Ethical leadership, team leader’s cultural intelligence and ethical behavior of team members

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 1381-1392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Presbitero ◽  
Mendiola Teng-Calleja

Purpose Drawing from Social Learning Theory and Multiple Loci of Intelligence Theory, the purpose of this paper is to assert that, through the mechanisms of social learning and role modeling, perceived ethical leadership is positively and significantly related to ethical behavior of individual members of global teams. Moreover, this study argues that perceived cultural intelligence (CQ) of leaders which consists of perceptions of members regarding leader’s cultural knowledge and skills on how to act ethically in different cultural contexts would moderate the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical behavior of individual members of global teams. Design/methodology/approach To test these assertions, a survey study was conducted involving individual members of global teams in Australia (n=234). Findings Results demonstrate that perceived ethical leadership is positively and significantly related to an individual’s ethical behavior. Furthermore, results show that perceived leader’s CQ serves as a moderator in strengthening the relationship between perceived ethical leadership and individual member’s display of ethical behavior. Originality/value This study fills the gaps in the literature by examining ethical behavior of individual members of culturally diverse teams and the role that leaders play in influencing their individual display of ethical behavior. Such knowledge can provide insights particularly for human resource practitioners on how to effectively generate and ensure the display of ethical behavior in contexts that are culturally diverse like in global teams.

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 799-812
Author(s):  
Hui-Hsien Hsieh ◽  
Hao-Hsin Hsu ◽  
Kuo-Yang Kao ◽  
Chih-Chieh Wang

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand how ethical leadership and coworker ethical behavior will influence employee unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). In particular, the authors examine the mediating effect of moral disengagement on the relationship between ethical leadership and UPB and also investigate the moderating effect of coworker ethical behavior on the aforementioned effect.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 251 employee–coworker dyads from five organizations in Taiwan at two time points. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that moral disengagement mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and employee UPB. Moreover, the results show that coworker ethical behavior moderates the relationship between moral disengagement and employee UPB, as well as the mediated relationship between ethical leadership and employee UPB via moral disengagement. Specifically, both the moral disengagement–UPB relationship and the ethical leadership–moral disengagement–UPB relationship become weaker when coworker ethical behavior is high.Practical implicationsThe results highlight the importance of creating an ethical work environment to get everyone behaving ethically in the workplace, because nurturing an ethical atmosphere in organizations will be useful in reducing the occurrence of UPB even for those who have high levels of moral disengagement.Originality/valueThis study shows that coworkers matter morally as much as leaders, demonstrating the importance of social influence from coworkers in organizations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 1716-1733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narges Kia ◽  
Beni Halvorsen ◽  
Timothy Bartram

Purpose Against the backdrop of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Finance Services Industry in Australia, this study on ethical leadership is timely. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effects of organisational identification, customer orientated behaviour, service climate and ethical climate on the relationship between ethical leadership and employee in-role performance. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses were tested using a two-wave survey study of 233 bank employees in Australia. Findings Evidence from the study indicated that organisational identification, service climate and ethical climate mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and employee in-role performance. Surprisingly, the proposed mediation effect of customer orientation was not supported. However, ethical leadership was positively associated with customer orientated behaviour among employees. Research limitations/implications Limitations of the study include collecting data at two time points, thereby rendering the study cross-sectional. Employee in-role performance was a self-rated measure. Practical implications This study showed that ethical leadership is critical to improving employee perceptions and experience of an organisation’s service climate, ethical climate, organisational identification, customer orientated behaviour and employee in-role performance. The authors raise a number of HRM implications for the development and enablement of ethical leaders in the banking context. Originality/value The findings presented in this paper highlight that ethical leadership is critical to improving employee perceptions and experience of an organisation’s service climate, ethical climate, organisational identification, customer orientated behaviour and employee in-role performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Morrisette ◽  
William Oberman ◽  
Irma Hunt

Purpose This paper looks at the relationship between judgments of ethical behavior and organizational promotion prospects. The purpose of this study is to examine if an independent dimension of ethical performance should be recognized. When managers and others in organizations compare candidates for promotion or other organization rewards, what role is played by information about the candidates’ previous ethical behavior? Are all prior ethical transgressions perceived in the same light or do some types carry more weight for organizational rewards? And, how do organizational values effect these evaluations? Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was developed which asked respondents to rank a set of six candidates for a promotion. All candidates were said to be qualified for the promotion, but each was described differently in terms of past ethical transgressions. While information about a candidate’s prior ethical behavior is expected to be impactful for promotion consideration in the general population as well as among members of religious-oriented businesses, types of ethical transgressions may be weighted differently by the two groups. The survey was administered to a sample of 204 employees of business organizations at all levels obtained through a survey research firm, as well as a sample of 52 employees of organizations in the Christian publishing industry. Nonparametric statistics were used to analyze the results. A comparison was made between the respondents sourced through the research firm, seen as representing the general population, and those from the Christian-oriented group. Findings Ethical transgressions were weighted differently by each group. And some transgressions were deemed more unethical than others. Overall, our work suggests that ethical transgressions can matter with regard to promotability. Differences between the groups of respondents from the general population and the group representing Christian-based firms are discussed. Practical implications This paper focused on the selection for promotion of six candidates, ranked by two groups. As expected, the ethical transgressions were weighted differently by each group. And some transgressions were deemed more unethical than others. Overall, this work suggests that ethical transgressions can matter with regard to promotability. This research contributes to practical implications within organizations. Originality/value Only a few studies have looked directly at the relationship between judgments of ethical behavior and organizational promotion prospects. These have focused on ethical leaders rather than rank and file employees. In a study of ethical leadership and promotability, Rubin et al. (2010) found that managers rated high on ethical leadership by their subordinates are more likely to be viewed by senior managers as eventually promotable to senior leadership than those who were not – although they were no more likely to receive a promotion in the near term.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Botong Xue ◽  
Feng Xu ◽  
Xin Luo ◽  
Merrill Warkentin

PurposeA growing number of studies have investigated the effect of ethical leadership on behavioral outcome of employees. However, considering the important role of ethics in IS security, the security literature lacks a theoretical and empirical investigation of the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' security behavior, such as information security policy (ISP) violation. Drawing on social learning and social exchange theories, this paper empirically tests the impact of ethical leadership on employees' ISP violation intention through both information security climate (i.e. from a moral manager's perspective) and affective commitment (i.e. from a moral person's perspective).Design/methodology/approachThe research was developed based on social learning theory and social exchange theory. To measure the variables in the model, the authors used and adapted measurement items from previous studies. The authors conducted a scenario-based survey with 339 valid responses to test and validate the research model.FindingsResults indicated that information security climate fully mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and ISP violation intention. The authors also found that information security climate enhances the negative effect of affective commitment on ISP violation intention.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature of information security by introducing the role of ethical leadership and integrating two theories into our research model. This study also calls attention to how information security climate and affective commitment mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' ISP violation intention. The theory-driven study provides important pragmatic guidance for enhancing the understanding of the importance of ethical leadership in information systems security research.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jodie Louise Stewart ◽  
Karl Kilian Konrad Wiener

Purpose This paper aims to examine the quality of the relationship between a supervisor and their subordinate, conceptualised as leader member exchange (LMX), and the mediating influence of subordinate’s job embeddedness on job satisfaction. The LMX model considered the four-gender dominant leadership style facets, female – affect and loyalty (communal), and male – contribution and professional respect (agentic). Social role theory was applied to explain societies influence on leadership style. The moderating influence of supervisor gender on the relationship of LMX facets and subordinate embeddedness is investigated. Design/methodology/approach This cross-sectional survey study of 213 self-selected employed participants investigated the mediation of job embeddedness LMX and job embeddedness and the moderation impact of supervisor gender on this mediation. Findings Job embeddedness mediated the relationship between all four facets of LMX and job satisfaction. Supervisor gender did not moderate the relationships of the four LMX facets and job embeddedness. These findings highlight the potential impact of a homogeniuos sample in relation to industry type and culture as this may impact on the findings. That is, participants in this study were predominantly females working in female dominant industries. Originality/value This study builds on the work of Collins et al. (2014) who examined the moderating impact of subordinate gender on the mediating relationship of job embeddedness on the relationship between LMX facets and job satisfaction. Previously, the gender role of supervisors on this relationship was not explored.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Yuran Li ◽  
Mark Frost ◽  
Shiyu Rong ◽  
Rong Jiang ◽  
...  

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the critical role played by cultural flow in fostering successful expatriate cross-border transitions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop and test a model on the interplay among cultural intelligence, organizational position level, cultural flow direction and expatriate adaptation, using a data set of 387 expatriate on cross-border transitions along the Belt & Road area.FindingsThe authors find that both organizational position level and cultural flow moderate the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate adaptation, whereby the relationship is contingent on the interaction of organizational position status and assignment directions between high power distance and low power distance host environments.Originality/valuePrevious research has shown that higher levels of cultural intelligence are positively related to better expatriate adaptation. However, there is a lack of research on the effect of position difference and cultural flow on such relationship. Our study is among the first to examine how the interaction between cultural flow and organizational position level influences the cultural intelligence (CI) and cultural adjustment relationship in cross-cultural transitions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 665-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Valle ◽  
Micki Kacmar ◽  
Martha Andrews

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of ethical leadership on surface acting, positive mood and affective commitment via the mediating effect of employee frustration. The authors also explored the moderating role of humor on the relationship between ethical leadership and frustration as well as its moderating effect on the mediational chain. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in two separate surveys from 156 individuals working fulltime; data collections were separated by six weeks to reduce common method variance. The measurement model was confirmed before the authors tested the moderated mediation model. Findings Ethical leadership was negatively related to employee frustration, and frustration mediated the relationships between ethical leadership and surface acting and positive mood but not affective commitment. Humor moderated the relationship between ethical leadership and frustration such that when humor was low, the relationship was stronger. Research limitations/implications Interestingly, the authors failed to find a significant effect for any of the relationships between ethical leadership and affective commitment. Ethical leaders can enhance positive mood and reduce surface acting among employees by reducing frustration. Humor may be more important under conditions of unethical leadership but may be distracting under ethical leadership. Originality/value This study demonstrates how frustration acts as a mediator and humor serves as a moderator in the unethical behavior-outcomes relationship.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luluk Lusiantoro ◽  
Bernardinus Maria Purwanto ◽  
Rokhima Rostiani

PurposeThis research aims to test the relationships between organisational mindfulness, social learning and opportunistic behaviour of small business leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were conducted with six small business leaders from various sectors to explore and better grasp the unprecedented phenomenon. An online survey on small business owners and managers in Indonesia was then employed as the main study, resulting in 291 valid responses for further analysis. The data were analysed using regression on SmartPLS 3.0 software.FindingsThis research finds that organisational mindfulness and social learning have positive and significant associations with the ability of small business leaders to discover and exploit opportunities. The path analysis suggests that organisational mindfulness plays a pivotal role as it also partially mediates the relationship between social learning and opportunistic behaviour.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to test the relationships between organisational mindfulness, social learning and opportunistic behaviour, particularly in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. This work also contributes by emphasising the critical linkages between internal and external capabilities triggered by small business leaders to survive the pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuwen Li ◽  
Ruiqian Jia ◽  
Juergen H. Seufert ◽  
Huijie Tang ◽  
Jinlian Luo

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how and when ethical leadership enhances bootlegging. To achieve this purpose, the authors proposed a moderated dual-path model in this study. Design/methodology/approach The model was tested on two related studies. Study 1 was based on three-wave, collected data from a sample of 511 employees of Chinese companies. Data used in Study 2 was collected by survey from employees and their direct leaders of multiple departments of companies in China. Findings In Study 1, the authors found that moral efficacy and moral identity mediate between ethical leadership and bootlegging. Findings from Study 2 provide convergent support of moral efficacy’s and moral identity’s impact on the mediation relationship between ethical leadership and bootlegging. Moreover, the results of Study 2 further reveal that the relationship between ethical leadership and moral efficacy (or moral identity) was more significant among leader–follower with different genders. Originality/value This study not only enriches the literature on ethical leadership and gender (dis)similarity, but also helps managers to better understand the function of bootlegging.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu-Mei Tseng

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the relationship quality on customer loyalty. The moderating role played by online service recovery in this study is further discussed. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative Web-based survey study was conducted to statistically test these relationships among relationship quality, service recovery and customer loyalty. Data collected from 183 respondents were taken for analysis through partial least squares. Findings The findings reveal that relationship quality has significant influence on customer loyalty, whereas service recovery has moderated effect on the relationship between relationship quality and customer loyalty. Research limitations/implications The respondents of this study were recruited from online panels; thus, a purposive sample could be a biased indication of the characteristics of the actual population. Therefore, it is suggested that future researchers enroll subjects from a statistical population that accurately represents the entire population and, in addition, that they collect more responses to increase the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications Because failures in service delivery are inevitable, recovery of such encounters thus represents a significant challenge for service firms. Hence, this study proposes concrete suggestions for firms to manage and operate e-commerce websites, as well as to enhance relationship quality and customer loyalty. Originality/value Service failures have been the bane of e-commerce, compelling customers to either abandon transactions entirely or switch to a physical competitor. Many firms have realized the importance of maintaining strong relationships with customers to enhance their loyalty. However, previous literature has a few studies conducted on the relationships among service recovery, relationship quality and customer loyalty in the e-commerce context. Therefore, it is meaningful to identify these relationships.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document