Duty orientation: Theoretical development and preliminary construct testing

We develop and test the construct of duty orientation that we propose is valuable to advancing knowledge about ethical behavior in organizations. Duty orientation represents an individual’s volitional orientation to loyally serve and faithfully support other members of the group, to strive and sacrifice to accomplish the tasks and missions of the group, and to honor its codes and principles. We test the construct validity and predictive validity of a measure of duty orientation across five studies and six samples. Consistent with the conceptualization of duty orientation as a malleable construct, we found in separate field studies that duty orientation mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical and unethical behaviors, and between transformational leadership and ethical behavior. In predicting ethical and unethical behavior, duty orientation demonstrated incremental predictive validity beyond the effects of affective organizational commitment, organizational identification, experienced job responsibility, collective self-construal, and organizational values congruence.     

Impact of Ethical Leadership on Organizational Safety Performance: The Mediating Role of Safety Culture and Safety Consciousness

We examined a largely ignored but imperative dimension of safety literature by testing the impact of ethical leadership style on organizational safety performance. We also tested dual mediating paths of safety culture and safety consciousness in the relationship between ethical leadership style and organizational safety consciousness. Data (N = 230) were collected from a large public sector telecom company in Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the reliability and validity of the study scales and model fit. Preacher and Hayes’s (2008) macro of mediation was employed to test the direct and indirect paths proposed in the study. The findings suggest that ethical leadership has a positive impact on organizational safety performance. Partial mediating roles of safety culture and safety consciousness were also found between the dependent and independent variables. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Ethical Leadership: An Integrative Review and Future Research Agenda

Over the past decade, ethical leadership has increasingly become one of the most popular topics in the areas of leadership and business ethics. As a result, there now exists a substantial body of empirical research addressing ethical leadership issues, but the findings reported by this body of research are highly fragmented. The topic has advanced to the stage where a review and synthesis of existing literature can provide great value and help move the scholarly conversation forward. The primary purposes of this article are to (a) review empirical findings from the ethical leadership literature utilizing a framework consisting of the antecedents, mediators, moderators and outcomes of ethical leadership, and (b) suggest a set of interesting research opportunities, thereby facilitating future investigation. We base our synthesis on a review of 62 empirical studies on ethical leadership that were published between 2005 and mid-2015.     

How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model

This research examines the relationships between top management and supervisory ethical leadership and group-level outcomes (e.g., deviance, OCB) and suggests that ethical leadership flows from one organizational level to the next. Drawing on social learning theory [Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.; Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.] and social exchange theory [Blau, p. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. New York: John Wiley.], the results support our theoretical model using a sample of 904 employees and 195 managers in 195 departments. We find a direct negative relationship between both top management and supervisory ethical leadership and group-level deviance, and a positive relationship with group-level OCB. Finally, consistent with the proposed trickle-down model, the effects of top management ethical leadership on group-level deviance and OCB are mediated by supervisory ethical leadership.     

Understanding the unique impact of dimensions of ethical leadership on employee attitudes

This study extends earlier findings on ethical leadership by testing the relationship of the seven dimensions of ethical leadership with job satisfaction, organization commitment, job embeddedness, and cynicism. It uses time-lagged data from 585 employees in Pakistan. Using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, the study supports the concept of multidimensional ethical leadership in the Eastern setting and indicates that the dimensions of people orientation, fairness, power sharing, ethical guidance, and role clarification are associated with the majority of outcomes, as suggested by social exchange theory. However, the concern for sustainability and integrity dimensions had a limited effect.     

Exploring the Ethical Aspects of Leadership: From a Korean Perspective

Theories of ethical leadership provide important insights about the effect of leader’s ethics on the relationship between leaders and followers. However, there is an increasing demand for addressing key constructs that enhance the capacity to explain theoretical aspects of ethical leadership. The purpose of this study is to expand the theoretical framework of ethical leadership based on Korean traditional leadership by focusing on personal cultivation, morality, and social responsibility. Using a framework of intrapersonal process as leadership and core value and competence as components of leadership, this study examines the ethical aspects of Korean traditional leadership and provides the implications to further develop the theory of ethical leadership. It is found that ethical integrity ensued from sugi (self-cultivation) is an essential precondition to develop leadership, and the core value of ethical leadership includes Zhixin-Chijing (cultivation of the mind and internal piety) and the competence consists of both Ipzhi (setting a solid self-vision/establishing goal) and Silsim (practical mind, grasp changes in reality with a sound mind) in Korean traditional leadership that contributes to expanding the theoretical understanding of ethical leadership. Implications for future research in the area of ethical leadership are discussed.     

员工伦理型领导原型对伦理型领导有效性的影响：员工崇敬感的中介作用

基于工作场所中具体积极情绪的理论模型和内隐领导理论, 探究了伦理型领导对员工工作绩效的影响机制, 具体是检验了崇敬感的中介作用和员工伦理型领导原型的调节作用。通过对一项问卷调查研究(193份上下级配对数据)和两个情境实验获得的实证数据进行统计分析, 结果表明: 伦理型领导能够正向影响员工的崇敬感; 崇敬感能够中介伦理型领导对组织公民行为的积极作用, 但对任务绩效的中介效应并不显著; 此外, 员工的伦理型领导原型会强化伦理型领导与员工崇敬感之间的正向关系, 即相比于拥有低伦理型领导原型的员工, 拥有高伦理型领导原型的员工更容易对伦理型领导产生崇敬感; 崇敬感能够中介伦理型领导与员工伦理型领导原型的交互作用对组织公民行为的影响。     

Promoting Ethical and Prosocial Behavior: The Combined Effect of Ethical Leadership and Coworker Ethicality

Ethical leadership encompasses the personal conduct of the leader and the leader’s expectations that followers behave ethically. Building on social learning and social exchange theory, we propose that ethical leadership interacts with coworker ethicality to predict personnel’s ethical intentions and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Using data collected from a large organizational sample, we use moderated regression analysis to test the main and interactive effects of ethical leadership and coworker ethicality on ethical intentions and OCB as it relates to conscientiousness, civic virtue, and altruism. Study 1 examines how ethical leadership and coworker ethicality interact to predict ethical intentions using a sample of 1,551 military personnel. Study 2 extends the results of Study 1 by examining how ethical leadership and coworker ethicality interact to predict OCB using a combined sample of 3,363 military and civilian personnel. Consistent with social learning theory, we found positive relationships between ethical leadership and coworker ethicality with ethical outcomes (i.e., intentions and OCB). Consistent with social exchange theory, we found that perceptions of ethical leadership strengthened the relationship between coworker ethicality and ethical intentions and OCB, highlighting the importance of leaders in shaping the behavior of organizational members.     

亲组织非伦理行为对员工职业发展的影响：一个跨层的被调节中介

亲组织非伦理行为（UPB）作为一种非利己型的非伦理行为正逐渐受到学界的关注,当前研究大多围绕UPB的前因和形成机制展开,但缺乏对UPB结果变量的探讨。本研究通过对92名主管与399名员工的数据进行跨层次分析,探讨UPB对职业发展的影响机制。研究发现：UPB显著正向影响职业发展,上下级关系在UPB与职业发展之间起着部分中介作用,伦理型领导负向调节上下级关系对UPB与职业发展关系间的中介作用。     

Leaders of Character: The USAFA Approach to Ethics Education and Leadership Development

We describe the educational character and leadership development processes used by the United States Air Force Academy that other educational institutions may find useful. Our processes include an integrated educational curriculum designed to complement and integrate the experiential learning that results in achieving specific organizational outcomes, co-curricular activities in cadet living, and a specific focus on the ethical development of leaders’ respect for human dignity and cultural competency as well as the mechanisms to assess and refine our processes.     

Transformational leadership and moral reasoning

Terms such as moral and ethical leadership are used widely in theory, yet little systematic research has related a sociomoral dimension to leadership in organizations. This study investigated whether managers' moral reasoning (n = 132) was associated with the transformational and transactional leadership behaviors they exhibited as perceived by their subordinates (n = 407). Managers completed the Defining Issues Test (J. R. Rest, 1990), whereas their subordinates completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (B. M. Bass & B. J. Avolio, 1995). Analysis of covariance indicated that managers scoring in the highest group of the moral-reasoning distribution exhibited more transformational leadership behaviors than leaders scoring in the lowest group. As expected, there was no relationship between moral-reasoning group and transactional leadership behaviors. Implications for leadership development are discussed.     

管理者核心自我评价对下属组织公民行为的影响：道德式领导和集体主义导向的作用

采用配对问卷调查法, 以150位管理者和464位下属为研究对象, 考察了管理者核心自我评价对下属组织指向和人际指向公民行为的影响以及道德式领导和下属集体主义导向在其中的作用。跨层次分析结果表明：管理者核心自我评价对下属公民行为有显著正向影响; 道德式领导在管理者核心自我评价与下属公民行为关系中有中介作用; 下属集体主义导向在道德式领导与公民行为关系中具有调节作用, 表现为道德式领导对公民行为的正向影响对高集体主义导向的员工来说更明显。文章揭示了管理者核心自我评价对下属公民行为的影响效果、内在机制和作用条件, 也在一定程度上支持了领导有效性研究的特质-行为整合视角模型。     

Linking ethical leadership to employee performance: The roles of leader–member exchange,self-efficacy,and organizational identification

This research investigated the link between ethical leadership and performance using data from the People’s Republic of China. Consistent with social exchange, social learning, and social identity theories, we examined leader–member exchange (LMX), self-efficacy, and organizational identification as mediators of the ethical leadership to performance relationship. Results from 72 supervisors and 201 immediate direct reports revealed that ethical leadership was positively and significantly related to employee performance as rated by their immediate supervisors and that this relationship was fully mediated by LMX, self-efficacy, and organizational identification, controlling for procedural fairness. We discuss implications of our findings for theory and practice.     

Salesperson Ethical Decision Making: The Impact of Sales Leadership and Sales Management Control Strategy

Enhancing the moral behavior of salespeople is increasingly important, but difficult, in today’s fast-paced and complex selling environment. Sales organizations need to emphasize ethical codes of conduct, but must also address the potential impact of all sales management decisions on the ethical behavior of salespeople. We expand the focus on ethical codes to include an interpersonal dimension of sales organization ethical climate and the cognitive moral development of salespeople. Relationships among sales leadership and sales management control strategy, the structural and interpersonal dimensions of sales organization ethical climate, salesperson cognitive moral development, and salesperson moral judgment are discussed and specific propositions presented. These propositions suggest specific directions for future sales ethics research and have key implications for sales organizations.     

Discouraging unethicality versus encouraging ethicality: Unraveling the differential effects of prevention‐ and promotion‐focused ethical leadership

Theory on the impact of ethical leadership has traditionally been based on a deontological approach to morality. Underlying this perspective is the assumption that all leader behaviors that encourage “normatively appropriate conduct” will influence followers in a similar fashion. Put differently, the current consensus seems to suggest that actions that focus on preventing unethical behavior—attending to “the wrong”—will have the same impact as actions that focus on promoting ethical behavior—attending to “the right.” Taking a within‐person approach, we draw upon social exchange theory to challenge this consensus and build theory that suggests a follower's felt trust from their leader will be differentially impacted by prevention‐ versus promotion‐focused ethical leadership. We also explore how these different types of ethical leadership may indirectly, through felt trust, impact citizenship behavior and counterproductive work behavior. Finally, we consider how the role of the “moral manager” may interact with the “moral person” by identifying leader moral hypocrisy as an important between‐person moderator of these effects. Given the importance of ethical decision‐making in organizations and the calls for increased ethical leadership, our findings have important implications for both theory and practice.     

真实型领导：概念、测量、形成与作用

频发的道德丑闻和管理渎职现象使真实型领导受到了前所未有的关注。基于近十年来国、内外重要理论文章和67项实证文章, 本文对真实型领导研究进行了系统梳理与评析。总体来看, 研究者主要从特质/行为视角和过程视角界定真实型领导。真实型领导的测量已有标准化工具, 并在测量主体和方式上呈现多样化趋势。真实型领导受个体因素和情境因素影响, 也会通过积极组织行为学、社会学习、社会认定和社会交换机制对个体、团队和组织产生积极影响。未来研究应深入讨论真实型领导的概念、结构和测量问题, 对其影响因素、影响效果和作用机制做进一步探索, 并适时进行跨文化和本土化考察。     

Supervisors’ Ethical Leadership and Employee Job Satisfaction: A Social Cognitive Perspective

Although several studies explored the relationship between supervisors’ ethical leadership and employee job satisfaction, little information is available on this relationship in the Chinese context. We propose that moral cognition is an essential process in the relationship between supervisor’s ethical leadership and employee subjective well-being. The present study, through the lens of the social cognitive theory, examined the relationship between supervisors’ ethical leadership and employee job satisfaction, as well as the employee moral-cognitive processes between them. Based on 371 employees in a Chinese enterprise, the present study employed structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized research model. The results confirmed that supervisors’ ethical leadership was positively related to employee moral awareness, moral identity and job satisfaction, respectively. Moreover, employee moral awareness and moral identity partially mediated the relationship between supervisors’ ethical leadership and employee job satisfaction. The theoretical and managerial implications were further discussed.     

责任型领导：概念变迁、理论机制及本土启示

随着社会与环境问题的日益严峻, 责任型领导这个研究主题逐渐引起了学界的关注与探讨。观其发展历史, 责任型领导的概念界定主要历经了关系视角、过程视角和行为视角的变迁, 实证研究主要涉及道德认同、情境强度、社会交换、社会学习、社会信息加工、情感事件和资本理论等视角。在中国情境下, 未来研究既可以遵循本位研究思路, 从差序格局特征、集体主义取向类型等视角进行探索, 也可采用客位研究思路, 对以往西方研究视角进行检验或升级, 如整合、对比或探讨适用条件。     

Encouraging employees to report unethical conduct internally: It takes a village

Via three studies of varying methodologies designed to complement and build upon each other, we examine how supervisory ethical leadership is associated with employees’ reporting unethical conduct within the organization (i.e., internal whistle-blowing). We also examine whether the positive effect of supervisory ethical leadership is enhanced by another important social influence: coworkers’ ethical behavior. As predicted, we found that employees’ internal whistle-blowing depends on an ethical tone being set by complementary social influence sources at multiple organizational levels (both supervisory and coworker levels), leading us to conclude that “it takes a village” to support internal whistle-blowing. Also, this interactive effect was found to be mediated by a fear of retaliation in two studies but not by perceptions of futility. We conclude by identifying theoretical and practical implications of our research.     

道德领导与员工建言：一个调节-中介模型的构建与检验

近年来, 研究者就如何激发员工公开讲出自己的观点、意见和问题进行了大量的探索。其中, 道德领导对员工建言的效应受到了越来越多研究的关注。在以往研究的基础上, 本研究构建了一个调节-中介模型以探讨道德领导影响员工建言的中介心理机制及其边界条件。根据社会交换理论和社会信息加工理论, 本文分别提出两种不同的中介变量-- 责任知觉和心理安全感-- 来解释道德领导与员工建言之间的关系。在此基础上, 本研究进一步假设权力距离会正向调节变量之间的间接关系。通过对某一零售企业239名员工的两阶段调查, 我们对以上研究假设进行了检验, 结果总体上支持了本研究的理论预期。本研究的发现有利于我们了解道德领导影响建言行为的心理机制, 指导管理者采取有针对性的措施, 以期有效地管理企业中的员工建言行为。