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introduction
While this book has made quite a few references to ethical leadership,
this chapter aims at addressing the concept from a very original
angle: its predictability. There are several examples in recent history
of unethical or criminal behaviour on the part of corporate, munici-
pal, and military leaders. We are familiar with the cases of investment
scandals in the United States and Canada, as well as recent unethical
behaviour and corruption charges against several Canadian civic
officials. From a military perspective, unethical behaviour by military
leaders could have a disastrous impact on the operations and morale
of the unit. (In)famous instances of unethical military behaviour
include the torture and death of a civilian detainee by Canadian sol-
diers in Somalia, and the mistreatment of prisoners by US soldiers at
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, which leaves one wondering
about the ethicality of some of the leaders in these organizations.
There are a few studies that have examined the ethical dimensions of
leader behaviour (i.e., the moral person) and followers’ expectations
that leaders behave ethically. Indeed, some researchers suggest that
the leader is the single most important determinant in shaping an
organization’s ethical climate, and has a significant impact on the
ethical behaviour of organizational members.1 However, there is
ethical leadership
Using the social learning approach, Brown et al. explored ethical lead-
ership from the perspective of organization members, and argued that
leaders are models for ethical conduct.4 As such, they become the tar-
gets for emulation from their followers, influence ethics-related out-
comes, and engage in and reinforce ethical behaviour. Such behaviour
involves honesty, integrity, and the fair treatment of others. Leaders
develop a more ethical climate through multiple means, including
their own behaviour and the use of rewards for the ethical behaviour
of their followers.5 Although supervisors should serve as a key source
of ethical guidance for employees, it is only in the past few years that
empirical research has focused on the ethical dimension of leadership.
In the past, ethical leadership behaviour was discussed within leader-
ship models, particularly the idealized influence component of the
transformational leadership model.6
Ethical leadership is related to the recently developed concept of
authentic leadership, which involves self-regulation, self-awareness,
i n d i v i d ua l a n t e c e d e n t s o f e t h i c a l
leadership
Occupational Personality
In recent years, the ‘Big Five’ factor structure of personality, more than
any other structure, has profoundly influenced the study of individual
differences in the workplace.17 These broad domains incorporate
hundreds of traits into five categories: neuroticism, or emotional insta-
bility as opposed to adjustment; extroversion, described by a need for
stimulation, activity, assertiveness, and quantity plus intensity of inter-
personal interaction; openness or intellect, represented by flexibility of
thought and openness to feelings, experiences, and new ideas; agree-
ableness, represented by a compassionate rather than antagonistic
interpersonal orientation; and conscientiousness, or degree of organi-
zation, persistence, and motivation in goal-directed behaviour.18
Meta- analytic research by Barrick and colleagues shows links
between the five factors and several organizational outcomes.19
Conscientiousness has the most consistent association with job per-
formance and academic achievement.20 Neuroticism has a strong
association with teamwork, and extroversion is positively associated
with training and managerial performance.21 Openness has a strong
association with training performance22 and academic achieve-
ment,23 and agreeableness predicts both positive relations with others
and job performance,24 as well as academic achievement.25
Meta-analytic research investigating the link between the Big Five
factors and transformational leadership (t l ) shows that extrover-
sion, openness, and agreeableness correlate significantly with t l .
Specifically, the ethical dimension of t l (i.e., idealized influence) is
related to extroversion, openness, and agreeableness.26 Just a few
studies have investigated the link between the Big Five and ethical
leadership. Walumbwa and Schaubroeck found that agreeableness
and conscientiousness (and none of the other three factors) were
positively related to ethical leadership;27 these results were repli-
cated by Kalshoven, Den Hartog, and De Hoogh.28
We propose that agreeableness and conscientiousness should be
positively related with ethical leadership, and that neuroticism should
be negatively related with ethical leadership. This is because agree-
ableness deals with altruism and cooperation, conscientiousness deals
with self-discipline and order, and neuroticism deals with vulnerabil-
ity to stress, all of which are characteristics of ethical leaders.29
Values
to concern for the others in one’s life (benevolence) and the welfare of
others (universalism).
Psychological Capital
Moral Reasoning
s i t u at i o n a l a n t e c e d e n t s
of ethical leadership
Ethical Climate
Organizational Justice
p e r s o n a l a n d s i t uat i o n a l fac to r i n t e r ac t i o n
in predicting ethical leadership
Moral
licensing
Individual variables
Personality (big five)
Ethical
Values
leadership
Psychological capital
Moral reasoning
Situational variables
Ethical climate
Organizational justice
leaders who perceive that their organization is not fair, or does not
care about the welfare of workers, personal variables such as per-
sonality, values, or psychological capital would not predict ethical
leadership, because leaders would have little situational incentive to
be ethical.
n ot e s
1 M.J. Neubert et al., “The Virtuous Influence of Ethical Leadership
Behaviour: Evidence from the Field,” Journal of Business Ethics 90, no. 2
80 J. Jordan, E. Mullen, and J.K. Murnighan, “Striving for the Moral Self:
The Effects of Recalling Past Moral Actions and Future Moral Behaviour,”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37, no. 5 (2011): 701–13.
81 Merritt, Effron, and Monin, “Moral Self-Licensing,” 344–57.
82 Neubert et al., “The Virtuous Influence of Ethical Leadership,” 313–26;
M. Schminke, M.L. Ambrose, and D.O. Neubaum, “The Effects of Leader
Moral Development,” 135–51; Stringer, Leadership and Organizational
Climate.