–will subsequently perform more organizational citizenship behavior directed toward individuals (OCB-I) because they perceive a loss of moral credits following their moral transgression. Further, we propose that the indirect effects are contingent on perpetrators’ moral identity internalization. We tested our hypotheses using a time-lagged research design with a sample of 362 respondents from a large pharmaceutical group company. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that employees who engaged in playing dumb and evasive hiding subsequently exhibited more OCB-I as they perceived a loss of moral credits, whereas employees who engaged in rationalized hiding did not. In addition, the positive relationships between playing dumb and evasive hiding with perceived loss of moral credits were stronger when perpetrators had high moral identity internalization, as were the indirect effects of playing dumb and evasive hiding on OCB-I via perceived loss of moral credits. Our research contributes to the understanding of when and how engaging in knowledge hiding affects perpetrators and their compensatory behaviors toward coworkers.
... On the other hand, employees' MID can also weaken the positive influence of EL on employees' psychological mechanisms and behaviors. Empirical research demonstrated that employees' MID negatively moderated the linkage between EL and their organizational citizenship behavior [37]. ...
... Therefore, in the presence of EL, employees with a strong MID are more likely to be affected by the ethical behaviors modeled by their leaders [4,22]. Conversely, employees with a weak MID may be less influenced by EL and may engage in unethical behavior even when EL is present [37]. Hence drawing on the SCT and the literature, we postulate the following hypothesis. ...
Ethical leadership, widely recognized as a positive leadership style, has shown inconsistent relationships with employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior in the workplace. This study draws on the social cognitive theory to investigate the paradoxical impact of ethical leadership on employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior. It also examines the mediating role of employees' psychological empowerment and the moderating effect of moral identity. The study collects data from 515 nursing staff working in public and private hospitals in Pakistan at three different time intervals, and analyzed using PLS SEM. Contrary to the previous studies and our initial hypothesis, the findings reveal a positive relationship between ethical leadership and employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior. Additionally, the study demonstrates that employees' psychological empowerment positively mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior. This underscores the significance of employees' psychological processes. Furthermore, the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' psychological empowerment is moderated by employees' moral identity. This highlights the role of the individual differences in shaping employees’ behavior within the workplace. Overall, these results challenge the universal perception of ethical leadership as a positive form of leadership, shedding light on the unintended consequences and paradoxical impact it can have in organizations.
... According to social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986(Bandura, , 1991, individuals learn social and moral norms from important role models. Moral and ethical leadership models the rightness or wrongness of a particular action in leader-follower dyadic interactions, which strongly influences followers' moral identity (Fairholm & Fairholm, 2009;Ghahremani, 2019;Hackett & Wang, 2012;Jennings et al., 2015;Zhu et al., 2016). Seven leadership styles have been linked to moral identity: ethical leadership, servant leadership, authentic leadership, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, leader narcissism, and abusive supervision. ...
... Ethical leaders practice these virtues, transmit ethical values, attitudes, and behaviors and commit to building an ethical organization. All of these characteristics have a strong and positive influence on followers (Spangenberg & Theron, 2005;Zhu et al., 2016). Followers observe their leaders and learn their desirable characteristics and then emulate them to develop a good and moral self. ...
Moral identity is an important self-concept. Taking a social cognitive perspective, we propose an integrative framework to examine the relationships between moral identity and its antecedents, including demographic variables, personality traits, and organizational contexts (specifically leadership style and ethical climate). An analysis of the effect sizes in 110 studies involving 44,441 participants shows that gender, personality traits, and organizational context are strongly associated with moral identity. The moral identity measure used, cultural tendencies toward individualism or collectivism, and demographic characteristics moderate the relationships between moral identity and its antecedents. The significance and implications of the factors that influence moral identity are discussed.
... JO is defined as "the extent to which individuals internalize justice as a moral virtue and are attentive to fairness issues around them" (Sasaki & Hayashi, 2014: p. 252). We examine JO, as Zhu et al. (2016) suggest that ethical leaders can positively shape and develop followers' ethicsrelated personal characteristics and urge scholars to study the relationship of EL with followers' ethics-related personal characteristics. Importantly, as rightly noted by Zheng et al. (2021), prior studies have mainly focused on the definitional constructs, such as social exchange processes, trust, and role modeling as the mechanisms underlying the ELemployee outcomes at work. ...
... Our work contributes to theory and practice in several ways. By establishing JO as a mediating mechanism explicating why EL affects employees' KH behaviors, we foreground the value of EL for shaping employees' ethicsrelated personal characteristics and respond to the calls on exploring non-definitional and followers' ethics-related personal characteristics, constructs as mediators (Anser et al., 2021;Zheng et al., 2021;Zhu et al., 2016). Given that past research has mainly considered the definitional constructs of EL as the mediating mechanisms of the links between EL and employee outcomes, this contribution is important. ...
Given the dearth of research examining the distinctions across various facets of employee knowledge-hiding (KH) behaviors, there is little known about why and when leadership negatively influences playing dumb and evasive hiding but positively influences rationalized hiding. The present study fills this void by hypothesizing that employee justice orientation (JO) acts as a mediator of the associations of ethical leadership (EL) with different facets of employee KH behaviors. We also propose employee conscientiousness moderates the relationship of EL with JO and the indirect relationships of ethical leadership with distinct variants of employee KH behaviors. The results based on time-lagged data from 387 employees provide support for the hypothesized relationships. Together, our research provides a more nuanced account of the influence of leadership on employee KH behaviors that can facilitate the development of more appropriate interventions to deal with the intricate problems related to employee KH behaviors.
... Thus, employee creative and innovative behaviour has been noted to be an enabler of strength that facilitates organisational success (Setyaningrum & Muafi 2022). Furthermore, according to Zhu et al. (2016), employees' creative and innovative behaviour is perceived as precious capital within organisations which encourage variety, change and adaptation. ...
... According to the social learning theory, vicarious learning can also take place by observing the consequences of one's actions (Zhu et al., 2016). Supervisors are critical in socializing employees into their work-related behaviours and rewarding them for how well they fulfil these behaviours. ...
... However, this study area is still in its infancy despite numerous studies on the relationships among various leadership philosophies, creativity, and business transformation. Several additional studies have documented the contribution of diverse leadership philosophies in enhancing creative performance [8,9]. IWB significantly contributes to organizational breakthroughs, expansion, and existence, and still attracts relatively little academic attention. ...
... Both academics and practitioners have placed a high value on EL in the last decade [8,26]. Numerous researchers have explored the impact of EL on workers' attitudes and behaviors at work and depicted being an effective predictor of job satisfaction [27], voice behavior [28], and ethical performance [29]. ...
In contemporary studies, leadership has been frequently highlighted as an important aspect in facilitating innovative work behavior (IWB) in ever-changing organizations. Drawn on social learning theory, this research investigated the influence of ethical leadership (EL) on employee’s innovative behaviors (IWB). The relationship between ethical leadership (EL) and employee innovative behavior (IWB) is mediated by job crafting (JC), with the moderating role of self-leadership (SL) also being studied. In total, 370 valid responses were retrieved from the service industry of Zhejiang province in China. The study used Mplus 8.0 to run the moderated mediation model. It is found that ethical leadership (EL) is positively linked with innovative work behavior (IWB) and job crafting (JC). Subsequently, the study also found that job crafting (JC) is significantly related to innovative work behavior (IWB). Additionally, the study confirms that job crating (JC) significantly mediates the relationship between ethical leadership (EL) and innovative work behavior (IWB). Additionally, the study reveals that a high level of self-leadership (SL) strengthens the association between ethical leadership (EL) and job crafting (JC).
... As employees engage in job crafting, the freedom and autonomy they experience can heighten job-based PO, which in turn may encourage knowledge hiding (Kim M et al.,2017). However, the presence of ethical leadership can temper this effect by emphasizing the importance of collective bene t and ethical conduct, reducing the self-protective impulses that often accompany strong feelings of ownership (Zhu W et al.,2016). In environments where ethical leadership is low, employees may feel less socially or ethically bound to share knowledge, increasing their tendency to protect their perceived "ownership" by hiding knowledge (Su X ...
Purpose –The purpose of this research is to investigate the dark side of job crafting by examining its impact on knowledge hiding behavior in organizations while incorporating the mediating role of job-based psychological ownership and the moderating role of ethical leadership. Design/methodology/approach – Data from a sample of 320 respondents in China was collected over three waves spanning three months. Five hypotheses were tested using hierarchal regression analysis and bootstrapping method. Findings –The findings show that job crafting is positively related to knowledge hiding behavior; job-based PO positively mediates job crafting-knowledge hiding relationship; ethical leadership negatively moderates the relationship between job-based PO and knowledge hiding behavior; ethical leadership weakens the mediating effect of job-based PO on the relationship between job crafting and knowledge hiding behavior. Originality/value –This study provides a new perspective for organizations to recognize the dark side of job crafting by applying the extended self theory, thereby enriching the scope of research on job crafting’s negative side. By introducing ethical leadership as a moderating variable, this study also provides answers to when negative consequences of job-based PO will be mitigated.
... Ayoko (2022) describe ethical leaders as honest, trustworthy, fair and supportive, guiding their attitudes and behaviors in order to structure fair work environments. These leaders contrast with despotic leaders who put their interests before those of the organization and present authoritarian behaviors, focused on their own interests and the exploitation of others (Zhu et al., 2016). ...
The school, as the basic unit and a space for the achievement of objectives and goals of the education system, is constantly being renovated, becoming a major challenge for the directors, because it requires of them new skills, knowledge, abilities and attitudes that converge in the need of development of skills for making the decisions more participatory and fair. This study goal is to identify in 30 educational directors of school groups, their leadership perceptions and practices. As a method to achieve this goal, a mix study has been carried out using semi-structured interviews and three leadership scales (ethical, moral and transformational). As results it was found that the leadership perceptions vary between transactional and transformational and that some leadership skills are predictors of the type of leadership exercised. Future studies are needed about leadership, different styles and cultural organizational context variables.
... Se voi kuitenkin olla vaikeaa, sillä emme tarkkaan tiedä, mikä ajaa ihmisiä epäeettisyyteen. Eettistä toimintaa ennustaa ainakin yksilön oma moraalinen identiteetti, jonka ilmeneminen johtamisen käytänteissä voi tukea myös alaisten eettisyyttä (Mayer, Aquino, Greenbaum & Kuenzi, 2012;Skubinn & Herzog, 2016;Zhu, Treviño & Zheng, 2016). Moraalisella identiteetillä tarkoitetaan henkilökohtaista kokemusta moraalin tärkeydestä itselle eli sitä, kuinka keskeisinä yksilö kokee moraaliset arvot osana omaa minäkäsitystään. ...
Tässä artikkelissa kuvaamme, miten johtajien moraalinen identiteetti näyttäytyy organisaatioissa ilmenevissä moraalisissa haasteissa ja millaisia kehityskulkuja identiteeteissä on havaittavissa. Esitämme, että Marcian identiteettistatusparadigmaa voidaan soveltaa myös moraaliseen kehitykseen. Näin ollen myös moraalisen identiteetin kypsyys voidaan määritellä kahden identiteetin rakentamiseen liittyvän keskeisen prosessin avulla, joita ovat henkilökohtaisten arvojen aktiivinen etsintä sekä arvoihin sitoutuminen. Lisäksi sovellamme Marcian identiteettitasapainoa horjuttavan tapahtuman käsitettä moraalisiin ongelmatilanteisiin. Empiirisessä osuudessa kuvaamme, millaisia kontekstiin ja/tai yksilöön liittyviä tekijöitä on tunnistettavissa, jotka voivat joko tukea tai haastaa johtajien moraalisen identiteetin ilmenemistä ja kehittymistä organisaatioissa. Vedämme yhteen esittämämme teoreettiset näkökulmat ja niihin liittyvät tutkimushavainnot tiivistetyksi malliksi, jonka pohjalta voimme yksityiskohtaisemmin ymmärtää yksilöllisiä eroja moraalisessa identiteetissä sekä miten nämä erot voivat vaikuttaa moraalisten ongelmatilanteiden kohtaamiseen ja ratkaisemiseen organisaatioissa.
... By emphasizing the importance of doing what is morally right rather than solely focusing on profitability (Brown & Treviño, 2006;Brown et al., 2005), ethical leaders can direct employees' focus toward the immoral nature of their UPB and discourage them from justifying their unethical "means" by the proorganizational "ends." In support of this argument, previous research has suggested that ethical leadership can boost employees' moral attentiveness, priming them to be more mindful of ethical issues (Miao et al., 2020;Zhu et al., 2016). Hence, after conducting UPB, employees led by an ethical leader are more likely to perceive their UPB as morally questionable and experience a greater sense of credit loss in their moral account. ...
Unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) is currently common among employees and has potential negative ramifications for society as a whole. Thus, such behavior has attracted increasing attention from organizational scholars. However, the effect of employees’ UPB on their counterproductive work behavior (CWB) has yet to be fully established. Based on the moral self-regulation perspective, in this study we developed and tested the effect of employees’ UPB on their subsequent CWB. We applied the experience sampling method using data from 62 insurance brokers and their leaders, collected from various time points and sources, and found that when their leaders demonstrated higher levels of ethical leadership, employees’ UPB was more likely to decrease their subsequent CWB by heightening their perception of a loss of moral credit and thus evoking feelings of shame. This effect became nonsignificant with a low level of ethical leadership. These findings have several theoretical and practical implications, and we suggest directions for future research.
... Additionally, we also extend the moral reflectiveness literature. Most research has often investigated moral reflectiveness as the antecedent and mediator (Garavan et al., 2023;Kim et al., 2017;Miao et al., 2020;Wurthmann, 2013;Zhu et al., 2016). The present research enriches the nomological network of moral reflectiveness by identifying it as a moderator and indicating that moral reflectiveness mitigates the negative link between supervisor BLM and green advocacy. ...
The present study examines how and when employees respond to supervisor bottom‐line mentality (BLM) by withholding voluntary workplace green behavior (VWGB). Drawing upon goal shielding theory, we developed a serial mediation model explaining that supervisor BLM inhibits their green advocacy, undermining the green work climate (GWC) and reducing employee VWGB. The analyses of multilevel data obtained from 287 employees and 68 supervisors provided support for the study hypotheses. Our findings showed that supervisor BLM constrained their green advocacy, which undermined the GWC and, in turn, dampened employee VWGB. Furthermore, supervisor moral reflectiveness muted the negative association between supervisor BLM and green advocacy and the negative indirect effect of supervisor BLM on employee VWGB serially via supervisor green advocacy and GWC. Our research provides novel insights into the values that responsibly impact voluntary green behaviors in the workplace by illuminating supervisors' BLM, moral reflectiveness, green advocacy, and GWC. Finally, we provide practical implications for leaders committed to enhancing their organization's environmental sustainability. We recommend future studies investigating the consequences of supervisor BLM, underlying mechanisms, and boundary conditions in understanding employees' responses toward workplace green behaviors.
... The most well-known identityrelated concept within the behavioral ethics literature is moral identity-"a self-conception organized around a set of moral traits" such as being honest, trustworthy, and fair (Aquino & Reed, 2002, p. 1424. Moral identity is considered a rather stable, unified part of a person's identity or a definition of self in the moral realm, albeit with the potential for variance across situations (Aquino & Reed, 2002;Hannah et al., 2011Hannah et al., , 2020Leavitt et al., 2012;Zhu et al., 2016). Much research has focused on the (largely positive) outcomes of moral identity, though recent work has begun to shift the perspective to the microprocesses through which people's moral sense of self is changed, with a focus on how social interactions influence people's moral identities (Gill, 2023). ...
Ethics and compliance officers (ECOs) are organizational agents who are responsible for ensuring employees’ ethical and legally compliant behavior. In their ethical organizational roles, ECOs impose ethical expectations on others. In our study, we find that doing so provokes a challenging interpersonal dual threat dynamic where ECOs are perceived as threatening and feel threatened in return, which is a dynamic that ECOs must navigate to be successful. To better understand how ECOs navigate this dynamic, we explore the ethical role identity work that ECOs engage in and demonstrate how ECOs make sense of and respond to the threat dynamic that occurs as they enact their roles. We found two types of identity work: (1) tensions that pull role incumbents toward personalized or impersonalized approaches in their interactions with others and (2) tactics that address the threats and tensions. We also find that ECOs’ identity work facilitates ethical and identity growth for the role incumbent. To make these contributions, we employ grounded theory methods and draw primarily upon a rich qualitative dataset of interviews with ethics and compliance officers. The model we derived from our research contributes to the behavioral ethics literature by illustrating the challenges yet growth possible in enacting ethical organizational roles.
... Moreover, according to the SIT (Tajfel and Turner, 1979), individuals derive a sense of identity and self-esteem from the groups to which they belong. Ethical leaders who uphold moral principles and demonstrate fairness, transparency and integrity nurture a positive group identity among followers (Zhu et al., 2016). This fosters a sense of belonging, trust and loyalty, which accordingly enhances psychological meaning by affirming individuals' values and beliefs within the organizational context (Walumbwa et al., 2011;Zhu et al., 2015). ...
Purpose
Based on the theories of social learning, social exchange and social identity, this study aims to examine the impact of ethical leadership on organizational attractiveness and diversity-valuing behavior as well as the mediating role of psychological meaningfulness in the public healthcare sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Data in this study was collected from 545 nurses working in Palestinian hospitals. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results show positive effect of ethical leadership on organizational attractiveness and diversity-valuing behavior. The findings likewise support the mediating role of psychological meaningfulness on the focal relationships.
Originality/value
This study follows a more comprehensive and a multitheoretical approach and it uses a novel model in an underexamined setting, which is the nursing sector.
... Based on the social learning theory [77][78][79], followers will tend to want to imitate ethical leaders. In this sense, employees likely use a large part of their resources to internalize the values transmitted by the leader and try to have similar behaviors [80]. Probably, the responsibility associated with a change in moral identity implies a significant emotional burden for followers, not because of the authority exercised by the leader but because of self-imposed pressure [76]. ...
The risk factors and positive factors of teleworking have been widely analyzed. Emotional exhaustion has been one of the most studied among them. However, the impact of ethical leadership in virtual environments has remained completely unnoticed. There is no clear answer to whether the ethical leader is a factor that buffers or accelerates stress-related processes in teleworking. Furthermore, the role of perceived work autonomy as a theoretical mechanism that protects against specific adverse psychological outcomes requires more scientific evidence because the results obtained so far are confusing and contradictory. Therefore, this study explores how and when ethical leadership influences emotional exhaustion through work autonomy and teleworking intensity (TI). The sample consisted of 448 professionals from six organizations in the Colombian electricity sector. The mediation effect was evaluated through a four-step procedure, and the moderated mediation model was analyzed using statistical tools such as PROCESS and AMOS macros for SPSS. Surprisingly, our results revealed a positive relationship between ethical leadership and emotional exhaustion, with work autonomy potentially mediating this relationship. However, teleworking intensity (TI) was found to moderate this mediation process. Specifically, the negative impact of ethical leadership on emotional exhaustion was nullified when TI was high. Moreover, a high level of TI strengthened the relationship between ethical leadership and work autonomy, while weakening the positive relationship between work autonomy and emotional exhaustion. In conclusion, our study suggests a potential positive relationship between ethical leadership and emotional exhaustion from the follower's perspective. However, the number of teleworking days can influence this trend, potentially even reversing it. In other words, teleworking intensity (TI) is a resource as its intensity increases, and it can alter the direction of work autonomy and reconfigure the relationship between ethical leadership and emotional exhaustion. This study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to analyze these variables, significantly contributing to our understanding of the attributes of ethical leadership and its impact on employee well-being.
... These foundations of character -perhaps more than any other factor -constitute the respect that is necessary for an individual to be called a leader. (Decrane 1997, 247-253) The importance of ethical and moral leadership is also emphasized by other authors (Huhtala et al. 2021;Javed et al. 2018;Skubinn and Herzog 2016;Vullinghs et al. 2020;Zhu et al. 2016). The Web 2.0+ era brings new solutions. ...
... thus, the way that subordinates are treated influences how they perceive social exchange when it occurs between employees and their immediate superiors (carnevale et al., 2019;chen et al., 2019;hinkin & schriesheim, 2015;Wayne et al., 1997). numerous studies have shown how leadership affects employees' work-related behaviours and outcomes (Belschak et al., 2018;Brown & treviño, 2006;garba et al., 2018;Zhu et al., 2016). Many academics of public relations have also used the theory to explain why organizational and internal communication methods, such as transparent, symmetrical, and employee-centered internal communication, are so important in motivating workers to engage in advocacy behaviour (lee & Kim, 2020;thelen, 2020;Walden & Kingsley Westerman, 2018). ...
Rising globalization, changing labour-market demographics, and fast-paced continuous transitions have increased the necessity of diversity-oriented leadership in appreciating people of varied origins and traits and, to some extent, addressing these organizational difficulties. The study aims to investigate the impact of diversity-oriented leadership on the advocative behaviours of employees working in selected companies, using the social exchange theory framework. Furthermore, it aims to evaluate the mediation effects of symmetrical internal communication and work engagement, as well as covariates/control variables like age, gender, educational qualifications, and the chosen company, on the association between diversity-oriented leadership and employee advocacy. The current study uses the Post-Positivism Philosophy to evaluate the cause-and-effect relationship between selected constructs. A sample size of 413 individuals was drawn from the employee bases of the chosen Fortune Indian companies using proportionate random sampling method. A self- structured research instrument was used employing several scales, derived from the ‘Inclusion and Belonging Assessment Scale’, with items ranging from strongly- agree to strongly disagree. The study uses the Hayes Process Macro-Model Version 4.0 in SPSS 20.0 to examine the effect of diversity-oriented leadership on employee advocacy. It also takes into account the mediating roles of symmetrical internal communication and work engagement, as well as covariates like age, gender, educational background, and the chosen company. The results indicate that both symmetrical internal communication and work engagement partially mediate the relationship between diversity-oriented leadership and employee advocacy, and the mediation is complementary. Additionally, the company was found to be a significant covariate affecting employee advocacy and work engagement but had an insignificant impact on symmetrical internal communication.
... However, the said responsible behaviour may be first expected of the leaders. This is important because leaders usually become the legitimate and credible role-models for their followers (Zhu et al., 2016) and influence their behaviour and conduct (Day and Harrison, 2007). Interestingly, similar thoughts have been emphasised by the Lord Shri Krishna 1 in Shrimad Bhagwad Gita 2 . ...
... Authentic leaders encourage a closer alignment with personal values, so AL appears to foster more meaningfulness associated with work (Avolio et al. 2004). Employees' perception of their leaders' authenticity is a key mechanism in followers' integration of moral values into their professional self-concept, which facilitates the attribution of meaning to work (Zhu et al. 2016). Thus, positive leader-follower interactions increase work tasks' value (Chaudhary 2021). ...
Leadership is crucial in organizational life. Positive leadership is marked by transparent, trust-based leader–follower relationships that significantly boost employees’ dedication and engagement. Work engagement stems from a positive bond between workers, their job, and their organization. Authentic leadership, in particular, has been found to enhance work engagement, but this relationship is quite complex. Prior studies have explored the psychological processes linking organizational context and work-related attitudes and provided intriguing insights, such as that employees consider work to be part of their identity and that positive work experiences enrich family life. This research more closely examined authentic leadership’s impact on work engagement, including the mediating effect of meaningful work and work–family enrichment. A cross-sectional study was conducted with data from various organizations’ employees (number = 292). Multiple regression analyses’ results support the theoretical model, confirming a significant positive link between perceived authentic leadership and work engagement. These variables are directly and indirectly related through the proposed mediators. Implications for human resource management are discussed, especially strategies that increase work environments’ positive impacts on work engagement.
... Perceptual and reflective moral attentiveness are in turn associated with individuals' (un)ethical choices and behaviors (Jennings et al., 2015;Reynolds et al., 2012;Zhu et al., 2016). One of the main catalysts of individuals' (un)ethical behaviors is their cognitive ability and propensity to recognize the moral content inherent in a given situation (Resick et al., 2013). ...
Deviant workplace behaviors (DWB) cause enormous costs to organizations, sparking considerable interest among researchers and practitioners to identify factors that may prevent such behavior. Drawing on the theory of moral development, we examine the role of ethics-oriented human resource management (HRM) systems in mitigating DWB, as well as mechanisms that may mediate and moderate this relationship. Based on 232 employee-supervisor matched responses generated through a multi-source and multi-wave survey of 84 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan, our multilevel analysis found that ethics-oriented HRM systems relate negatively to employee DWB via the mediation of perceptual and reflective moral attentiveness. This indirect relationship is further moderated by two societal-inequality induced factors – employee gender and income level – such that the indirect effects of ethics-oriented HRM systems on DWB through perceptual and reflective moral attentiveness are stronger among women and lower-income employees.
... Contudo, constatou-se a predominância nas investigações empíricas das variáveis consequentes e uma escassez de estudos das variáveis antecedentes, conforme os relatos prévios de Haar et al. (2018) e Zhu et al. (2016. Além disso, os poucos estudos dos antecedentes estão associados ao modelo de cinco fatores da personalidade (Zhu et al., 2016), condizentes com os principais resultados (conscienciosidade, agradabilidade e neuroticismo) obtidos desse estudo sobre os antecedentes da liderança ética. ...
Ethical leadership has been increasingly investigated, given the impact it may have on workers and organizations. The objective of this study is to analyze the state of the art of research on ethical leadership, identifying the antecedent and consequent variables, main authors, and locus of publications. Data were collected from the Web of Science platform and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results show that the volume of publications grew significantly after 2007, having identified the most influential authors and collaboration networks. Most studies were developed in the United States and China, and they focus primarily on the consequences of the ethical exercise of leadership, however the factors that may favor this behavior in leaders are still incipient. The study advanced the understanding of the construct, identifying contributions and gaps in scientific research, in addition to presenting trends and research opportunities in this field of knowledge.
... Authentic leaders create meaning to tasks and goals by associating them with employees' values, beliefs, and identities. Employees who personalize these values will shape their self-concept, thereby increasing the meaning of work (Chaudhary & Panda, 2018;Zhu, Trevino, & Zheng, 2016). ...
Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) relentlessly targeted the corporate and economic sectors in the twenty-first century. Innovative work behavior is seen as the most important contributor to the organization's performance and sustainability in the face of VUCA. Authentic leadership is a variable that impacts innovative work behavior. This research aimed to examine the effect of authentic leadership on innovative work behavior by mediating the role of work meaningfulness. 208 employees from one of the Learning & Consulting companies in Indonesia were selected by simple random sampling. Data analysis used a simple mediation model by Hayes. The result shows that work meaningfulness has a role booster as a mediator between authentic leadership and innovative work behavior. The results of the study revealed that organizations could enhance creative work behavior by offering authentic leadership development programs for all leaders. The leader can stimulate information and opinion, build trustworthy relationships with employees and communicate the company's vision, goal, objectives, and values linked to employees' personal values. Then for strengthening, companies can further support by explaining the importance of the meaning of work, the roles and contributions of employees to the company and the large purpose. It is hoped that this study has provided some insights into the effect of authentic leadership on innovative work behavior mediated by work meaningfulness.
... Ethics has been a longstanding concern in organizational studies, but it is only in recent years that scholars have focused on ethical issues from a leadership perspective [1,2]. A growing body of research has shown that ethical leadership can effectively address subordinates' unethical behavior [3][4][5][6]. However, the relationship between ethical leadership and unethical yet pro-organizational behavior requires further examination. ...
This study examined the impact of superiors’ ethical leadership on subordinates’ unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) and the mediating effects of followership. The research subjects were officials from the ten central departments of the South Korean government, and a cross-sectional survey was conducted among them. Overall, 404 questionnaires were used in the empirical analysis. Multiple regression analysis and Hayes Process Macro were used to validate the research hypotheses, which examined the relationship among ethical leadership, followership, and UPB. The results are as follows: First, the relationship between ethical leadership and followership was statistically significant. Second, the study showed that followership had a statistically significant effect on UPB but not ethical leadership. Third, testing the hypotheses regarding the mediating effect of followership on the relationship between ethical leadership and UPB revealed statistically significant results. This study confirms that followership significantly influences UPB and suggests that ethical leadership is an important precedent factor of followership. The study concludes with the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, along with the study’s limitations.
Background
Ethical leadership involves guiding and influencing others through actions rooted in honesty, integrity, fairness, and respect. It was crucial for building trust, fostering a positive organizational culture, motivating employees, managing risks, and ensuring long-term, sustainable success.
Objective
The study of ethical leadership became central to understanding how leadership affected organizations. This study proposed that organizational justice was a psychological mechanism through which ethical leadership shaped individual ethical behavior. This study used a moderated mediation model, showing that a leader’s moral identity affects how ethical leadership influences employees’ ethical behavior through the concept of organizational justice.
Methods
Data were collected from 360 subordinate-supervisor pairs within a prominent Saudi public organization.
Results
The research revealed two key findings after analyzing data from 360 supervisor-subordinate pairings in different Saudi organizations. Firstly, ethical leadership positively impacted employee ethical behavior, and organizational justice mediated this relationship. Secondly, the effect of ethical leadership on employees’ ethical behavior was high when leaders showed higher moral identity.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the study underscored the pivotal role of ethical leadership in shaping employees’ ethical behavior, mediated by organizational justice. It highlighted that leaders with a strong moral identity enhanced this effect, demonstrating the importance of fostering ethical leadership and justice within organizations to promote ethical conduct among employees. These insights offered valuable theoretical and practical implications for organizational development.
This study reconstructs events in the life of Oliver Reginald Tambo (1917–1993) via a psychobiography, utilising humility and decolonial theories. A psychobiography is the study of the entire life, or events in the life of a prominent individual of historical note, by recreating their life from a social science-psychological perspective. A world-famous lawyer, freedom fighter, educator and exile, Tambo dedicated his life to the political struggle for the emancipation of the Black South African citizens from apartheid. Broadly, he believed that South Africa could not be free until all of Africa was free. Tambo was selected as the subject through purposive sampling as a vast amount of publicly available data on his life exists. Alexander’s indicators of salience were used to identify and extract the most significant themes of Tambo’s life related to his leadership style. Honesty/humility personality trait and moral psychology constructs as well as decolonial theories were used to examine Tambo’s unique leadership style. Because of Tambo’s multi-faceted life, this study is also grounded in, and cannot be separated from, African psychology, history, politics and religion. Our findings indicate that Tambo’s humility both sustained him for his lifelong decolonial mission and contributed to the success of his leadership during a time of great political turmoil. These findings contribute to leadership theory and wider understanding of what makes people great.
The goal of our work is to explore and highlight factors that contribute to positive experiences of Black employees. To accomplish this, we integrate behavioral ethics research into the Black scholarship literature. Specifically, we focus on the role of ethical leadership. We leverage signaling theory to explain the Black cultural implications associated with ethical leadership and how ethical leaders create racially just workplaces. Across three studies (i.e., one cross-sectional field study and two experimental vignettes), we demonstrate that ethical leadership operates as a welcoming signal for Black employees, which positively impacts Black employees’ evaluations of psychological diversity climate. By cultivating Black employees’ evaluations of psychological diversity climate, Black employees are more likely to be engaged and are less likely to be ostracized in the workplace, which are key indicators of a racially just workplace. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. We conclude with limitations and future research ideas.
Purpose: The impact of ethical leadership on employee emotional exhaustion has been extensively analyzed. However, the impact of a leader’s moral intensity on an employee’s emotional state has gone largely unnoticed. This research demonstrates that ethical leadership influences employee emotional exhaustion as a function of the extent of the leader’s moral standards. Furthermore, this research finds that affective commitment acts as a mediating mechanism. Methods: A simple mediation model is used. The sample consists of 448 professionals in six organizations in the Colombian electrical sector who responded to an online questionnaire. The sampling is probabilistic by conglomerates. Findings: This research found a positive relationship between ethical leadership and emotional exhaustion, with affective commitment being a mechanism that helps explain this association. Ethical behavior is voluntary in nature and develops in an environment of trust. When an ethical leader surpasses specific moral turning points, a follower’s learning becomes an obligation, preventing affective fluidity. A search for acceptance implies constant consumption of resources that weakens the follower’s capacity for self-regulation until it is exhausted. Moreover, when the leader’s expectations are difficult to meet, affective commitment can lead to significant emotional ambiguity in followers. This context intensifies role stress and increases the likelihood of emotional exhaustion. Lastly, seniority in the workplace promotes emotional exhaustion. Originality: This research challenges conventional wisdom about the mitigating effect of ethical leadership on employees’ emotional states. It broadens the understanding of this management style and fills a crucial knowledge gap by introducing a new perspective. Practical Implications: A balanced and accessible leader can quickly convey a convincing ethical discourse. Emphasizing the vulnerability and importance of human beings can help prevent moral anguish and ethical distances. This, in turn, provides followers with resources to mitigate exhaustion and strengthen commitment.
Hidden disabilities such as ADHD, depression, and dyslexia produce unique challenges that significantly reduce employee productivity. The hidden nature of the disabilities lends itself to the issues and difficulties not being recognized, and subsequently not receiving the support and accommodation needed from their work environment to be successful. Creation of a work climate that is supportive, inclusive, and engaging requires companies to execute strategies to accommodate employees with hidden disabilities. Research identified methodologies of customized accommodation in the form of flexible work schedules, workspace enhancements, assistive technology, and psychological service availabilities substantially improved both employee performance and happiness. Implementation of successful accommodation strategies aligns with regulatory compliance with the Americans with Disabilities ACT (ADA) as well as drives a culture of engagement, respect, and inclusivity.
Corruption is a major concern that impacts organizations at international, national, and local levels. This chapter delves into the components of corruption, investigates factors that can leave organizations vulnerable to corruption, provides notable examples of corruption, and suggests mitigating factors, ethical leadership and ethical culture, that can reduce and/or prevent corruption from taking place. Framing corruption as an ethical dilemma allows organizational risk factors and economic pressures to be examined and highlighting corruption as a real and pressing threat adds to the morality and social responsibility literatures.
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the impact of love of money, personality traits and peer influence on the ethical behaviour of graduate accounting students at the University of Ghana Business School.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a quantitative research approach to sample postgraduate accounting students who completed a self-administered questionnaire on the variables of interest. Using partial least square–structural equation modelling, the hypothesized relationships were examined based on 328 appropriate responses received for the questionnaire.
Findings
The empirical findings suggest that peer influence and personality trait, extraversion positively and significantly influence unethical behaviour, whereas the personality traits, agreeableness and openness to experience have a negative and significant relationship with unethical behaviour. The study, however, does not find support for the hypothesized relationships between the love of money, personality traits (conscientiousness, neuroticism) and unethical behaviour.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature on unethical behaviour, highlighting how decision-making factors such as love of money, peer influence and personality traits, respectively, influence unethical behaviour explained by the self-justification concept under the social cognitive and moral reasoning theory. This could aid these potential managers in seeking higher reviews on ethical dilemmas. It could also aid the professional body and academics in Ghana particularly to intensify ethical education for students of the profession.
Purpose
This paper considers the importance of prohibitive voice in organizations' health. This study aims to explore the role of ethical leadership, reflective moral attentiveness and leader identification.
Design/methodology/approach
Two waves of data collection were conducted, including 534 responses in T1 and 242 in T2. This research evaluated hypotheses using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling approach with Smart PLS 3.2.9.
Findings
Ethical leadership has a direct positive effect on employees' prohibitive voice. Furthermore, reflective moral attentiveness mediates the associations between ethical leadership and prohibitive voice. Finally, leader identification moderates only the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' moral behavior (prohibitive voice), not moral cognition (reflective moral attentiveness).
Originality/value
This paper provided insight into how and when ethical leaders could promote prohibitive voice behavior. Specifically, the authors explored the mediating role of reflective moral attentiveness and the moderating role of leader identification.
This study aimed to identify the level of moral identity and emotions, in addition to predictive ability of the capacity of moral identity in moral emotions among a sample of University of Jordan students. The study was applied to a convenience sample from the study population, consisting of 800 students: 398 male and 402 female students. The study used the descriptive correlational methodology, and used the scales of: moral identity, and moral emotions to achieve the study's objectives, which have been developed by the two researchers, and the reliability and validity for them were extracted; in order to ensure their relevance to the study, as the two scales had appropriate validity and reliability indications. The results of the study revealed that the level of emotional identity was in medium level by arithmetic mean of (3.03) at the overall level, and level of moral emotions was in medium level too, with arithmetic average (6.15) at the overall level. The results also showed that there was a positive significant correlation between the moral identity and moral emotions, as it is statistically significant at the level (α ≤ .05), where the results of the regression analysis showed that the value of the correlation coefficient between emotional identity and moral emotions was (0.741) it is a statistical function at (α ≤ .05), and the emotional identity has explained the ration (54.9%) of variation in moral emotions, which is a predictor of moral emotions. The study recommended including the curriculum and syllabus with topics related to moral identity and moral emotions.
The existing body of research on “organizational citizenship behavior” (OCB) predominantly emphasizes its positive outcomes. However, individuals who actively engage in organization-oriented OCB to support the organization's effectiveness may occasionally exhibit “unethical pro-organizational behavior” (UPB) based on strong organizational identification and positive social exchanges. Drawing upon “Social Identity Theory” (SIT) and “Social Exchange Theory” (SET), this study presents a mediated model to deepen our understanding of UPB as a potential negative consequence of OCB, mediated by social exchange (SE). Survey data was collected from 303 managerial-level workforces employed in the Banking Sector of Pakistan. The empirical analysis provides robust evidence supporting the direct link between OCB and UPB, as well as the mediating role of SE between OCB and UPB. Both theoretical as well as managerial implications are comprehensively deliberated in the end.
In this chapter, we discuss the role of empathy in ethical leadership development. Empathy as a social practice deeply relates to ethics. Particularly three ethical concepts including generosity, care, and responsibility have a strong link with empathy in leadership practice. Generosity forms the ethical basis that enables individuals to be open and recognize others’ emotional states, as opposed to being self-centered. Caring about and feeling responsible for others motivates leaders to share others’ emotions and empathize. Concerning empathy as a critical building block of ethical leadership, we introduce two methods for human resource development (HRD) scholars to examine empathy in ethical leadership. One is electroencephalography from a neuroscience perspective. The other is video-based methods with the use of AI-enabled verbal and non-verbal emotion expression analysis. The recent advancement of technology has enabled researchers to investigate neurobiological aspects of empathy and its relationship with ethics. Furthermore, a video-based AI-enabled method can help examine people's interactions with a focus on empathy. Using neurobiological and video-based social cognition approaches, we discuss how leaders can develop empathy that leads to ethical leadership. We conclude the chapter with future research and practice recommendations.
Plain Language Summary
The purpose of the study is to uncover how and when ethical leadership impacts knowledge hiding behavior. First, by examining the individual level morality-based characteristics (moral identity and reflective moral attentiveness) as separate and serial mediators concerning ethical leadership and knowledge hiding (level 1). Second, by investigating the moderating role of team-level relational climates in relation to ethical leadership and knowledge hiding (level 2). Time-lagged design was used to collect data through a structured questionnaire from 300 employees of Information Technology (IT) organizations in Pakistan. Level 1 findings revealed a significant and negative relationship of ethical leadership with knowledge hiding. Follower’s individual level morality-based characteristics served as individual and serial mediators to ethical leadership and knowledge hiding. Level 2 of the study only found the moderating role of team communal sharing climate in relation to ethical leadership and knowledge hiding. The study brings to fore the “morality-based perspective” for understanding knowledge hiding at the workplace.
Moral identity, a construct that captures how individuals view themselves relative to moral attributes, has received widespread attention in the organizational sciences. This article builds on the existing moral identity literature by examining the mechanisms and boundary conditions of leader moral identity’s impact on the punishment of misconduct. Drawing on multiple literatures, we specifically argue that leader moral identity is positively related to the punishment of misconduct under the condition of higher cognitive load. Furthermore, we identify moral anger as a key mechanism. The theorized model was tested across three studies: a study of civil judges’ court rulings (Study 1), a study of managers’ tendencies to punish their employees’ misconduct (Study 2), and an experiment that manipulated cognitive load while testing the intermediary role of moral anger (Study 3). Results offered convergent support for our model, shedding new light on the impact of moral identity on leaders in the workplace. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Günümüzde örgütlerin başarısında liderlerin rolü yadsınamaz. Bu bağlamda özellikle etik liderler ön plana çıkmaktadır. Yöneticilerin etik liderler olarak algılanmaları çalışanlarının ahlaki kimlikleri cesaretlendirme yanında meşru olmayan durumların paylaşılmasına yönelik bilgi uçurma eğilimlerini etkileyebilir. Bu beklentinin karşılanması için yöneticilerin güç mesafesi yönelimlerinin de dikkate alınması önemli olabilir. Bu araştırmanın temel amacı etik liderliğin bilgi uçurma eğilimi üzerindeki etkisinde ahlaki kimliğin aracılık ve güç mesafesi yöneliminin düzenleyici rolünü incelemektir. Çalışma nicel araştırma yöntemleri kapsamında kolayda örnekleme yöntemiyle ulaşılan 242 banka çalışanı üzerinde yürütülmüştür. Araştırma sonuçları etik liderliğin bilgi uçurma eğilimi ve ahlaki kimlik üzerinde pozitif ve anlamlı bir etkisi olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Ayrıca etik liderliğin bilgi uçurma eğilimi üzerinde ahlaki kimliğin aracılık etkisi yanında etik liderliğin ahlaki kimlik üzerindeki etkisinde güç mesafesi yöneliminin düzenleyicilik rolü olduğu saptanmıştır. Araştırma sonuç bölümünde elde edilen bulgular değerlendirilerek gelecek araştırmalar için öneriler sunulmuştur.
The most commonly used method to test an indirect effect is to divide the estimate of the indirect effect by its standard error and compare the resulting z statistic with a critical value from the standard normal distribution. Confidence limits for the indirect effect are also typically based on critical values from the standard normal distribution. This article uses a simulation study to demonstrate that confidence limits are imbalanced because the distribution of the indirect effect is normal only in special cases. Two alternatives for improving the performance of confidence limits for the indirect effect are evaluated: (a) a method based on the distribution of the product of two normal random variables, and (b) resampling methods. In Study 1, confidence limits based on the distribution of the product are more accurate than methods based on an assumed normal distribution but confidence limits are still imbalanced. Study 2 demonstrates that more accurate confidence limits are obtained using resampling methods, with the bias-corrected bootstrap the best method overall.
Drawing on social learning and moral identity theories, this research examines antecedents and consequences of ethical leadership. Additionally, this research empirically examines the distinctiveness of the ethical leadership construct when compared to related leadership constructs such as idealized influence, interpersonal justice, and informational justice. Consistently with the theoretically derived hypotheses, results from two studies of work units ( n 's = 115 and 195 units) provide general support for our theoretical model. Study 1 shows positive relationships between ethical leadership and leader "moral identity symbolization" and "moral identity internalization" (approaching significance) and a negative relationship between ethical leadership and unit unethical behavior and relationship conflict. In Study 2, both leader moral identity symbolization and internalization were positively related to ethical leadership and, with idealized influence, interpersonal justice, and informational justice controlled for, ethical leadership was negatively related to unit outcomes. In both studies, ethical leadership partially mediated the effects of leader moral identity.
Translating questionnaires for cross-cultural research is fraught with methodological pitfalls that threaten research validity. Some flaws are difficult to detect, leading to the erroneous conclusion that cultural differences are substantive when, in fact, they stem from semantic inconsistencies. We describe the process of translation and validation of the Hebrew version of an American questionnaire for cross-cultural comparisons of medical students' attitudes toward preventive medical services. The results provide evidence to support the validity of the Hebrew instrument for cross-cultural comparisons. Although it is always possible to contend that differences in cross-cultural comparisons result from metiodological flaws rather than actual differences, we believe that the arduous step-by-step process of validation described here reduces that possibility to an acceptable minimum.
Moral identity has been touted as a foundation for understanding moral agency in organizations. The purpose of this article is to review the current state of knowledge regarding moral identity and highlight several promising avenues for advancing current understandings of moral actions in organizational contexts. The article begins with a brief overview of two distinct conceptual perspectives on moral identity—the character perspective and the social-cognitive perspective—that dominate extant literature. It then discusses varying approaches that have been taken in attempting to measure moral identity. The final two sections of the article review empirical findings regarding the antecedents and consequences of moral identity, respectively. Mechanisms and
situational factors that are pertinent to moral agency in organizations are emphasized in both sections.
The literature on ethical leadership has focused primarily on the way ethical leaders influence follower moral judgment and behavior. It has overlooked that follower responses to ethical leaders may differ depending on the attention they pay to the moral aspects of leadership. In the present research, we introduce moral attentiveness as an important moderator for the relationship between ethical leadership and unethical employee behavior. In a multisource field study (N = 90), we confirm our hypothesis that morally attentive followers respond with more deviance to unethical leaders. An experimental study (N = 96) replicates the finding. Our paper extends the current leader-focused literature by examining how follower moral attentiveness determines the response of followers to ethical or unethical leadership.
The study of ethical leadership has emerged as an important topic for understanding the effects of leadership in organizations. In a study with 845 working adults across multiple organizations, the relationships between ethical leadership with positive employee outcomes were examined. Results suggest that ethical leadership is related to both psychological well-being and job satisfaction in employees, but the processes are different. Employee voice mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and psychological well-being. Feelings of psychological ownership mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and job satisfaction. A discussion of theoretical and practical implications concludes the article.
In this paper, we suggest ways to improve mediation analysis practice among consumer behavior researchers. We review the current methodology and demonstrate the superiority of structural equations modeling, both for assessing the classic mediation questions and for enabling researchers to extend beyond these basic inquiries. A series of simulations are pre- sented to support the claim that the approach is superior. In addition to statistical demonstra- tions, logical arguments are presented, particularly regarding the introduction of a fourth construct into the mediation system. We close the paper with new prescriptive instructions for mediation analyses.
Theory and research regarding moral motivation has focused for decades on the roles of moral reasoning and, to some extent, moral emotion. Recently, however, several models of morality have positioned identity as an additional important source of moral motivation. An individual has a moral identity to the extent that he or she has constructed his or her sense of self around moral concerns (e.g., moral values). This paper reviews theory and research linking moral identity to moral behavior and commitment. Additionally, it suggests several key unanswered questions about moral identity and provides recommendations for future research.
Four studies tested whether moral character is organized as a cognitive prototype. Study 1 involved a free listing of features of virtuous persons. Study 2 required participants to rate each trait on its centrality to good character. Astandard recognition memory paradigm was used in Studies 3 and 4 to test whether participants reported more false recognition of trait attributes that they have not seen but are consistent (virtue central) with the prototype. In both studies, participants reported significant false recognition of novel virtue-central traits than they did virtue-peripheral traits, supporting the claim that a conception of good character is schematically organized around a prototype. Prototype activation had weak and inconsistent effects on recall memory. Implications for understanding moral cognition and identity are discussed.
In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Demonstrates the application of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in testing 1st- and higher-order factor models and their invariance across independent groups, using a LISREL (linear structural relations) framework. Data from a study by the 1st author et al (see record
1985-09311-001) gathered from administration of the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ) to 658 Australian children in Grades 2, 3, 4, and 5 were used to examine the factor structure. The original study tested theoretical predications about the structure of self-concept advanced by R. J. Shavelson et al (see record
1978-30429-001) and Shavelson and R. Bolus (see record
1982-22201-001). In the present demonstration, CFA indicated that the basic factor model hypothesized to underlie the SDQ provided a good fit to the data across 4 age groups. Model 5, which proposes that there are 2 academic factors at the 2nd-order level that combine with the nonacademic factor to form a General Self factor at the 3rd-order level, was found to provide the best fit. Means and standard deviations for the 28 subscales of the SDQ are appended. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A framework for understanding the etiology of organizational behavior is presented. The framework is based on theory and research from interactional psychology, vocational psychology, I/O psychology, and organizational theory. The framework proposes that organizations are functions of the kinds of people they contain and, further, that the people there are functions of an attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) cycle. The ASA cycle is proposed as an alternative model for understanding organizations and the causes of the structures, processes, and technology of organizations. First, the ASA framework is developed through a series of propositions. Then some implications of the model are outlined, including (1) the difficulty of bringing about change in organizations, (2) the utility of personality and interest measures for understanding organizational behavior, (3) the genesis of organizational climate and culture, (4) the importance of recruitment, and (5) the need for person-based theories of leadership and job attitudes. It is concluded that contemporary I/O psychology is overly dominated by situationist theories of the behavior of organizations and the people in them.
Despite a business environment that highlights the importance of executives’ ethical leadership, the individual antecedents of ethical leadership remain largely unknown. In this study, the authors propose that follower perceptions of ethical leadership depend on the executive leader’s cognitive moral development (CMD) and, more importantly, on the relationship between executive leader and follower CMD. In a sample of 143 leader–follower dyads, the authors find a direct positive relationship between leader CMD and perceptions of ethical leadership. Using polynomial regression, they find that ethical leadership is maximized when the leader’s CMD diverges from and is greater than the follower’s CMD. The authors explain these findings using a social learning theory framework. Leaders who are more advanced ethical reasoners relative to their followers are likely to stand out as salient ethical role models whose ethics-related communication and behavior attract followers’ attention. The authors discuss the research and practical implications of these findings.
This study examines the response rates for surveys used in organizational research. We analyzed 1607 studies published in the years 2000 and 2005 in 17 refereed academic journals, and we identified 490 different studies that utilized surveys.We examined the response rates in these studies, which covered more than 100,000 organizations and 400,000 individual respondents. The average response rate for studies that utilized data collected from individuals was 52.7 percent with a standard deviation of 20.4, while the average response rate for studies that utilized data collected from organizations was 35.7 percent with a standard deviation of 18.8. Key insights from further analysis include relative stability in response rates in the past decade and higher response rates for journals published in the USA.The use of incentives was not found to be related to response rates and, for studies of organizations, the use of reminders was associated with lower response rates. Also, electronic data collection efforts (e.g. email, phone,web) resulted in response rates as high as or higher than traditional mail methodology. We discuss a number of implications and recommendations.
Drawing on theory and research on ethical leadership and ethical climate, we examine ethical climate as a mediator of the
relationship between ethical leadership and employee misconduct. Using a sample of 1,525 employees and their supervisors in
300 units in different organizations, we find support for our hypothesized model. We discuss theoretical and practical implications
of these findings.
Keywordsethical leadership–ethical climate–anti-social behavior
Most research on ethical leadership to date investigates the consequences of ethical leadership rather than its antecedents.
Here, we aim to contribute to this field by studying leader personality as a potential antecedent of ethical leader behavior.
In two multisource studies, we investigated the relationships between personality traits and ethical leader behavior. Leader
personality was measured through self-ratings using the five-factor personality framework. Two subordinates rated their leaders’
ethical behavior. Study 1 used a uni-dimensional Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS). In study 2 we used this scale as well as
an instrument distinguishing three different ethical leader behaviors, namely, fairness, role clarification, and power sharing.
Further, in study 2 we controlled for the influence of the relationship between leader and followers (LMX). As expected, conscientiousness
and agreeableness were most consistently related to ethical leadership. In study 1, after controlling for the other personality
traits, conscientiousness related positively with ethical leadership. In study 2, after controlling for other traits and LMX,
conscientiousness related positively with ethical leadership and the behavior role clarification, and agreeableness with power
sharing and fairness. Also, emotional stability related positively with ethical leadership and role clarification after controlling
for LMX. As expected, openness to experience and extraversion were unrelated to ethical leader behaviors.
Key wordsethical leadership–personality–conscientiousness–agreeableness–emotional stability
This study examines a moderated/mediated model of ethical leadership on follower job satisfaction and affective organizational
commitment. We proposed that managers have the potential to be agents of virtue or vice within organizations. Specifically,
through ethical leadership behavior we argued that managers can virtuously influence perceptions of ethical climate, which
in turn will positively impact organizational members’ flourishing as measured by job satisfaction and affective commitment
to the organization. We also hypothesized that perceptions of interactional justice would moderate the ethical leadership-to-climate
relationship. Our results indicate that ethical leadership has both a direct and indirect influence on follower job satisfaction
and affective commitment. The indirect effect of ethical leadership involves shaping perceptions of ethical climate, which
in turn, engender greater job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Furthermore, when interactional justice
is perceived to be high, this strengthens the ethical leadership-to-climate relationship.
Considering the implications of social exchange theory as a context for social role behavior, we tested relations between ethical leadership and both person- and task-focused organizational citizenship behavior and examined the roles played by employee gender and politics perceptions. Although social exchange theory predicts that ethical leadership is positively associated with citizenship, social role theory predicts that the nature of this relationship may vary on the basis of gender and politics perceptions. Results from data collected from 288 supervisor-subordinate dyads indicate that the pattern of male versus female employees' citizenship associated with ethical leadership depends significantly on their perceptions of politics. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Several methods for testing mediation hypotheses with 2-level nested data have been proposed by researchers using a multilevel modeling (MLM) paradigm. However, these MLM approaches do not accommodate mediation pathways with Level-2 outcomes and may produce conflated estimates of between- and within-level components of indirect effects. Moreover, these methods have each appeared in isolation, so a unified framework that integrates the existing methods, as well as new multilevel mediation models, is lacking. Here we show that a multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) paradigm can overcome these 2 limitations of mediation analysis with MLM. We present an integrative 2-level MSEM mathematical framework that subsumes new and existing multilevel mediation approaches as special cases. We use several applied examples and accompanying software code to illustrate the flexibility of this framework and to show that different substantive conclusions can be drawn using MSEM versus MLM.
This article proposes and tests a social-cognitive framework for examining the joint influence of situational factors and the centrality of moral identity on moral intentions and behaviors. The authors hypothesized that if a situational factor increases the current accessibility of moral identity within the working self-concept, then it strengthens the motivation to act morally. In contrast, if a situational factor decreases the current accessibility of moral identity, then it weakens the motivation to act morally. The authors also expected the influence of situational factors to vary depending on the extent to which moral identity was central to a person's overall self-conception. Hypotheses derived from the framework were tested in 4 studies. The studies used recalling and reading a list of the Ten Commandments (Study 1), writing a story using morally laden terms (Study 4), and the presence of performance-based financial incentives (Studies 2 and 3) as situational factors. Participants' willingness to initiate a cause-related marketing program (Study 1), lie to a job candidate during a salary negotiation (Studies 2 and 3), and contribute to a public good (Study 4) were examined. Results provide strong support for the proposed framework.
This research draws from social cognitive theory to develop a construct known as moral attentiveness, the extent to which an individual chronically perceives and considers morality and moral elements in his or her experiences, and proposes that moral attentiveness affects a variety of behaviors. A series of 5 studies with undergraduates, MBA students, and managers were conducted to create and validate a reliable multidimensional scale and to provide evidence that moral attentiveness is associated with (a) the recall and reporting of self- and others' morality-related behaviors, (b) moral awareness, and (c) moral behavior. Results of the studies suggest that moral attentiveness has a significant effect on how individuals understand and act in their moral worlds.
Research and theory on the role of emotion and regulation in morality have received considerable attention in the last decade. Much relevant work has concerned the role of moral emotions in moral behavior. Research on differences between embarrassment, guilt, and shame and their relations to moral behavior is reviewed, as is research on the association of these emotions with negative emotionality and regulation.
Recent issues concerning the role of such empathy-related responses as sympathy and personal distress to prosocial and antisocial behavior are discussed, as is the relation of empathy-related responding to situational and dispositional emotionality and regulation. The development and socialization of guilt, shame, and empathy also are discussed briefly. In addition, the role of nonmoral emotions (e.g. anger and sadness), including moods and dispositional differences in negative emotionality and its regulation, in morally relevant behavior, is reviewed.
A Monte Carlo study compared 14 methods to test the statistical significance of the intervening variable effect. An intervening variable (mediator) transmits the effect of an independent variable to a dependent variable. The commonly used R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986) approach has low statistical power. Two methods based on the distribution of the product and 2 difference-in-coefficients methods have the most accurate Type I error rates and greatest statistical power except in 1 important case in which Type I error rates are too high. The best balance of Type I error and statistical power across all cases is the test of the joint significance of the two effects comprising the intervening variable effect.
Interest in the problem of method biases has a long history in the behavioral sciences. Despite this, a comprehensive summary of the potential sources of method biases and how to control for them does not exist. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which method biases influence behavioral research results, identify potential sources of method biases, discuss the cognitive processes through which method biases influence responses to measures, evaluate the many different procedural and statistical techniques that can be used to control method biases, and provide recommendations for how to select appropriate procedural and statistical remedies for different types of research settings.
The role of leaders in influencing unethical behavior in the workplace After years of focusing on explaining and predicting positive employee attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, employee commitment) and behaviors (e.g., employee citizenship, work performance), organizational behavior researchers have increasingly turned their attention to understanding what drives costly misconduct in organizations (Bennett & Robinson, 2000; Giacalone & Greenberg, 1997; Robinson & Bennett, 1995; Robinson & O'Leary-Kelly, 1998; Treviño, 1986; Vardi & Wiener, 1996). Although researchers have used a variety of terms to describe such employee behavior (e.g., deviance, antisocial behavior, misbehavior, counterproductive behavior, unethical behavior), all of them share a concern with counternormative behavior intended to harm the organization or its stakeholders (O'Leary-Kelly, Duffy, & Griffin, 2000). Unethical behavior in organizations has been widely reported in the wake of many recent high-profile corporate scandals. As researchers and practitioners consider what may be driving such behavior, leaders are coming under increasing scrutiny ...
We set out to address a gap in the management literature by proposing a framework specifying the component capacities organizational actors require to think and act morally. We examine how moral maturation (i.e., moral identity, complexity, and metacognitive ability) and moral conation (i.e., moral courage, efficacy, and ownership) enhance an individual's moral cognition and propensity to take ethical action. We offer propositions to guide future research and discuss the implications of the proposed model for management theory and practice.
Previous studies have established the relationship between ethical leadership and a variety of positive follower outcomes. Follower organizational identification has been found to mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and follower job performance. In this research, we incorporate a second distinct and theoretically important type of social identification process, relational identification with the leader, along with organizational identification, and examine their mediating effects on follower performance and voice outcomes. Further, we bring the implicit theory of morality to the behavioral ethics literature and examine follower morality beliefs as a moderator. Using a Romanian sample of 302 followers under the supervision of 27 leaders, we found that ethical leadership has an indirect effect on follower job performance and voice (through the mediating mechanisms of both organizational and relational identifications) and that these relationships are stronger for followers who held the implicit theory that a person's moral character is fixed.
Throughout history, principles such as obedience, loyalty, and purity have been instrumental in binding people together and helping them thrive as groups, tribes, and nations. However, these same principles have also led to in-group favoritism, war, and even genocide. Does adhering to the binding moral foundations that underlie such principles unavoidably lead to the derogation of out-group members? We demonstrated that for people with a strong moral identity, the answer is "no," because they are more likely than those with a weak moral identity to extend moral concern to people belonging to a perceived out-group. Across three studies, strongly endorsing the binding moral foundations indeed predicted support for the torture of out-group members (Studies 1a and 1b) and withholding of necessary help from out-group members (Study 2), but this relationship was attenuated among participants who also had a strong moral identity.
We develop and test a model linking ethical leadership with unit ethical culture, both across and within organizational levels, examining how both leadership and culture relate to ethical cognitions and behaviors of lower-level followers. The data were collected from 2,572 U.S. Army soldiers representing three organizational levels deployed in combat. Findings provide limited support for simple trickle-down mechanisms of ethical leadership but broader support for a multilevel model that takes into account how leaders embed shared understandings through their influence on the ethical culture of units at various levels, which in turn influence followers' ethical cognitions and behavior. The influences of ethical leadership occur not only directly, among immediate followers within a unit, but also indirectly, across hierarchical levels, through the cascading of ethical culture and senior leaders' influences on subordinate leader behavior. We discuss scholarly and practical implications for understanding how leaders transmit ethical influence both down and across large organizations.
In this study, we comprehensively examine the relationships between ethical leadership, social exchange, and employee commitment. We find that organizational and supervisory ethical leadership are positively related to employee commitment to the organization and supervisor, respectively. We also find that different types of social exchange relationships mediate these relationships. Our results suggest that the application of a multifoci social exchange perspective to the context of ethical leadership is indeed useful: As hypothesized, within-foci effects (e.g., the relationship between organizational ethical leadership and commitment to the organization) are stronger than cross-foci effects (e.g., the relationship between supervisory ethical leadership and commitment to the organization). In addition, in contrast to the “trickle down” model of ethical leadership (Mayer et al. in Org Behav Hum Decis Process 108:1–13, 2009), our results suggest that organizational ethical leadership is both directly and indirectly related to employee outcomes.
As corporate scandals proliferate, organizational researchers and practitioners have made calls for research providing guidance for those wishing to influence positive moral decision-making and behavior in the workplace. This study incorporates social cognitive theory and a vignette-based cognitive measure for moral imagination to examine (a) moral attentiveness and employee creativity as important antecedents of moral imagination and (b) creativity as a moderator of the positive relationship between moral attentiveness and moral imagination. Based on the results from supervisor–subordinate dyadic data (N = 162) obtained from employed students, hypotheses were largely supported as expected. Implications are discussed.
This review spotlights research related to ethical and unethical behavior in organizations. It builds on previous reviews and meta-analyses of the literature on (un)ethical behavior in organizations and examines recent advances in the field. The emphasis is on how this research speaks to the influence of the organizational context on (un)ethical behavior. The review proceeds from a more macro to a more micro view on (un)ethical behavior, covering ethical infrastructures, interpersonal influences, individual differences, and cognitive and affective processes. The conclusion highlights opportunities for future research. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 65 is January 3, 2014. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
There is growing interest in Management Learning literature in a more critical perspective than has usually been the case in either management education or management development. This article contrasts the concept of critical reflection-drawing on the work of critical theorists in adult education-with the more familiar concept of `reflection'. In proposing how the principles of critical reflection might be applied to management education practice, the distinction is made between educational content (the curriculum) and educational process (methods and structures), drawing attention to the need to consider both in the development of a `critical' management pedagogy.
Framing issues of organizational ethics in terms of virtues and moral agency (rather than in terms of rules and ethical behavior) has implications for the way social science addresses matters of morality in organizations. In particular, attending to matters of virtue and moral agency directs attention to the moral identity, or self-concept, of persons, and to the circumstances that influence self-identity. This article develops parallels between philosophical theories of virtue and the concept of moral identity as developed in social cognitive identity theory. Explicating notions of virtue and moral agency in terms of social cognitive identity theory, in turn, helps direct attention to a range of factors - including both organizational and extraorganizational, macro-cultural ones - that can foster or inhibit moral agency in organizations.
The importance of ethical behavior to an organization has never been more apparent, and in recent years researchers have generated a great deal of knowledge about the management of individual ethical behavior in organizations. We review this literature and attempt to provide a coherent portrait of the current state of the field. We discuss individual, group, and organizational influences and consider gaps in current knowledge and obstacles that limit our understanding. We conclude by offering directions for future research on behavioral ethics in organizations.
An interactionist model of ethical decision making in organizations is proposed. The model combines individual variables (moral development, etc.) with situational variables to explain and predict the ethical decision-making behavior of individuals in organizations. A major component of the model is based on Kohlberg's cognitive moral development model which provides the construct definition, measurement tools, and theory base to guide future business ethics research. Research propositions are offered and practical implications are discussed.
We propose a theoretical model to examine how authentic transformational leadership influences follower individual and group ethical decision making. We investigate how follower moral identity and moral emotions mediate the effect of authentic transformational leadership on follower authentic moral action. Furthermore, we explore how authentic transformational leadership develops group ethical climate, which in turn contributes to enhancing group ethics and to developing follower moral identity and moral emotions. Future research and practical implications are discussed.
Three studies examined the relationship between moral identity and procedural justice enactment and explored the moderating role of regulatory focus in this relationship. In Study 1, an experimental scenario study, leaders with a strong moral identity were more likely to enact decisions accurately in an employee performance evaluation procedure. This effect emerged in the prevention focus condition, but was absent in the promotion focus condition. In Study 2, an organizational field survey, organizational supervisors' moral identity related to self-reported voice granting, and this effect was pronounced among those with strong (as opposed to weak) dispositional prevention focus. In Study 3, another field study, organizational supervisors' moral identity related to co-worker ratings of voice granting and this effect was again pronounced among supervisors with strong (as opposed to weak) prevention focus. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of a moral self-regulation account of justice enactment.
A two-level regression mixture model is discussed and contrasted with the conventional two-level regression model. Simulated and real data shed light on the modelling alternatives. The real data analyses investigate gender differences in mathematics achievement from the US National Education Longitudinal Survey. The two-level regression mixture analyses show that unobserved heterogeneity should not be presupposed to exist only at level 2 at the expense of level 1. Both the simulated and the real data analyses show that level 1 heterogeneity in the form of latent classes can be mistaken for level 2 heterogeneity in the form of the random effects that are used in conventional two-level regression analysis. Because of this, mixture models have an important role to play in multilevel regression analyses. Mixture models allow heterogeneity to be investigated more fully, more correctly attributing different portions of the heterogeneity to the different levels.
abstractThis paper expands recent appeals for more context sensitive organizational research to include organizational theory. It does this by systematically examining the interface between theory and context, characterized herein as contextualizing theory (theories in context) and theorizing about context (theories of context). The results of this analysis challenge recent criticisms of Chinese organizational scholarship for relying too much on Western theory. As an alternative to discontinuing the practice of cross-context theory borrowing, ways of making this borrowing more context sensitive are explored. The use of context effects to explain organizational phenomena, as well as their essential contribution to all forms of cross-context scholarship, is also examined. In addition, specific suggestions are offered for overcoming the obstacles facing scholars engaged in cross-context theorizing, especially scholars in new research contexts interested in using and improving ‘mainstream’ theory.
Analysis of Ordinal Categorical Data Alan Agresti Statistical Science Now has its first coordinated manual of methods for analyzing ordered categorical data. This book discusses specialized models that, unlike standard methods underlying nominal categorical data, efficiently use the information on ordering. It begins with an introduction to basic descriptive and inferential methods for categorical data, and then gives thorough coverage of the most current developments, such as loglinear and logit models for ordinal data. Special emphasis is placed on interpretation and application of methods and contains an integrated comparison of the available strategies for analyzing ordinal data. This is a case study work with illuminating examples taken from across the wide spectrum of ordinal categorical applications. 1984 (0 471-89055-3) 287 pp. Regression Diagnostics Identifying Influential Data and Sources of Collinearity David A. Belsley, Edwin Kuh and Roy E. Welsch This book provides the practicing statistician and econometrician with new tools for assessing the quality and reliability of regression estimates. Diagnostic techniques are developed that aid in the systematic location of data points that are either unusual or inordinately influential; measure the presence and intensity of collinear relations among the regression data and help to identify the variables involved in each; and pinpoint the estimated coefficients that are potentially most adversely affected. The primary emphasis of these contributions is on diagnostics, but suggestions for remedial action are given and illustrated. 1980 (0 471-05856-4) 292 pp. Applied Regression Analysis Second Edition Norman Draper and Harry Smith Featuring a significant expansion of material reflecting recent advances, here is a complete and up-to-date introduction to the fundamentals of regression analysis, focusing on understanding the latest concepts and applications of these methods. The authors thoroughly explore the fitting and checking of both linear and nonlinear regression models, using small or large data sets and pocket or high-speed computing equipment. Features added to this Second Edition include the practical implications of linear regression; the Durbin-Watson test for serial correlation; families of transformations; inverse, ridge, latent root and robust regression; and nonlinear growth models. Includes many new exercises and worked examples.
This research examines the relationships between top management and supervisory ethical leadership and group-level outcomes (e.g., deviance, OCB) and suggests that ethical leadership flows from one organizational level to the next. Drawing on social learning theory [Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.; Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.] and social exchange theory [Blau, p. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. New York: John Wiley.], the results support our theoretical model using a sample of 904 employees and 195 managers in 195 departments. We find a direct negative relationship between both top management and supervisory ethical leadership and group-level deviance, and a positive relationship with group-level OCB. Finally, consistent with the proposed trickle-down model, the effects of top management ethical leadership on group-level deviance and OCB are mediated by supervisory ethical leadership.
The morality of transformational leadership has been sharply questioned, particularly by libertarians, “grass roots” theorists, and organizational development consultants. This paper argues that to be truly transformational, leadership must be grounded in moral foundations. The four components of authentic transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) are contrasted with their counterfeits in dissembling pseudo-transformational leadership on the basis of (1) the moral character of the leaders and their concerns for self and others; (2) the ethical values embedded in the leaders' vision, articulation, and program, which followers can embrace or reject; and (3) the morality of the processes of social ethical choices and action in which the leaders and followers engage and collectively pursue.The literature on transformational leadership is linked to the long-standing literature on virtue and moral character, as exemplified by Socratic and Confucian typologies. It is related as well to the major themes of the modern Western ethical agenda: liberty, utility, and distributive justice Deception, sophistry, and pretense are examined alongside issues of transcendence, agency, trust, striving for congruence in values, cooperative action, power, persuasion, and corporate governance to establish the strategic and moral foundations of authentic transformational leadership.
Leaders should be a key source of ethical guidance for employees. Yet, little empirical research focuses on an ethical dimension of leadership. We propose social learning theory as a theoretical basis for understanding ethical leadership and offer a constitutive definition of the ethical leadership construct. In seven interlocking studies, we investigate the viability and importance of this construct. We develop and test a new instrument to measure ethical leadership, examine the proposed connections of ethical leadership with other constructs in a nomological network, and demonstrate its predictive validity for important employee outcomes. Specifically, ethical leadership is related to consideration behavior, honesty, trust in the leader, interactional fairness, socialized charismatic leadership (as measured by the idealized influence dimension of transformational leadership), and abusive supervision, but is not subsumed by any of these. Finally, ethical leadership predicts outcomes such as perceived effectiveness of leaders, followers’ job satisfaction and dedication, and their willingness to report problems to management.
In this multi-method study, we examined the relationships of leader's social responsibility with different aspects of ethical leadership (morality and fairness, role clarification, and power sharing) as well as with despotic leadership. We also investigated how these leadership behaviors relate to effectiveness and optimism, using multiple-source ratings. Interviews with CEOs (N = 73) were coded for the presence of leader's social responsibility and its facets. Also, using questionnaires, direct reports rated each CEOs' leader behavior (n = 130) and a second group of direct reports (n = 119) rated effectiveness and optimism. As expected, leaders high on social responsibility were rated higher on ethical leadership and lower on despotic leadership. Ethical leadership was also positively related to perceived top management team effectiveness and subordinates' optimism about the future of the organization and their own place within it.
Our literature review focuses on the emerging construct of ethical leadership and compares this construct with related concepts that share a common concern for a moral dimension of leadership (e.g., spiritual, authentic, and transformational leadership). Drawing broadly from the intersection of the ethics and leadership literatures, we offer propositions about the antecedents and outcomes of ethical leadership. We also identify issues and questions to be addressed in the future and discuss their implications for research and practice. Our review indicates that ethical leadership remains largely unexplored, offering researchers opportunities for new discoveries and leaders opportunities to improve their effectiveness.
Despite the concern that has been expressed about potential method biases, and the pervasiveness of research settings with the potential to produce them, there is disagreement about whether they really are a problem for researchers in the behavioral sciences. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to explore the current state of knowledge about method biases. First, we explore the meaning of the terms "method" and "method bias" and then we examine whether method biases influence all measures equally. Next, we review the evidence of the effects that method biases have on individual measures and on the covariation between different constructs. Following this, we evaluate the procedural and statistical remedies that have been used to control method biases and provide recommendations for minimizing method bias.
Hypotheses involving mediation are common in the behavioral sciences. Mediation exists when a predictor affects a dependent variable indirectly through at least one intervening variable, or mediator. Methods to assess mediation involving multiple simultaneous mediators have received little attention in the methodological literature despite a clear need. We provide an overview of simple and multiple mediation and explore three approaches that can be used to investigate indirect processes, as well as methods for contrasting two or more mediators within a single model. We present an illustrative example, assessing and contrasting potential mediators of the relationship between the helpfulness of socialization agents and job satisfaction. We also provide SAS and SPSS macros, as well as Mplus and LISREL syntax, to facilitate the use of these methods in applications.
The present study tested whether work experiences were associated with personality change across two periods of adulthood (age 21 to 27 and 27 to 43) in a longitudinal sample of women (N = 81). Two competing theoretical perspectives were tested: the plaster theory, which claims that personality does not change after age 30, and the plasticity theory, which claims that personality can change at any time in adulthood. Evidence was found for both correlational consistency of personality in adulthood and for the socialization effect of work on personality change. Work experiences were not associated with personality change in young adulthood but were associated with changes between young adulthood and midlife. In the period from age 27 to age 43 women who worked more became more agentic, and women who were more successful in their work became both more agentic and more normadhering. This pattern of associations between personality change and work experience provided support for the plasticity model of personality change.