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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how a supervisor’s virtuous leadership as perceived by subordinates influences subordinates’ work-related well-being and to examine the mediating role of trust in the leader and the moderating roles of individual leader virtues and various characteristics of subordinates and organizations. Design/methodology/approach An online survey was conducted through Prolific among a self-selected sample of 1,237 employees who worked with an immediate supervisor across various industries in primarily the UK and the USA. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Findings The empirical results indicate that an immediate supervisor’s virtuous leadership as evaluated by the subordinate positively influences all three considered dimensions of work-related well-being – job satisfaction, work-related affect and work engagement – for a wide variety of employees in different industries and countries. A subordinate’s greater trust in the supervisor fully mediates this positive influence for job satisfaction and work engagement and partially for work-related affect. All five individual core leader virtues – prudence, temperance, justice, courage and humanity – positively influence work-related well-being. Practical implications The findings underscore that promoting virtuous leadership is a promising pathway for improved employee well-being, which may ultimately benefit individual and organizational performance. Originality/value Despite an age-old interest in leader virtues, the lack of consensus on the defining elements of virtuous leadership has limited the understanding of its consequences. Building on recent advances in the conceptualization and measurement of virtuous leadership and leader character, this paper addresses this void by exploring how virtuous leadership relates to employees’ well-being and trust.

Decisions by small and medium enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs are plagued by a variety of cognitive biases. Extant literature has mainly focused on a limited number of important biases (e.g., overconfidence) in a handful of important entrepreneurial decisions (e.g., start-up, market entry or exit). However, putting the spotlight on a few important biases and entrepreneurial decisions could leave other important biases and decisions underexposed. SME accountants are in a unique position to shed a broader light on this issue. SME entrepreneurs often seek advice of their accountants when they struggle with decisions that involve uncertainty and business risks in the domains of strategy, regulatory compliance, human resources, IT, and succession. In this study, we explore 12 different biases and analyze whether their importance can change across these decision domains. Interviews were performed with 14 SME accountants who provide an independent third-party view on decision making by over 3000 entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest that the importance of most of these biases varies from one decision domain to the other. We also identified four approaches (warn, inform, intervene, and coach) that accountants can take when entrepreneurs may fall victim to biases. We discuss the implications for research and practice of SME entrepreneurs and their accountants.

Auditors serve several masters. They have a clear obligation towards society, which expects them to be honest in checking the books of what are sometimes influential and wealthy institutions. At the same time, auditors are hired and paid by their clients, the companies they audit, who may have clear expectations in return. Sometimes the different obligations auditors have, or perceive to have, can conflict. We focus here on accountancy students who already work part-time at accountancy firms and who will shape the future of accounting. Our main research question is: What different conceptions of auditor responsibilities exist among accountancy students? We used Q-methodology, a mixed-methods approach, to identify and describe the views accountancy students have on what are the responsibilities of an auditor. We found four conceptions of auditor responsibilities among accountancy students in the Netherlands that are distinct in how they deal with conflicts between professional behaviour, integrity, objectivity, and professional competence.

Dit artikel geeft een korte uiteenzetting over de risico's die gepaard gaan met de narcistische persoonlijkheidsdimensie bij topbestuurders. Er is een toenemende behoefte aan betrouwbare en relevante informatie over gedrag en cultuur binnen de organisatie dat een mogelijk risico vormt voor de organisatorische uitkomsten. Door objectieve indicatoren aan te dragen voor een invloedrijk persoonlijkheidskenmerk als narcisme, is vroegtijdige risicodetectie mogelijk.