Ethical leadership begets ethical leadership: exploring situational moderators of the trickle-down effect

O’Keefe, Damian F.; Howell, Glen T.; Squires, Erinn C.

doi:10.1080/10508422.2019.1649676

Cited by 17 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Ethical leadership is defined as "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making" (Brown et al 2005, p. 120). Using a social learning perspective, Brown and colleagues argue that ethical conduct and behaviour is transferred from leaders to followers via role modeling, and research within a military context has shown that ethical leadership at one level often trickles down to influence ethical culture and ethical leadership at more junior levels of the organization (O'Keefe et al 2019a;Schaubroeck et al 2012). Moreover, Mayer et al (2009Mayer et al ( , 2010 have shown that ethical leadership at higher levels is negatively associated with employee misconduct and deviance, such as taking property from work, damaging property, and deliberately breaking rules.…”

Section: Ethical Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Research on Military Ethical Behaviour

Messervey

Squires

2021

Handbook of Military Sciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This chapter presents an overview of key empirical research examining ethical and unethical behaviour in the military. Early research examined the impact of atrocities on the psychological well-being of Vietnam War veterans. In later conflicts, researchers examined battlefield attitudes, behaviours, willingness to report fellow unit members for ethical violations, and the adequacy of training. In addition to battlefield ethics, researchers have also investigated individual, situational, and organizational factors that increase the risk of unethical behaviour (i.e., ethical risk factors). This chapter summarizes research that highlights how individual differences in moral identity and malevolent traits can impact ethical and unethical behaviour among military personnel. It also discusses how situational factors, such as sleep deprivation and anger, can increase the likelihood of military personnel engaging in unethical behaviour. Lastly, the chapter discusses how organizational factors, such as ethical climate and culture and ethical leadership, play a role in ethical and unethical behaviour.

show abstract

Section: Ethical Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Research on Military Ethical Behaviour

Messervey

Squires

2021

Handbook of Military Sciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…2.1 Organizational justice and employee ethical behavior Individuals are genuinely concerned about how they are treated and how justice is reflected in their workplace's procedures, achievements, personal experiences and knowledge. Fairness and justice attitudes in the workplace (Cropanzano and Greenberg, 1997;Greenberg, 1990;O'Keefe et al, 2019), organizational justice encompasses four key components: distributive, procedural, interpersonal and informational (Colquitt, 2001). The first component is distributive justice, which is related to Adams's (1963) equity theory and addresses the equitable allocation of consequences depending on each individual employee's performance (Burney et al, 2009;Steensma and Visser, 2007;Salehi et al, 2020aSalehi et al, , 2020b.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypotheses Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who pays attention to the moral aspects? Role of organizational justice and moral attentiveness in leveraging ethical behavior

Halbusi

2022

IJOES

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

“…A study by O' Keefe et al (2020) found that the TDT was highly relevant when organizational cultures were less ethical. In fact, when in situations where organizations are less ethical, levels of leadership were stronger (O'Keefe et al, 2020).O' Keefe et al (2020) posit that leaders play a significant role influencing ethics within their organizations, which is especially important in weaker organizations. In a related but contrary study, Mawritz et al (2012) used the trickledown model to study abusive supervision and posited that supervisors' model the abusive behavior of their senior managers and engage in similar abusive behaviors with their employees.…”

Section: Social Learning Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Valence–Instrumentality–Expectancy Model of Motivation as an Alternative Model for Examining Ethical Leadership Behaviors

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Incessant occurrences of character failure of people in leadership positions that have characterized organizations in recent years call for critical examination of leadership behaviors. The Social Learning Theory and Trickle-Down Model are some of the common approaches previously used to analyze ethical leadership behaviors. However, the challenges with how these models inspire ethical behaviors call for further examination of the issue. Using a multidisciplinary integrative literature review, we present Vroom’s Valence–Instrumentality–Expectancy (VIE) Model of Motivation as an alternative model for examining ethical leadership behaviors. The VIE Model provides clarity regarding how leaders are motivated to behave ethically. We utilize ideas from the VIE model in conjunction with Starratt’s Three-Step Approach to develop a unique framework for examining ethical leadership behaviors. Our model highlights the importance of a leader’s values in creating organizational ethical values that eventually translate into professional ethical values. Using the motivational approach to inspire ethical leadership will drive organizational members to internalize ethical behavior as a conviction rather than complying with a set rule.

show abstract

Ethical leadership begets ethical leadership: exploring situational moderators of the trickle-down effect

Cited by 17 publications

References 52 publications

Empirical Research on Military Ethical Behaviour

Empirical Research on Military Ethical Behaviour

Who pays attention to the moral aspects? Role of organizational justice and moral attentiveness in leveraging ethical behavior

Valence–Instrumentality–Expectancy Model of Motivation as an Alternative Model for Examining Ethical Leadership Behaviors

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About