Leaders Matter Morally: The Role of Ethical Leadership in Shaping Employee Moral Cognition and Misconduct (original) (raw)
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The Leadership Quarterly, 2013
Ethical leadership predicts important organizational outcomes such as decreased deviant and increased organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). We argued that due to the distinct nature of these two types of employee behaviors, ethical leadership decreases deviance in a linear manner (i.e., more ethical leadership leading to less deviance), but we expected ethical leadership to reveal a curvilinear relationship with respect to OCB. Specifically, we expected that, at lower levels, ethical leadership promotes OCB. However, at high levels, ethical leadership should lead to a decrease in these behaviors. We also examined a mechanism that explains this curvilinear pattern, that is, followers' perceptions of moral reproach. Our predictions were supported in three organizational field studies and an experiment. These findings offer a better understanding of the processes that underlie the workings of ethical leadership. They also imply a dilemma for organizations in which they face the choice between limiting deviant employee behavior and promoting OCB.
Current Psychology
According to social learning theory, we examine the effect of ethical leadership by investigating how moral identity resulting from ethical leadership influences employees' workplace cheating behaviors. Adopting a moderated mediation framework, this study suggests that leader-follower value congruence moderates the positive relationship between ethical leadership and employees' moral identity and mitigates the indirect effect of ethical leadership on employees' workplace cheating behaviors. The results of this study, drawn from a sample of 243 full-time employees and their direct supervisors, support these hypotheses. As such, this study provides novel theoretical and empirical insights into ethical leadership and workplace cheating behavior.
The Influence of Ethical Leadership on Moral Judgment and Moral Motivation of Employees
Promotion and inculcation of ethical decision making in the organization remains a prime concern in the fields of behavioral ethics and leadership. During the last decade, ethical leadership in the organization has been re-conceptualized in an effort to further this cause. Though, avid attention has been paid to ethical leadership style but the problems in the construct at the theoretical level has not been seen clearly, and due to this how it affects morality of employees in the organization was not studied closely. This research identified important theoretical and conceptual issues with ethical leadership construct and how it influences the moral judgment and moral identity-based moral motivation of followers in the organization. This study examined the specific ethical leadership construct, which is composed of two components: the moral person and the moral manager. Studying the construct as a whole and in parts, it was proposed that the moral person component leads employees to construct their personal moral judgment at higher levels of cognitive moral development model (CMD) while the moral manager component, and ethical leader leads employees to construct their moral judgment at low levels of CMD. In addition to explaining leader influences on employee’s CMD, it was also proposed that these components influence follower moral identity-based motivation. It was proposed that the moral person component crowds in moral identity (internalization) based moral motivation, while ethical leader and the moral manager component crowds in moral identity (symbolization) based moral motivation. Using quasi- experimental research design in educational institution setting (n = 176), it was partially supported that moral person component affects employees’ moral development positively at principled and conventional levels, as compared to moral managers and ethical leader who led employees to construct their morality at pre-conventional level. It was also supported that moral person crowds in moral motivation of employees, who are high on internalization dimension of moral identity in the absence of rewards, while ethical leader and moral manager crowds in moral motivation of employees who are high on symbolization dimension of moral identity, in the presence of rewards. The key implication of the study is that ethical leaders through moral management may affect both moral development and moral identity based moral motivation of employees negatively. Next, further implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.
2013
Recent ethical scandals in organizations are often cited when pointing to leaders as the culprits who foster corruption in their organization; however, little empirical work examines the individual processes through which leaders may influence follower ethical decision-making and behavior. Drawing from principles of social cognitive theory and self-efficacy theory , moral self-regulatory capacities are presented as a means by which leaders may influence followers. Specifically, I hypothesize that leader influence on follower (un)ethical behavior is mediated through follower ethical efficacy beliefs and moral disengagement processes. I also suggest that ethical efficacy interacts with ethical leadership to influence behavior. Finally, I propose that the mediating influence of moral disengagement is moderated by ethical efficacy beliefs.
Global journal of educational studies, 2021
Ethical leadership (EL) seems to be effective in reducing workplace deviance, questions remain as to whether its benefits are consistent across all situations. Specifically, whether its effectiveness remained in an already ethical environment. In this investigation, we explore two important boundary conditions of ethical leadership that are themselves related to ethicality. We first explore how employees' moral awareness (MA) may lessen the need for ethical leadership. Drawing on substitutes for leadership theory, we suggest that when individuals already possess a heightened level of moral awareness, ethical leadership's role in reducing deviant actions may be reduced. We also contended that Employees' Exchange Ideology-the strength of an employee's belief that the work effort should depend on treatment by the organization-also reduces EL effectiveness. This norm of reciprocity may not be ethical, as the leader's positive or negative efforts towards employees may divert them from doing what is morally right to reciprocate. However, not all individuals value
Moral Identity: Linking Ethical Leadership to Follower Decision Making
Ethical leaders may influence the extent to which individuals establish a moral identity and make ethical decisions. Leaders integrate ethics and morality into the day-to-day work practices which in turn influence ethical choices of their followers. This chapter articulates a framework to guide future research on the mediating role of follower moral identity on the relationship between ethical leadership and follower ethical choice in both moral and amoral decisions they encounter at work. This relationship is proposed to be affected by three moderating variables based on prior research: Gender, national culture and organizational infrastructure. Propositions are presented to encourage future research that examines the role of moral identity as a key mediating process for the relationship of ethical leadership and follower decision making.
Drawing from the group engagement model and the moral conviction literature, we propose that perceived leader ethical conviction moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and employee OCB as well as deviance. In a field study of employees from various industries and a scenario-based experiment, we revealed that both the positive relation between ethical leadership and employee OCB and the negative relation between ethical leadership and employee deviance are more pronounced when leaders are perceived to have weak rather than strong ethical convictions. Further, we argued and showed that employees' feelings of personal control and perceived voice opportunity mediated the interactive effect of ethical leadership and perceived leader ethical conviction on OCB and deviance. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.
The Leadership Quarterly, 2014
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.
Ethical and Unethical Leadership: Exploring New Avenues for Future Research
Business Ethics Quarterly, 2010
ABSTRACT:The purpose of this article is to review literature that is relevant to the social scientific study of ethics and leadership, as well as outline areas for future study. We first discuss ethical leadership and then draw from emerging research on “dark side” organizational behavior to widen the boundaries of the review to include unethical leadership. Next, three emerging trends within the organizational behavior literature are proposed for a leadership and ethics research agenda: 1) emotions, 2) fit/congruence, and 3) identity/identification. We believe each shows promise in extending current thinking. The review closes with discussion of important issues that are relevant to the advancement of research on leadership and ethics.