Will You Forgive Your Supervisor’s Wrongdoings? The Moral Licensing Effect of Ethical Leader Behaviors

Abstract

Moral licensing theory suggests that observers may liberate actors to behave in morally questionable ways due to the actors’ history of moral behaviors. Drawing on this view, a scenario experiment with a 2 (high vs. low ethical) × 2 (internal vs. external motivation) between-subject design (N = 455) was conducted in the current study. We examined whether prior ethical leader behaviors cause subordinates to license subsequent abusive supervision, as well as the moderating role of behavior motivation on such effects. The results showed that when supervisors demonstrated prior ethical behaviors, subordinates, as victims, liberated them to act in abusive ways. Specifically, subordinates showed high levels of tolerance and low levels of condemnation toward abusive supervision and seldom experienced emotional responses to supervisors’ abusive behaviors. Moreover, subordinates tended to attribute abusive supervision, viewed as a kind of mistreatment without an immediate intent to cause harm, to characteristics of the victims and of the organization rather than of the supervisors per se. When supervisors behaved morally out of internal rather than external motivations, the aforementioned licensing effects were stronger.

Moral-psychological mechanisms of rebound effects from a consumer-centered perspective: A conceptualization and research directions

“…Previous studies have confirmed that moral licensing shapes behavior in various domains, including ethical behavior of group leaders in a working context (Wang and Chan, 2019), consumer decisions linked to morality, e.g., buying selfindulgent products or the amount of donations for charitable purposes (e.g., Khan and Dhar, 2006;Chang and Chen, 2019), food choices (e.g., Wilcox et al, 2009), company-NGO collaborations (Schlegelmilch and Simbrunner, 2019), and climate/environmental behavior (e.g., Sachdeva et al, 2009;Mazar and Zhong, 2010;Meijers et al, 2015). A number of scholars have already transferred the theory to the context of rebound effects, where the immoral action is usually accompanied by relatively high greenhouse gas emissions (e.g., Panzone et al, 2012;Harding and Rapson, 2019).…”

Leader-follower transgressions, relationship repair strategies and outcomes: A state-of-the-science review and a way forward

“…We consider this an exciting field of study and we hope that future research will empirically integrate transgressions, relationship repair strategies and outcomes as well as explicitly address their events-based nature, their complex unfolding over time, boundary conditions and levels-ofanalysis issues. Wang and Chan (2019)…”

“…However, imitation only reduced punishment when the two transgressors (high-and low-ranking) were from the same organization, when the two transgressions were similar and when it was unclear whether the high-ranking transgressor was punished. Wang and Chan (2019) utilized moral licensing theory and found that when leaders demonstrated prior unethical behaviors, followers, who were the victims of the leaders' transgressions, felt liberated to act in transgressive ways.…”

Development and psychometric properties of the leader apology scale

“…Because of the complexity and high status of leadership responsibilities, and the fact that leaders make mistakes more often and more apparently, leader apologizing is especially important (Eubanks & Mumford, 2010). Leader mistakes affect follower views of leader competency and effectiveness (Wang & Chan, 2019). To describe the best way for leaders to apologize, researchers like Byrne et al (2014) developed scales from the Western world.…”