Journal of Business Ethics 122 (4):1-12 (2014)
Abstract |
Thus far, we know much more about the significant outcomes of perceived ethical leadership than we do about its antecedents. In this study, we focus on multiple types of ethical role models as antecedents of perceived ethical leadership. According to social learning theory, role models facilitate the acquisition of moral and other types of behavior. Yet, we do not know whether having had ethical role models influences follower perceptions of one’s ethical leadership and, if so, what kinds of role models are important. We conducted a field study, surveying supervisors and their subordinates to examine the relationship between three types of ethical role models and ethical leadership: the leader’s childhood role models, career mentors, and top managers. We found that having had an ethical role model during the leader’s career was positively related to subordinate-rated ethical leadership. As expected, this effect was moderated by leader age, such that the relationship between career mentoring and ethical leadership was stronger for older leaders. Leader age also moderated the relationship between childhood models and ethical leadership ratings, such that having had childhood ethical role models was more strongly and positively related to ethical leadership for younger leaders. We found no effect for top management ethical role models. Implications for research and practice are discussed
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Keywords | Ethical leadership Ethical role modeling Role models |
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Reprint years | 2014 |
ISBN(s) | |
DOI | 10.1007/s10551-013-1769-0 |
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References found in this work BETA
Ethical and Unethical Leadership: Exploring New Avenues for Future Research.Michael E. Brown & Marie S. Mitchell - 2010 - Business Ethics Quarterly 20 (4):583-616.
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Leaders as Moral Role Models: The Case of John Gutfreund at Salomon Brothers. [REVIEW]Ronald R. Sims & Johannes Brinkman - 2002 - Journal of Business Ethics 35 (4):327-339.
Ethical Leadership: Assessing the Value of a Multifoci Social Exchange Perspective. [REVIEW]S. Duane Hansen, Bradley J. Alge, Michael E. Brown, Christine L. Jackson & Benjamin B. Dunford - 2013 - Journal of Business Ethics 115 (3):435-449.
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Citations of this work BETA
Ethical Leadership: An Integrative Review and Future Research Agenda.Changsuk Ko, Jianhong Ma, Roman Bartnik, Mark H. Haney & Mingu Kang - 2018 - Ethics and Behavior 28 (2):104-132.
To Help My Supervisor: Identification, Moral Identity, and Unethical Pro-Supervisor Behavior.Hana Huang Johnson & Elizabeth E. Umphress - 2019 - Journal of Business Ethics 159 (2):519-534.
Mirroring the Boss: Ethical Leadership, Emulation Intentions, and Salesperson Performance.Vishag Badrinarayanan, Indu Ramachandran & Sreedhar Madhavaram - 2019 - Journal of Business Ethics 159 (3):897-912.
The Ethics of Affective Leadership: Organizing Good Encounters Without Leaders.Iain Munro & Torkild Thanem - 2018 - Business Ethics Quarterly 28 (1):51-69.
The Power of Good: A Leader's Personal Power as a Mediator of the Ethical Leadership-Follower Outcomes Link.Daniela K. Haller, Peter Fischer & Dieter Frey - 2018 - Frontiers in Psychology 9.
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