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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.
... 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.
... Moreover, leaders' moral attentiveness (Reynolds, 2006(Reynolds, , 2008 sets the boundary in the mediated relationships between ethical leadership and employee ethical behaviors. Leaders' moral attentiveness is a quasi-personality trait (De Cremer, 2016;Reynolds & Ceranic, 2009;Whitaker & Godwin, 2013), helping them become responsive to ethical clues (Zhu et al., 2016). Jamali and Karam (2018) reviewed 452 articles spanning two-and-a-half decades , summarized the global interests in CSR and local expressions, provided a multilevel review, and identified the critical differentiating attributes of the literature on CSR in developing countries. ...
... 1028). This moderator reflects interpersonal differences (Zhu et al., 2016) with two components: (1) reflective and (2) perceptual perspectives. From the reflective perspective, high moral attentive leaders consider ethical issues regularly (Reynolds, 2008;Whitaker & Godwin, 2013). ...
... Working under high moral vigilant leaders ultimately motivates members' ethical behaviors (Reynolds & Ceranic, 2009;Xu et al., 2021). We assert: Leaders' moral attentiveness stimulates followers' attention toward the righteous direction, demonstrating normative behavior and addressing ethical complexities, concerns, and standards (Zhu et al., 2016). Leaders with high moral attentiveness are aware of informational cues' moral consequences, alerting them to ethically charged situations (Culiberg & Mihelič, 2016;Miao et al., 2020). ...
Corruption devours profits, people, and the planet. Ethical leaders promote ethical behaviors. We develop a first-stage moderated mediation theoretical model, explore the intricate relationships between ethical leadership (member rated, Time 1) and employee ethical behaviors (leader rated, Time 3), and treat ethical climate and organizational justice (member rated,Time 2) as dual mediators and leaders' moral attentiveness (leader rated, Time 3) as a moderator. We investigate leadership from two perspectives-leaders' self-evaluation of moral attentiveness and members' perceptions of ethical leadership. We theorize: These dual mediation mechanisms are more robust for high moral leaders than low moral leaders. Our three-wave data collected from multiple sources, 236 members and 98 immediate supervisors in the Republic of Iraq, support our theory. Specifically, ethical leadership robustly impacts organizational justice's intensity and magnitude, leading to high employee ethical behaviors when leaders' moral attentiveness is high than low. However, ethical leadership only influences the ethical climate's intensity but has no impact on the magnitude when leaders' moral attentiveness is high than low. Therefore, organizational justice is a more robust mediator than the ethical climate in the omnibus context of leader moral attentiveness. Our findings support Western theory and constructs, demonstrating a new theory for Muslims in Arabic's emerging markets. Individual decision-makers (subordinates) apply their values (ethical leadership) as a lens to frame their concerns in the immediate (organizational justice and ethical climate) and omnibus (leader moral attentiveness) contexts to maximize their expected utility and ultimate serenity-happiness. Ethical leadership trickles down to employee ethical behaviors, providing practical implications for improving the ethical environment , corporate social responsibility, leader-member exchange (LMX), business ethics , and economic potentials in the global competitive markets.
... Moreover, leaders' moral attentiveness (Reynolds, 2006(Reynolds, , 2008 sets the boundary in the mediated relationships between ethical leadership and employee ethical behaviors. Leaders' moral attentiveness is a quasi-personality trait (De Cremer, 2016;Reynolds & Ceranic, 2009;Whitaker & Godwin, 2013), helping them become responsive to ethical clues (Zhu et al., 2016). Jamali and Karam (2018) reviewed 452 articles spanning two-and-a-half decades , summarized the global interests in CSR and local expressions, provided a multilevel review, and identified the critical differentiating attributes of the literature on CSR in developing countries. ...
... 1028). This moderator reflects interpersonal differences (Zhu et al., 2016) with two components: (1) reflective and (2) perceptual perspectives. From the reflective perspective, high moral attentive leaders consider ethical issues regularly (Reynolds, 2008;Whitaker & Godwin, 2013). ...
... Working under high moral vigilant leaders ultimately motivates members' ethical behaviors (Reynolds & Ceranic, 2009;Xu et al., 2021). We assert: Leaders' moral attentiveness stimulates followers' attention toward the righteous direction, demonstrating normative behavior and addressing ethical complexities, concerns, and standards (Zhu et al., 2016). Leaders with high moral attentiveness are aware of informational cues' moral consequences, alerting them to ethically charged situations (Culiberg & Mihelič, 2016;Miao et al., 2020). ...
Corruption devours profits, people, and the planet. Ethical leaders promote ethical behaviors. We develop a first-stage moderated mediation theoretical model, explore the intricate relationships between ethical leadership (member rated, Time 1) and employee ethical behaviors (leader rated, Time 3), and treat ethical climate and organizational justice (member rated, Time 2) as dual mediators and leaders’ moral attentiveness (leader rated, Time 3) as a moderator. We investigate leadership from two perspectives—leaders’ self-evaluation of moral attentiveness and members’ perceptions of ethical leadership. We theorize: These dual mediation mechanisms are more robust for high moral leaders than low moral leaders. Our three-wave data collected from multiple sources, 236 members and 98 immediate supervisors in the Republic of Iraq, support our theory. Specifically, ethical leadership robustly impacts organizational justice’s intensity and magnitude, leading to high employee ethical behaviors when leaders’ moral attentiveness is high than low. However, ethical leadership only influences the ethical climate’s intensity but has no impact on the magnitude when leaders’ moral attentiveness is high than low. Therefore, organizational justice is a more robust mediator than the ethical climate in the omnibus context of leader moral attentiveness. Our findings support Western theory and constructs, demonstrating a new theory for Muslims in Arabic’s emerging markets. Individual decision-makers (subordinates) apply their values (ethical leadership) as a lens to frame their concerns in the immediate (organizational justice and ethical climate) and omnibus (leader moral attentiveness) contexts to maximize their expected utility and ultimate serenity-happiness. Ethical leadership trickles down to employee ethical behaviors, providing practical implications for improving the ethical environment, corporate social responsibility, leader-member exchange (LMX), business ethics, and economic potentials in the global competitive markets.
... 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. ...
This study draws on social identity, social learning, and trait-activation theories to probe that if moral identity has an indirect effect on the relationship between ethical leadership and unethical behavior. The study investigates that how ethical leadership as a predictor and moral identity as a mediator influence the self-reported unethical behavior based on a sample of 297 oil and gas sector employees in Pakistan. Data were analyzed through SPSS and AMOS. Consistent with the leadership, moral identity, and social learning researches, employees, with a higher sense of moral identity and perceptions of their leaders as more ethical in their leadership behaviors, reported lesser incidences of unethical behavior. The findings suggest that moral identity and ethical leadership behaviors are vital in predicting organizational outcomes. This study is valuable for its original contributions to the literature of moral identity as a mediating variable. Implications for theory and practice have also been discussed.
... One person-related variable that could play a significant role in this association is moral attentiveness. In fact, the latest evidence into the cognitive processing of moral cues indicates that employees' levels of exposure to ethical issues vary (Hannah et al., 2011;Reynolds and Ceranic, 2009;Zhu et al., 2016), and these variances are taken by moral attentiveness, the degree to which an individual chronically observes and considers morality and moral essentials in his or her experiences (Reynolds, 2008). With a higher level of moral attentiveness, individuals can pay more attention to ethics, internalize ethical prototypes about how to solve ethical dilemmas and perform in terms of ethics far better (Wurthmann, 2013;Sturm, 2018). ...
... With this study, this study contributes to both theories by identifying the boundary conditions on which the organizational justice-employee ethical behavior rests upon. Furthermore, this study responds to previous calls to investigate the potential moderating role of moral attentiveness in accounting for ethical behavior in organizations (Zhu et al., 2016). To my knowledge, only van Gils et al. (2015) studied this role of moral attentiveness, and they did it in the relationship between unethical supervision (at the group level) and deviant behavior by finding that moral attentiveness could make employees respond to unethical supervisors with a stronger unethical behavior. ...
... Moral attentiveness is a relatively recent idea in the ethics literature (Reynolds, 2008;Wurthmann, 2013), and it has gotten a lot of attention from academics in the previous 10 years ( van Gils et al., 2015;Zhu et al., 2016;Dawson, 2018). Moral attentiveness, in its two important basic aspects (perceptual and reflective), is likely to have a favorable impact on ethical behavior because it causes people to reason about and perceive morality on a regular basis (Reynolds, 2008;Wurthmann, 2013). ...
Purpose
Although there have been several studies on corporate justice and employee ethical behavior, little is known about the conditions in which this link develops. The purpose of this study is to investigate the direct effect of organizational justice and moral attentiveness toward employee ethical behavior. Importantly, this study also considers the moderating role of moral attentiveness on the links between organizational justice and employee ethical behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The data was collected from 350 employees who were assessed directly to supervisors in 12 manufacturing companies placed in Malaysia, operated full-time, and had regular interaction with their direct supervisors. In particular, using two-wave survey data obtained from 270 employees working in the manufacturing industry in Malaysia.
Findings
Results showed that organizational justice and moral attentiveness positively impact the employee ethical behavior as predicted. New to the literature, findings disclose that moral attentiveness strengthens this relationship. Importantly, the positive impact of organizational justice is sharply positive under high than low moral attentive employees and ceases to be significant among low morally attentive personnel.
Research limitations/implications
This research focused on the notion of ethics and how important it is for society. The principles, norms and ideals that guide an individual’s behavior are referred to as ethics. Because the authors need to be treated with dignity as human beings, ethical behavior is essential in society.
Practical implications
The findings of this study send a clear signal to managers that “failing to ensure that their employees perceive organizational justice” may undermine every effort made by them to improve their organizations’ ethical quality. Importantly, the findings emphasize the role of moral attentiveness in improving the ethical behavior of employees both directly and by strengthening the effectiveness of organizational justice to impact such a behavior positively. So, given the advantages of moral attentiveness in terms of improving employee ethical conduct, businesses should make every effort to hire and choose people who meet this requirement because it is not easy to spot this personality trait. Human resource managers may assess candidates’ moral attentiveness using a range of methods such as group debate, an in-basket exercise, organized interviews and business games that concentrate on specific ethical concerns.
Social implications
This research focused on the notion of ethics and how important it is for society. The principles, norms and ideals that guide an individual’s behavior are referred to as ethics. Because the authors need to be treated with dignity as human beings, ethical behavior is essential in society.
Originality/value
The results of this study demonstrate how the eye is put to attain organizational moral excellence; the outcomes have shown that acutely attentive employees to the moral cues offered by the organization is vital.
... 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).
... Moreover, ethical leadership is demonstrated by set of characteristics. For instance, Zhu (2016) indicates that ethical leaders exhibit fairness and care for their followers. This challenges the followers, in that they feel compelled to respond by acting according to their leader's expectation. ...
... Social learning theory is highly correlated with ethical leadership due to the significant influence of leaders on their followers. Ethical leaders exhibit important traits such as respect for everyone, effective communication, transparency, honesty and fair mediation (Zhu, Treviño & Zheng, 2016). Through social learning, employees identify, emulate and practice positive behaviours from their leaders. ...
Increased ethical challenges in the 21st century organizations has bolstered research in ethical leadership. Numerous ethical scandals have demonstrated that leadership that is devoid of ethics is destructive to organizational stakeholders and the society in general. Although ethical leadership has gained more scholarly attention, there is limited research done on the influence of ethical leadership and program performance in the community development context, hence, the impacts have not been fully explored. Programs implemented community development organizations are done over a specific period of time, and have well outlined objectives and performance indicators. Like institutions in the corporate sector, these organizations are prone to ethical challenges in the course of execution of their programs. These include corruption, fraud, unethical use of information, lack of accountability, misuse communication and technology. Existing studies have been critiqued on the basis of difficulties in establishing appropriate rewards for ethical behaviour, lack of efficient measurement parameters of ethical practices and lack of consensus on the responsibility of enforcing the ethical values in organizations. Therefore, review and synthesis of existing literature is highly required. Scholars have also suggested that it is critical to explore the practice of ethical leadership across different sectors in order to draw the contextual peculiarities. Consequently, there is a research gap in application of ethical leadership in the community development context. The researcher thus reviews extant conceptual, theoretical and empirical literature on ethical leadership and points to various gaps that that present a case for a new theoretical model, linking ethical leadership to program performance outcomes. The model assesses the association between ethical leadership and program performance as mediated by organizational culture. The framework illustrates the causal linkages established through the research.
Keywords: Ethical leadership, Community Development, Organizational Culture, Institutional Environment, Results-Chain Framework.
... Moreover, ethical leadership is demonstrated by set of characteristics. For instance, Zhu (2016) indicates that ethical leaders exhibit fairness and care for their followers. This challenges the followers, in that they feel compelled to respond by acting according to their leader's expectation. ...
... Social learning theory is highly correlated with ethical leadership due to the significant influence of leaders on their followers. Ethical leaders exhibit important traits such as respect for everyone, effective communication, transparency, honesty and fair mediation (Zhu, Treviño & Zheng, 2016). Through social learning, employees identify, emulate and practice positive behaviours from their leaders. ...
Increased ethical challenges in 21st-century organizations have bolstered research in ethical leadership. Numerous ethical scandals have demonstrated that leadership that is devoid of ethics is destructive to organizational stakeholders and society in general. Although ethical leadership has gained more scholarly attention, there is limited research done on the influence of ethical leadership and program performance in the community development context, hence, the impacts have not been fully explored Programs implemented by community development organizations are done over a specific period and have well-outlined objectives and performance indicators. As institutions in the corporate sector, these organizations are prone to ethical challenges in executing their programs. These include corruption, fraud, unethical use of information, lack of accountability, and misuse of communication and technology. Existing studies have been critiqued based on difficulties in establishing appropriate rewards for ethical behaviour, lack of efficient measurement parameters of ethical practices, and lack of consensus on the responsibility of enforcing ethical values in organizations. Therefore, a review and synthesis of the existing literature is highly required. Scholars have also suggested that it is critical to explore the practice of ethical leadership across different sectors to draw the contextual peculiarities. Consequently, there is a research gap in the application of ethical leadership in the community development context. The researcher thus reviews the extant conceptual, theoretical, empirical literature on ethical leadership and points to various gaps that present a case for a new theoretical model, linking ethical leadership to program performance outcomes. The model assesses the association between ethical leadership and program performance as mediated by organizational culture. The framework illustrates the causal linkages established through the
research.
Keywords: Ethical leadership, Community Development, Organizational Culture, Institutional Environment, Results-Chain Framework.
... Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2003) can help explain why employees seek mentoring and guidance from their leaders and, specifically, "how they learn what to do and how to behave largely by observing and emulating" them (Brown and Treviño, 2014, p. 587). Drawing on this, religious leaders can serve as inspirational exemplars and credible role models for their employees (Brown and Treviño, 2014;Buren et al., 2020;Fry, 2003;Weber, 2010;Zhu et al., 2016), leading them to "acquire lifestyles, values, self-regulatory standards, aspirations, and a sense of personal and collective efficacy" (Bandura, 2003, p. 169). In this vein, employees can "emulate leaders' behavior and look to the leaders for cues to appropriate behavior" (Sims and Brinkmann, 2002). ...
... In this vein, employees can "emulate leaders' behavior and look to the leaders for cues to appropriate behavior" (Sims and Brinkmann, 2002). Such leaders are likely to engage more in appropriate and ethical behaviours that are dictated by their religions (Syed et al., 2017;Zhu et al., 2016). Indeed, they "usually have a strong sense of accountability (i.e. a perception of being watched by God, the community, or themselves)" (Buren et al., 2020, p. 804). ...
Purpose
This paper focuses on academics in public universities in Egypt. It explores the effect of perceptions of the rector's religiosity and trust on workplace happiness among academics.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 600 academics are contacted. After two follow-ups, a total of 540 responses are collected, of which 525 are valid. This study uses SmartPLS 3 to test the hypotheses.
Findings
This paper finds that academics' perceptions of their rector's religiosity have a positive effect on engagement, job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Moreover, academics' perceptions of their rector's religiosity positively affect their perceptions of their rector's ability, benevolence and honesty. Furthermore, academics' trust in their rector has a positive effect on their engagement, job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment.
Originality/value
This paper contributes by filling a gap in management and organization literature, in which empirical studies of the relationship between religiosity, organizational trust and workplace happiness are limited or scarce.
... 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.
... Podobnie jak w przypadku innych tożsamości tożsamość lidera zmienia się wraz z upływem czasu i wynikami pracy nad tożsamością (Miscenko et al., 2017). Zbadano również kwestię tożsamości moralnej i uważności moralnej przywódcy jako fundamentów dla postrzeganego przywództwa etycznego oraz tożsamości moralnej i uważności moralnej naśladowców jako wyników przywództwa etycznego (Ete et al., 2020;Zhu et al., 2016). Podejście etyczne i uczciwość lidera badano głównie na podstawie szybkości podejmowania decyzji (Van de Calseyde et al., 2020). ...
Natura i kultura to dwa komponenty konstytuujące pojęcie ludzkości w sposób nierozerwalny. Ponieważ natura, czyli świat dzikich mocy oraz kultura, czyli świat ludzkich wytworów, nieustannie ewoluują, wzajemnie się katalizują i dopełniają, niemożliwe jest określenie linii jednoznacznie oddzielającej od siebie te dwa obszary. Zarządzanie, przynależne do świata kultury, pomaga porządkować i organizować środowisko człowieka (naturę i kulturę). Z kolei również przynależna do świata kultury sztuka pomaga uwalniać emocje (katharsis), dynamizuje życie wewnętrzne człowieka oraz inspiruje (Tatarkiewicz, 2015, pp. 24, 380). Owa porządkująca funkcja zarządzania i twórcza funkcja sztuki determinują potocznie postrzeganą przeciwstawność obu dziedzin. Dopiero zagłębienie się w istotę zarządzania i w istotę twórczości artystycznej pozwala odkryć wiele wspólnych źródeł tych dwóch obszarów – choćby kreatywność. Życie, oparte na powtarzaniu i kopiowaniu, byłoby monotonne i skostniałe, gdyby nie czynnik kreatywności będący przedmiotem pożądania zarówno menedżerów jak i twórców sztuki. Na tej podstawie można stwierdzić, że pozornie przeciwstawne dziedziny zarządzania i sztuki mogą się dopełniać i inspirować.
Zarządzanie nieustannie ewoluuje: od XIX-wiecznego podejścia inżynierskiego charakteryzującego się traktowaniem rzeczywistości organizacyjnej jako systemu bezdusznych elementów, które należało uporządkować na wzór niezacinającej się maszyny (metafora organizacji jako maszyny), przez XX-wieczną menedżerską efektywność w realizowaniu celów ekonomicznych, która jest transpozycją podejścia inżynierskiego, ale z dominacją czynnika rynkowego, aż po rozwijające się w ostatnich dziesięcioleciach zarządzanie humanistyczne. Nurt zarządzania humanistycznego, będący dominującym podejściem teoretycznym niniejszej pracy, ukierunkowany jest na tworzenie trwałego dobrobytu człowieka (Kociatkiewicz & Kostera, 2013). Z kolei ów trwały dobrobyt człowieka w duchu humanizmu polega przede wszystkim na: 1) bezwarunkowym poszanowaniu godności, indywidualności i ochrony przed wyzyskiem każdej istoty ludzkiej; 2) refleksji etycznej odnoszącej się do wartości uniwersalnej, jaką jest dobro, będącej integralną częścią decyzji biznesowych oraz 3) implementacji tej refleksji etycznej do realnego postępowania organizacji w duchu godzenia intencji z działaniami. Te trzy wymiary zarządzania humanistycznego promują rozwój człowieka poprzez działalność gospodarczą sprzyjającą życiu i stanowiącą wartość dodaną dla całego społeczeństwa (Melé, 2016). Analizując powyższą ewolucję istoty zarządzania można powiedzieć, że w naukach o zarządzaniu dopiero niedawno zrozumiano, że życie ma głębszą wartość, a techniczne porządkowanie i optyka rynkowa powinny być traktowane jako metody osiągania celów przez organizacje, a nie cele same w sobie. Naturalną zatem konsekwencją będzie mariaż zarządzania humanistycznego z estetyką, która – skupiona na wartościach uniwersalnych prawdy i piękna oraz sztuce kumulującej najbardziej abstrakcyjnie zaawansowane wytwory ludzkości – stanowi kwintesencję i emanację człowieczeństwa.
... Ozdogan & Zeliha, 2007;Taylor, 2013;Vansandt et al., 2006;Walsh et al., 2016)，或者，工作经验对道德敏感性无显著影响(Dickerson, 2009; Fiolleau & 研究发现，宗教信仰与道德敏感性呈正相关(Alteer et al., 2013;Uyar et al., 2015)，即个体的宗教信仰越强烈，意识到道德问题的可能性就越大。但仍有部分研究得出了不一致的结果(Kara et al.Effelsberg et al., 2014; Mayer et al., 2010;Mulla & Krishnan, 2011;Resick et al., 2013;Thomas et al., 2007;Tu et al., 2017;Zhang & Zhang, 2016b;Zhu et al., 2016)， 与交易型领导负相关(Caillier & Sa, 2016; Groves & Larocca, 2011; Zhu et al., 2011)。这是因为，伦理型领导有助于构建良好的组织伦理氛 围(Mayer et al., 2010)，变革型领导能够满足下属的需求和提升下属在组织更高层次的参与(Taplin et al., 2018)，在美国、澳大利亚、马来西亚和欧洲等地的研究表明，学校教育干预能够有效 提升人们的道德敏感性。例如，Kim 和 Loewenstein (2020)对有 10 年以上工作经验的美国员工进行道德 干预的研究发现，员工的道德敏感性有显著提高。还有学者对毕业年级 114 名会计专业大学生进行一学 期专业实习， 结果表明大学生商业道德敏感性有明显改善(Nadaraja & Mustapha, 2017)。 但也有研究发现， 道德干预不能促进道德敏感性(Mathis, 2012)。一项基于 66 项研究的元分析表明，道德干预课程与道德敏 感性有中等程度的相关(d = 0.44) (Watts et al., 2017)。这意味着道德干预能够有效提高个体的道德敏感性， 但可能存在一些因素影响干预的有效性。 首先，个体特征影响道德敏感性的干预效果。Lau (2010)研究发现学习准备(readiness)会调节道德教 育对道德意识的积极影响，如果个体能主动学习道德并追求有纪律的想象，这可以促进个体道德敏感性 的发展(Pedersen, 2009)。Saat 等(West & Buckby, 2018)。 研究表明， 两种教学方式均能促进个体道德敏感性的发展(Martinov-Bennie & Mladenovic, 2013; Miller et al., 2014; Mladenovic et al., 2019)。 目前， 对美国和澳大利亚的大规模调查发现， 大多数商业院校更多地采用整合教学而非独立教学(Dellaportas et al., 2014; Miller & Becker, 2011)。此外， 课堂教学还有不同形式，例如，角色扮演、价值相关方法、学生个人开发的案例研究等也可能影响教学 效果(Laditka & Houck, 2006; Coyne, Massey, & Thibodeau, 2005; Taplin et al., 2018)。 最后， 实践也是道德干预的一种有效形式。 Nadaraja 和 Mustapha (2017)采用前后测的研究设计发现， 2006). 试论目的论与道义论之辩. ...
... The issue of leader's moral identity and moral attentiveness as antecedents of perceived ethical leadership and follower moral identity and moral attentiveness as ethical leadership outcomes are described in the literature (Ete et al., 2020;Zhu et al., 2016). The ethical approach and leader's honesty mainly was examined based on decision-making promptness (van de Calseyde et al., 2021). ...
The interdisciplinary research on the perception of creative identities like artists, creators, entrepreneurs, leaders, and managers brings substantial conclusions for understanding the way of thinking, internal features, and motivations of decisions of individuals with and without artistic factor. For this purpose, an international quantitative examination of 160 individuals was undertaken. The research exhibited that individuals with and without artistic identity perceive artists, creators, entrepreneurs, leaders, and managers statistically similar (chi-square test of independence used, p < 0.001). The negative verification of the hypotheses was astonishing and a novelty in the investigated area. The novelty should be seen as an artistic potential existing in each individual. The additional qualitative analysis of the 50 features constituting the investigated identities revealed that individuals with and without artistic identity see particular features of these identities slightly differently (the most important, the least important, and the most equally perceived features were described in detail). The outcomes were discussed with the literature on the subject, confirming most other researchers' theses and revealing some contradictions and can be used to understand the qualities of artistic identity and the perception of investigated identities by individuals, groups, and societies dominated by persons with and without artistic factors. The applicability of the results is broad, mainly due to the role of artistry in today's world as potential laying in every individual. Specific triggers should be catalyzed instead of looking for artist-born individuals. The education process of artists should focus on revealing artistic potential underlining the role of inspiration, and discovering the motifs of artistic activity.
... It can be divided into three categories: person variables, task variables, and strategy variables (LINCS Information, n.d.). Followers are moved highly and influenced well by leaders perceived to have moral authority and mental ability (Zhu et al., 2016). A study by Black et al. (2016) confirms that metacognitive ability can be taught and people can be trained to get the required techniques. ...
... 0.101]) only when perceived leaders' intrinsic moral motivation was at a high level (+ 1 SD above the mean). (Hsieh et al., 2020;Lee et al., 2017;Zhu et al., 2016). However, to date, relatively little empirical research has examined whether ethical leadership may impact followers' positive psychological state in morality (i.e., moral elevation). ...
Although extensive studies have emphasized the positive effects of ethical leadership on inspiring followers to be the moral self, its effects on facilitating followers to become the whole moral self remain underexplored. In this study, drawing upon social cognitive theory, we built a moderated mediation model to explore how and when ethical leadership may stimulate followers’ peer monitoring behavior and thus become the whole moral self. Using a cross-sectional design to collect data from 366 employees in China, we tested the proposed model and hypotheses. The results showed that ethical leadership was positively related to followers’ peer monitoring behavior, and moral elevation partially mediated the above relationship. Furthermore, the results also revealed that followers perceived leaders’ intrinsic moral motivation not only amplified the positive effect of ethical leadership on followers’ moral elevation, but also strengthened the positive indirect effect of ethical leadership on followers’ peer monitoring behavior via moral elevation, while followers perceived leaders’ extrinsic moral motivation had the opposite moderating effects. These findings enrich our understanding of ethical leadership by elaborating on the moral elevation process in its impact on followers’ behavior, and provide new insights into how to motivate mutual monitoring among members through managerial practices for organizations.
... (3) In addition, ethical leaders bravely promote their true inner feelings and ideas. Their ethical conscience will trigger employees' internal recognition and sincere respect, strengthen loyalty and support to leaders (Zhu et al., 2016). So that, employees will have confidence to achieve their goals and tasks, stimulate the need for deep-level potential and self-realization, and shape work enthusiasm and autonomy. ...
So far, ethical leadership has been proven to have a wide range of positive effects (resource acquisition spiral). Based on resource conservation theory and implicit leadership theory, this research instead focuses on the negative effect of ethical leadership on leaders themselves through leader emotional exhaustion under the condition of employee followership, therefore leader psychological withdrawal (resource loss spiral). In this time-lagged survey, a total of n = 238 leaders (male = 65.13%) were assessed over three measurement points with an interval of three months each. The results of the stuy are: (1) Ethical leadership links to growing leader emotional exhaustion; (2) Leader emotional exhaustion associates with intensified leader psychological withdrawal; (3) Leader emotional exhaustion mediates the relation between ethical leadership and leader psychological withdrawal; (4) Employee followership reversely moderates the effect of ethical leadership on leader emotional exhaustion; (5) Employee followership reversely moderates the effect of ethical leadership on leader psychological withdrawal through leader emotional exhaustion. Its indirect effect is non-significant under the condition of high employee followership. In summary, this research interpretates the mechanism and boundary condition for the negative effects of ethical leadership on leaders themselves.
... An increasing amount of research suggests that morality is a core feature of good leadership (e.g., Mayer et al., 2012;Skubinn & Herzog 2016;Zhu et al., 2011Zhu et al., , 2016. In order to be perceived as moral, a leader has to demonstrate moral behaviors that are visible to followers (Treviño et al., 2000); that is, a leader has to show high integrity. ...
The aim of this study was to broaden the current understanding of leader integrity by applying a social-cognitive process model to leaders’ moral decision-making. Leaders (n = 223) were classified into different integrity styles (informational, normative, or diffuse-avoidant) based on their personal descriptions of how they approach moral questions and make moral decisions at work. We then investigated how followers (n = 963) perceived these leaders’ integrity (moral behavior, behavioral integrity, and consistency) and their leader-member exchange (LMX) quality by using a hierarchical leader-follower sample. Followers evaluated normative leaders to show the highest amount of consistency compared to the other integrity styles, although perceptions of leader consistency did not associate with LMX quality. Instead, follower-rated leader moral behavior had the strongest relationship with LMX quality both within and between leader-follower groups. Based on our results, morality is a more important integrity component to follower relationships than consistency. However, the leader’s moral motives behind their decisions might not translate directly and similarly to his or her followers. This means that leaders should pay attention to how transparent, fair, and equal their decisions and justifications behind them appear to others. We also provide a qualitative rating scheme for recognizing differences in personal integrity styles.
... The United Nations climate summit in Glasgow in November 2021, called COP26, highlighted its importance at length. Due to carbon emissions being one of the leading causes of global warming, there has been a vast literature examining the causes and alternative strategies for mitigating carbon emissions (Abbasi & Riaz, 2016;Charfeddine & Kahia, 2019;Zaidi et al., 2019;Zhu et al., 2016). In addition, economic growth, population growth and trade have been examined in literature as antecedents to environmental quality (Begum et al., 2015;Hailemariam et al., 2020;Ivanovski & Marinucci, 2021;Nasreen et al., 2017;Panayotou, 2016;Shahbaz et al., 2013). ...
Governments and policymakers worldwide have been setting targets to achieve an ambitious net-zero emission target by 2050 to tackle the pressing issue of climate change. However, achieving the net-zero emission target by 2050 depends on the factors determining the transition from traditional fossil fuel energy sources to renewables. In connection with this, policymakers have emphasised the need to transition from a linear to a circular economy. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of the progress towards a circular economy in reducing CO2 emissions and promoting environmental sustainability. To do so, we use annual historical data for a panel of 29 European countries from 2000 to 2020. Using an innovative identification strategy that adopts heteroscedastic-based instrumental variables and addresses endogeneity issues, we find that progress towards a circular economy significantly improves environmental quality via reducing CO2 emissions. Our findings suggest that business strategies promoting recycling and circular economy practices play an important role in environmental sustainability by reducing emissions.
... Moral leaders convey signals to team members that they should be caring, helpful, and hardworking, which facilitates cooperation and enhances effort toward team goals Rice et al., 2021). Supporting this argument, research has shown that leaders transmit moral identity to followers through their ethical leading behavior (Zhu et al., 2016). ...
While prior research has shown a relationship between age diversity and outcomes in teams, little knowledge exists regarding the theoretical mechanisms driving these outcomes. Furthermore, mixed findings from prior research indicate that these relationships differ depending upon contextual factors. Our field study tests two potential mediators and one possible moderator of the relationship between age diversity and team performance. Multi-source data collected from 71 Chinese township government leadership groups showed that team age diversity is positively associated with survey measures of two emergent states, specifically, perceived team effectiveness and collective team identification, which in turn positively predict an objective measure of team performance. The fully mediated model was moderated by leader moral identity, which strengthened the relationships between age diversity and both team emergent states. Results also showed a curvilinear relationship between age diversity and the two team emergent states which was not significantly moderated by leader moral identity. These findings contribute to extant knowledge from an integrative approach within a non-Western cultural context. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... The change brought by servant leadership is not just limited to the behavior of employees. Instigated to question their values, role models are instrumental in changing the value map of employees (Huhtala et al., 2021;Zhu et al., 2016). Usually surrounded by the individuals working for their self-enhancement, employees mostly find themselves etched with the same value map whereby they manifest a tendency to seek personal benefits. ...
Purpose – This paper intends to ascertain whether servant leadership can trigger servant colleagueship
among subordinates. Additionally, the study is set out to divulge the mediating role of self-transcendence
relating servant leadership to servant colleagueship.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from the respondents in three waves that were two
months apart. In the first wave, employees rated their managers’ servant leadership behavior. In the second wave,
employees rated their self-transcendence, and finally, they rated their colleague-directed servant behavior. The
final sample size for the study was 209 employees employed in the service sector. Structural equational modeling
through Smart-PLS and hierarchical regression through SPSS were used for data analysis.
Findings – The study found servant leadership to be related to self-transcendence and employees’ enacted
servant colleagueship. Additionally, the study found self-transcendence to mediate the relationship between
servant leadership and servant colleagueship.
Originality/value – The study has established the previously unexplored mediating role of selftranscendence linking servant leadership to servant colleagueship. The study is also the first to empirically
test the relationship between self-transcendence and servant colleagueship.
Keywords Servant leadership, Self-transcendence, Servant colleagueship
Paper type Research paper
... The change brought by servant leadership is not just limited to the behavior of employees. Instigated to question their values, role models are instrumental in changing the value map of employees (Huhtala et al., 2020;Zhu et al., 2016). Usually surrounded by the individuals working for their self-enhancement, employees mostly find themselves etched with the same value map whereby they manifest a tendency to seek personal benefits. ...
Purpose – This paper intends to ascertain whether servant leadership can trigger servant colleagueship
among subordinates. Additionally, the study is set out to divulge the mediating role of selftranscendence relating servant leadership to servant colleagueship.
Design/Methodology/Approach – Data was collected from the respondents in three waves that were
two months apart. In the first wave, employees rated their managers’ servant leadership behavior. In
the second wave, employees rated their self-transcendence, and finally, they rated their colleaguedirected servant behavior. The final sample size for the study was 209 employees employed in the
service sector. Structural equational modeling through Smart-PLS and hierarchical regression through
SPSS were used for data analysis.
Findings – The Study found servant leadership to be related to self-transcendence and employees'
enacted servant colleagueship. Additionally, the study found self-transcendence to mediate the
relationship between servant leadership and servant colleagueship.
Originality/value – The study has established the previously unexplored mediating role of selftranscendence linking servant leadership to servant colleagueship. The study is also the first to
empirically test the relationship between self-transcendence and servant colleagueship.
Keywords Servant leadership, self-transcendence, servant colleagueship
... Therefore, for purposes of parsimony, we focused on moral identity as a whole without considering the two dimensions. This practice is consistent with prior research (e.g., Keem et al., 2018;Zhu et al., 2016). Specifically, we averaged items for the internalization and symbolization subscales to create a score for moral identity (α = 0.87). ...
Implicit morality theories refer to people’s beliefs about whether individuals’ moral character is fixed or malleable. Drawing on the social cognitive theory of morality, we examine the relationship between employees’ implicit morality theories and their organizational citizenship behaviors toward coworkers (OCBC) and coworker-directed deviance (CDD) through a moral self-regulatory mechanism. A laboratory experiment (Study 1), an online experiment (Study 2), and a multi-wave, multi-source field survey (Study 3) found that the more employees held a fixed belief about morality, the lower their sense of moral control, especially when their moral identity was lower. This perceived lack of moral control, in turn, predicted decreased OCBC, particularly when the workgroup ethical climate was weak. However, this relationship did not hold for CDD. Overall, our research highlights implicit morality theories as a novel antecedent of employees’ workplace behaviors, and identifies the underlying moral self-regulatory process, along with individual and situational boundary conditions.
... 133). Ethical leadership discourages any malpractices in the organization and encourages the employees to follow the appropriate code of conduct that facilitates the organizations to raise their performance and having a strong and loyal workforce (Nejati et al., 2020;Zhu et al., 2016). ...
Purpose
This study aims to understand and examine the mediating role of workplace spirituality on ethical leadership and behavioral outcomes. The study used the social exchange theory and social learning theory to study the underlying mechanism.
Design/methodology/approach
The data was collected from 348 frontline hotel employees of North India using convenience sampling. The study used structural equation modeling and Macro PROCESS Hayes (2017) to test the hypothesized model.
Findings
The study found a positive association between ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behavior and a negative association between ethical leadership and unethical pro-organizational behavior. Workplace spirituality mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and its outcomes.
Practical implications
The study brings out the significance of ethical leadership and workplace spirituality in enhancing organizational citizenship behavior and reducing unethical pro-organizational behavior.
Originality/value
There is a paucity of research done on the mediating role of workplace spirituality in understanding its significance in aligning ethical leadership and behavioral outcomes. Hence, the authors attempt to address this gap by understanding the role of workplace spirituality and its association with ethical leadership, unethical pro-organizational behavior and organizational citizenship behavior among the employees of the hotel industry.
... Due to such importance of the leadership and job performance, it is of a great interest to both researchers and practitioners (Dinh et al., 2014). Findings from previous research indicates that ethical leaders can influence the behavior of their employees in positive direction, by building their character and modify their personality (Zhu, Treviño, & Zheng, 2016). ...
Nowadays universities are going through the transition due which new performance standards have been created. In such situation, performance of employees can be enhanced through effective ethical leadership. The current study has examined the dynamic links between job satisfaction, job performance and ethical leadership in the academia of Pakistan. Using a cross sectional design, quantitative data were collected from 150 academic staff working in three universities. Data were analyzed both by descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that four characteristics, i.e., practicing preacher; safe haven creator; moral motivator and ethical justice were positively associated with job performance, whereas this link was partially mediated by job satisfaction. The results obtained were in a strong concurrence with the existing literature. Hence, universities of Pakistan should focus on developing ethical leadership among their employees. In this way, universities can grow and contribute towards the socioeconomic development of Pakistan. 385
... Second, moral identity contributes to more ethical behavior at work (Bryant and Merritt, 2021). Third, moral identity is shared with followers during social learning (Bandura and Walters, 1977;Zhu et al., 2016). ...
Purpose: The article investigates how executive managers handle stakeholder management in the challenging pandemic context. How executive managers' moral identity affects their attitudes and decisions when faced with crisis. Insight into the influence of socially responsible servant leadership on followers' job satisfaction and work engagement. Design/Methodology/Approach: Qualitative research on stakeholder management in the pandemic crisis and leaders' moral identity as the basis of their activities. Quantitative research focusing on the influence of socially responsible leadership on public sector's employees. Findings: The ongoing COVID-19 crisis strengthens socially responsible leadership. The company leaders participating in the research, whose companies were partly state-owned but also operated on the capital market, were aware of the broad context of stakeholder management and recognized the need to not focus only on shareholders. We observed an influence of moral identity on their decisions. It can be concluded that the respondents' attitudes represented socially responsible leadership and servant leadership. A positive impact of leadership attitude was discovered on job satisfaction, organization identification, and work engagement. Practical Implications: The practical implications of the research indicate that servant leadership is a theory that should be developed and taught in universities and business schools. Originality/value: We analyze how socially responsible leaders manage stakeholders during crisis, how moral identity shapes socially responsible leaders and affects their attitudes and decisions when their enterprise faces a crisis and contribute to the discussion on servant leadership as a leadership style that supports socially responsible leadership by investigating its influence on staff well-being. Finally, we study an Eastern European context to provide pioneering research on servant leadership.
... Aquino & Reed, 2002;Ding, Shao, Sun, Xie, Li, & Wnag, 2018;Reynolds & Ceranic, 2007;Zhang, Chen, Wang, Ziang, Xu, & Zhao, 2017b (Brown, Treviño, & Harrison, 2005;Shin, 2012 (Epitropaki, Kark, Mainemelis, & Lord, 2017;Gerpott, Quaquebeke, Schlamp, & Voelpel, 2019;Shao, Aquino, & Freeman, 2008;Stets & Carter, 2012 (Lord & Brown, 2004;Shao et al., 2008;Stets & Carter, 2012;Zhu, 2008;Zhu et al., 2016)Note. N = 324, ** p < .01, ...
Empirical studies on positive outcomes of occupational calling are increasing, but there are relatively few considerations of psychological variables and mechanisms that predict perceiving a calling. We studied a mediating effect of leader identification and moral identity in a relationship between ethical leadership and occupational calling. 324 Navy personnel participated in this study and responded to the following questionnaires: Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS); Leader Identification Scale; Moral Identity Scale; Calling and Vocation Questionnaire (CVQ). The results showed a significant relationship between ethical leadership, leader identification, moral identity, and occupational calling. Also, ethical leadership was positively related to occupational calling, and moral identity was also positively related to occupational calling. Lastly, a sequential mediating model showed the relationship between ethical leadership and occupational calling was mediated by both leader identification and moral identity sequentially. Based on the results, theoretical and practical implications for promoting moral identity and occupational calling, limitations, and suggestions for future research were discussed.
... We have proposed a theoretical framework, for this reason, thus adapting the model of Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara and Viera-Armas (2019) to integrate Organizational Justice. Zhu, Treviño, and Zheng (2016); explored additional characteristics of a leader's moral identity in the previous study, with the ethical concern as an element of the perceived ethical leadership. Very few scholars predicted that perceived fairness is a significant component of ethical management. ...
While many analysts have directed few investigations on the influence of ethical leadership on the behavior of citizenship, in different contexts, however, not much is known about the moral components make it possible to produce follow-up findings as Organizational Citizenship Behavior(OCBs) for leaders, especially, Interpersonal OCBs (OCBI). For this, we suggested a hypothetical structure, thereby adapting Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara and Viera-Armas (2019) model to include Organizational Justice. Therefore, we intend to study the association of Ethical Leadership with OCBI empirically while in the view of various determining factors of Workplace Compassion (i.e. empathic concern, common humanity, mindfulness, and kindness), and Organizational Justice (i.e. procedural justice, distributive justice, and interactional justice) as mediating variables. Empirical validity was recognized; by directing a review utilizing a standardized close-ended questionnaire. Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structured Equation Modeling (SEM), information was collected from 350 employees and investigated. Both direct and indirect effect was tested; by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) via SmartPLS software. Thus, the results revealed that: except for Common Humanity, ethical leadership remained significantly and positively connected with all factors of Workplace Compassion (Empathic Concern, Mindfulness, and Kindness), as well as with all three-factor of Organizational Justice (Procedural Justice, Distributive Justice, and Interactional Justice. However, ethical leadership seems to hurt the Mindfulness factor. Also, among compassion determinants, only Empathic Concern seems to affect OCBI. Whereas only interactional justice has a significant positive association with OCBI; further, the findings revealed that there is an insignificant mediating effect of workplace compassion and organizational justice in the ethical leadership relationship with OCBI. Hence, the investigation has portrayed significant ramifications for the organizations.
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.
This paper aims to examine the indirect effects of ethical leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). We primarily examine how two types of organizational commitment (i.e. affective commitment and continuance commitment) mediate the effect of the supervisors’ ethical leadership on their followers’ UPB. Collecting data from 291 employees in South Korea, at two points in time, we found that ethical leadership has a negative relationship with follower UPB through affective commitment and has a positive relationship with follower UPB through continuance commitment. Furthermore, follower organizational identification moderates the mediation processes, which makes the affective commitment-UPB relationship more negative but the continuance commitment-UPB relationship more positive when the followers more closely identify with their organization. We also discuss the theoretical contributions and practical implications.
This study employs the bibliometric analysis approach to examine research on ethical decision‐making (EDM) of accountants from 1987 to 2022. The study specifically examines the developments in EDM research and evaluates the intellectual structure of the research field. Employing citation, co‐authorship, co‐occurrence and bibliographic coupling analyses, bibliometric data on 908 publications from the Scopus database was analysed. The results indicate that there has been a significant increase in the rate of publication on EDM of accountants following the spate of ethical breaches in the early 2000s. Further, we find that a large proportion of EDM in accounting research originates from developed countries like USA, Australia and UK. Our cluster analysis suggests that two main research streams have evolved over the period. Prior to 2012, researchers in this field mainly focused on individual level issues, particularly, on the determinants of the EDM process of individuals. Research, post 2012, however, has focused on firm‐level EDM issues including organisational ethics, culture, and corporate governance. The study further discusses the themes in detail andproposes a future research agenda.
Our research examines the importance of ethics‐related mentoring, its measurement and potential role in promoting protégé ethical behaviours. In Study 1, 25 interviews with mentoring experts generated 40 items for a new measure of ethics‐related mentoring. Across studies 2 and 3, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, using data collected from 114 and 152 protégés, respectively, reduced these to 15 items and supported its confirmatory and discriminant validity. Study 4, a scenario‐based experiment, confirmed that protégé perceptions of their ethics‐related mentoring increases their organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) whilst reducing their counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). Drawing on social learning theory and moral identity theory, we demonstrate that both moral identity and moral self‐efficacy mediate the relationship with CWB, but only moral identity mediates the relationship with OCB. We found limited support for a moderating role of mentor prototypicality. Overall, we present strong evidence for the reliability and validity of our new ethics‐related mentoring measure and a new theoretical framework explaining its potential role in promoting protégé ethical behaviours.
Significant research provides evidence of social and individual factors that influence ethics. However, consideration of the cultural assimilation process that simultaneously emphasizes the roles of national-level and individual-level values is scarce. Building on the arguments of Merton's anomie theory (1938, 1968), this study considered a multilevel mediation model to investigate the direct effects of cultural values on supervisors' ethics as well as the indirect effects through value commitments. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was employed to perform a centered within context with the reintroduction of the subtracted means at Level-2 (CWC(M)) mediation analysis on the data of 9813 supervisors across 30 countries. The study's findings contribute to Merton's anomie theory by deliberating on the importance of the assimilation of society's cultural values as reflected by individual value commitments in shaping supervisors' ethicality. Considering that some results opposed the propositions of Merton's anomie theory, this paper offered arguments that complement them.
Purpose
Guided by the importance ascribed to the self-cultivation of virtue, the authors examined virtues-centered moral identity (VCMI) as a mediator of the positive relationship between virtuous leadership and several valued personal and organizational outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Hypotheses were tested using data from 131 leader–subordinate dyads based in the USA and Canada, using the SPSS Statistics Software 27.0 PROCESS Macro v 3.5.
Findings
Leaders’ VCMI mediates the positive effects of virtuous leadership (subordinate-rated) on leaders’ moral behavior (subordinate-rated) and their self-rated happiness. Followers’ VCMI mediates the positive effects of virtuous leadership on organizational citizenship (as judged by leaders) and self-rated happiness of followers. Followers’ VCMI did not mediate between virtuous leadership and followers’ moral behavior.
Research limitations/implications
Although participants of this study were from a variety of industries, the sample was based in the USA and Canada; hence, any culture-specific leader behaviors and processes were likely missed. Moreover, some of the relationships examined involved data from the same source such that these associations may have been artificially inflated by common method variance. Even so, in each case, the sources we used (leader and follower) were appropriate to the research question. Nonetheless, for example, to collect Virtuous Leadership Questionnaire (VLQ)-based assessments from other stakeholders (e.g. peers and customers) remains of interest.
Practical implications
A practiced strong sense of VCMI has the potential to short-circuit unethical behavior and contribute to happiness among both subordinates and leaders. VCMI is implicated in the fostering of subordinates’ organizational citizenship as well.
Social implications
The authors' findings imply that leaders and followers can acquire knowledge structures associated with moral virtues and virtuous acts through formal and informal learning, suggesting an affirmative answer to the question, “Are virtuous acts teachable? This is an important starting point in developing theoretically sound programs for promoting virtuous acts as called for by many scholars and practitioners. The authors' study highlights the importance of virtues-related education because VCMI is likely developed through formal learning.
Originality/value
The authors' VCMI mediation-based findings offer a completely new explanation for the positive functioning of virtuous leadership, which formerly had been grounded in attribution and social learning processes only.
Liderlik geçmişten günümüze kadar kurum ve kuruluşların vazgeçilmez bir unsuru olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Liderlik tarzları ise sürekli değişerek yenileşmeye devam etmektedir. Whistleblowing kavramı ise kuruluşların, toplumların faydasına olan ve yanlışların ortaya çıkarılarak bu durumların düzeltilmesini ele alan bir yaklaşımdır. Bu çalışmanın amacı etik liderlik ile whistleblowing kavramı arasındaki ilişkiyi belirlemektir. Tanımlayıcı nitelikte olan bu çalışmada nicel araştırma deseni kullanılmıştır. 539 akademisyenin katılımıyla gerçekleşen çalışmada toplanan veriler istatistiki analizlere tabi tutulmuştur. Ölçeklerin geçerliliği için açımlayıcı faktör analizi, güvenirlik analizi, bağımsız gruplar arası t testleri, tek yönlü varyans analizleri, korelasyon analizi ve regresyon analizi yapılmıştır. Yapılan korelasyon analizi sonucunda etik liderlik ile whistleblowing niyetinin içsel ve dışsal alt boyutları arasında anlamlı ilişkilerin olduğu görülmüştür. Yapılan regresyon analizine göre etik liderlik whistleblowing davranışını pozitif yönde etkilemektedir. Ayrıca etik liderlik davranışlarının artmasının dışsal whistleblowing davranışını azaltacağı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Ortaya çıkan bu sonucun etik liderlik davranışlarının whistleblowing niyetini açığa çıkarmayı sağladığı söylenebilir. İlgili sonuçlar neticesinde alan yazına katkı sağlamaya çalışılmıştır.
Liderlik geçmişten günümüze kadar kurum ve kuruluşların vazgeçilmez bir unsuru olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Liderlik tarzları ise sürekli değişerek yenileşmeye devam etmektedir. Whistleblowing kavramı ise kuruluşların, toplumların faydasına olan ve yanlışların ortaya çıkarılarak bu durumların düzeltilmesini ele alan bir yaklaşımdır. Bu çalışmanın amacı etik liderlik ile whistleblowing kavramı arasındaki ilişkiyi belirlemektir. Tanımlayıcı nitelikte olan bu çalışmada nicel araştırma deseni kullanılmıştır. 539 akademisyenin katılımıyla gerçekleşen çalışmada toplanan veriler istatistiki analizlere tabi tutulmuştur. Ölçeklerin geçerliliği için açımlayıcı faktör analizi, güvenirlik analizi, bağımsız gruplar arası t testleri, tek yönlü varyans analizleri ve korelasyon analizi yapılmıştır. Yapılan analizler sonucunda etik liderlik ile whistleblowing niyetinin içsel ve dışsal alt boyutları arasında anlamlı ilişkilerin olduğu görülmüştür. İlgili sonuçlar neticesinde alan yazına katkı sağlamaya çalışılmıştır.
Healthcare systems face challenges posed by internal and external factors, including economic crises or pandemic outbreaks. In the COVID-19 pandemic, particular attention was focused on the financing activities to mitigate its impact, strengthening emergency medicine, healthcare human and technical resources. At the same time, it becomes noticeable that the proposed solutions and significant financial resources are not sufficient or appropriate to resolve potential and existing challenges. Consequently, the question arises as to whether there are any hidden obstructions in the healthcare system itself that hinder its operation. Therefore, this research aimed to identify areas in which the in-depth research would contribute to the performance of healthcare systems, alongside the allocation of funding. To achieve the goal of the study, a systematic literature review was conducted to identify the views of scientists on healthcare systems' operation in the COVID-19 spread period. The results of the performed literature review indicated several obstructions and potentials of the healthcare systems. Dominant attention is dedicated to shifting from the hierarchical structural governance principles to the people-centered approach, towards collaborative, inclusive, and participative practices of engagement and involvement of healthcare professionals and patients, moving from fragmentation to adaptive self-organization, creating well-integrated, equitable, and prosperous societies, by redesigning health policy thinking and respecting the principles of democracy and human rights. Further theoretical research could strengthen the practical implementation of more sustainable and inclusive healthcare systems.
Purpose
Today’s organizations continue to suffer from the detrimental effects of employee disengagement. Leaders and their behavior play a significant role in limiting these negative effects. The literature provides evidence that facets of the full-range leadership model impact employee engagement. This paper aims to extend the leader-engagement connection to include the role authentic leadership plays in cultivating meaningfulness and engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses a quantitative survey of 90 working professionals to test a mediated model and its hypothesized relationships among authentic leadership, meaningfulness and employee engagement. Hypotheses were tested with ordinary least squares regression in the PROCESS macro for Statistical Packages for the Social Science.
Findings
The results confirmed the positive impact of authentic leadership on engagement. The indirect effect of authentic leadership on engagement through meaningfulness was not found to be significant. However, post hoc analysis found evidence that the impact of authentic leadership is mediated by the dimensional aspect of meaningfulness, positive meaning.
Originality/value
These findings extend the empirical evidence tying leadership behavior to employee engagement by clarifying how authentic leadership influences employees to participate more fully in their organization’s activities. Further, this research provides alternative pathways for leaders to encourage and elicit engagement from their followers.
Son yıllarda yaşanan küresel rekabetle birlikte, liderler bir örgütte sadece güç ve statüye sahip bir kişi değil, aynı zamanda bir mentor, bir motive edici, bir değişim ajanı ve en önemlisi takipçilerinin tutum ve davranışlarını şekillendiren önemli bilgi kaynakları olarak kabul edilmektedir. Bu araştırmanın temel amacı sosyal öğrenme teorisi ve sosyal mübadele teorisinden faydalanılarak, etik liderliğin takipçilerin bilgi uçurma eylemlerini nasıl etkilediğini ve bu etki düzeyine psikolojik sermayenin aracılık edip etmediğini tespit etmektir. Kavramsal ve ampirik araştırma sonuçları etik liderliğin, çalışanlara etik olmayan herhangi bir davranış hakkında seslerini yükseltebilmeleri için gerekli inisiyatifi almalarını sağlayarak, bilgi uçurma niyetini olumlu yönde etkilediğini açıkça göstermektedir. Bununla birlikte, psikolojik sermayenin etik liderlik ile bilgi uçurma arasındaki etkileşiminde kısmi bir aracılık etkisinin olduğu ortaya konmuştur. Elde edilen sonuçlar, gerek etik liderliğin bilgi uçurma eylemini nasıl etkilediği konusunda yeni bakış açılarına işaret edecek olması gerekse iş hayatında bireylerin hedeflere ulaşmasını sağlayan pozitif bir psikolojik kaynak olarak kabul edilen psikolojik sermayenin önemine dikkat çekmesi açısından oldukça önemlidir.
The purpose of the study is to determine the moderator role of the personnel's moral identity in the effect of ethical leadership on organizational identification. For this purpose, the study was carried out on 172 personnel working in bank branches located in the central district of Tokat. SPSS Process Macro and AMOS were used in the analysis of the research data. In line with the findings obtained in the research data, it is determined that ethical leadership has a positive and significant effect on organizational identification. It is determined that moral identity has a moderator role in this relationship. According to research findings, ethical leadership gradually begins to affect organizational identification behavior more if the moral identity is low, medium, and high. However, this situation is significantly higher in individuals with low moral identity levels.
Bu çalışmanın amacı etik liderliğin örgütsel özdeşleşme üzerinde etkisinde personelin ahlaki kimliğinin düzenleyici rolünü tespit etmektir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda çalışma Tokat ili merkez ilçesinde bulunan banka şubelerinde çalışan 172 personel üzerinde gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırma verilerinin analizinde SPSS Process Macro ve AMOS kullanılmıştır. Araştırma verilerinde elde edilen bulgular doğrultusunda etik liderliğin örgütsel özdeşleşme üzerinde pozitif yönlü anlamlı bir etkisi olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Bu ilişkide ahlaki kimliğin düzenleyici bir rolü olduğu belirlenmiştir. Ahlaki kimliğin düşük, orta ve yüksek olması durumunda etik liderliğin örgütsel özdeşleşme davranışını kademeli olarak daha fazla etkilemeye başladığı tespit edilmiştir. Fakat bu durumun anlamlı bir şekilde ahlaki kimlik düzeyi düşük bireylerde daha fazla gerçekleştiği ortaya konmuştur.
This study observes the query of how leader can contribute to meaningful work. How leader can contribute to their own meaningful work and also for their employees. The basic drive of this research is to explore the effect of meaningful leadership, through cooperativeness of employees how leader can subsidize to their meaningful work. Data were collected through online survey in this pandemic condition. A descriptive cross sectional survey strategy was used for this research. The data for this study were taken from public and private organizations. A 302 online questionnaires were sent among different respondents. A close ended questionnaire used for this research that is related to leaders. A cross sectional quantitative research (close ended questions) design was adopted. A purposive sampling technique was used for this research. A generally result of this study is that mediating variable cooperativeness strengthen the relationship between independent variable of meaningful leadership and dependent variable of meaningful work When meaningful leader fully collaborate with their employees and the leader of organization is supportive than employee become more satisfied, motivated, and inspired and committed with their meaningful work.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
