IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v165y2020i4d10.1007_s10551-018-4095-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Duty to Improve Oneself: How Duty Orientation Mediates the Relationship Between Ethical Leadership and Followers’ Feedback-Seeking and Feedback-Avoiding Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Sherry E. Moss

    (Wake Forest University)

  • Meng Song

    (Beijing University of Technology)

  • Sean T. Hannah

    (Wake Forest University)

  • Zhen Wang

    (Central University of Finance and Economics)

  • John J. Sumanth

    (Wake Forest University)

Abstract

We sought to expand on the concept of the moral self to include not just the duty to develop the moral self but the moral duty to develop the self in both moral and non-moral ways. To do this, we focused on how leaders can promote a climate in which individuals feel a sense of duty to develop themselves for the betterment of the team and organization. In our theoretical model, duty orientation plays a key role in determining whether followers will seek performance feedback to develop their work selves. We hypothesized that followers with ethical leaders would experience a greater sense of duty to improve themselves and would therefore be more likely to seek and less likely to avoid leader feedback. Drawing on social learning theory, we hypothesized that (a) duty orientation would mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and feedback-seeking/feedback-avoiding behavior, (b) expert power would moderate the relationship between ethical leadership and duty orientation such that duty orientation would be higher when followers perceived their leader to be both highly ethical and competent, and (c) expert power would moderate the indirect effect of ethical leadership on feedback-seeking/feedback-avoiding behavior through duty orientation. We tested our hypotheses using a sample of 249 followers across two waves of data collection. Results suggest that ethical leadership and leader competence interact to drive followers’ duty orientation, thereby reducing followers’ feedback-avoiding behaviors. Further, ethical leadership had a direct positive relationship with followers’ feedback-seeking behaviors.

Suggested Citation

  • Sherry E. Moss & Meng Song & Sean T. Hannah & Zhen Wang & John J. Sumanth, 2020. "The Duty to Improve Oneself: How Duty Orientation Mediates the Relationship Between Ethical Leadership and Followers’ Feedback-Seeking and Feedback-Avoiding Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(4), pages 615-631, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:165:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-018-4095-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-4095-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-018-4095-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-018-4095-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Evans, Martin G., 1985. "A Monte Carlo study of the effects of correlated method variance in moderated multiple regression analysis," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 305-323, December.
    2. Peter J. Reiley & Rick R. Jacobs, 2016. "Ethics Matter: Moderating Leaders’ Power Use and Followers’ Citizenship Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 69-81, March.
    3. Gerbing, David W & Anderson, James C, 1984. "On the Meaning of Within-Factor Correlated Measurement Errors," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 11(1), pages 572-580, June.
    4. Brown, Michael E. & Trevino, Linda K. & Harrison, David A., 2005. "Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 117-134, July.
    5. Qian, Jing & Lin, Xiaosong & Chen, George Zhen-Xiong, 2012. "Authentic leadership and feedback-seeking behaviour: An examination of the cultural context of mediating processes in China," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 286-299, May.
    6. Akanksha Bedi & Can M. Alpaslan & Sandy Green, 2016. "A Meta-analytic Review of Ethical Leadership Outcomes and Moderators," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 517-536, December.
    7. Button, Scott B. & Mathieu, John E. & Zajac, Dennis M., 1996. "Goal Orientation in Organizational Research: A Conceptual and Empirical Foundation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 26-48, July.
    8. Alexander Newman & Kohyar Kiazad & Qing Miao & Brian Cooper, 2014. "Examining the Cognitive and Affective Trust-Based Mechanisms Underlying the Relationship Between Ethical Leadership and Organisational Citizenship: A Case of the Head Leading the Heart?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 113-123, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shilong Wei & Yuting He & Wenxia Zhou & József Popp & Judit Oláh, 2021. "Death Reflection and Employee Work Behavior in the COVID-19 New Normal Time: The Role of Duty Orientation and Work Orientation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-15, October.
    2. Curtis L. Wesley & Gregory W. Martin & Darryl B. Rice & Connor J. Lubojacky, 2022. "Do the Right Thing: The Imprinting of Deonance at the Upper Echelons," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 187-213, September.
    3. DeConinck, James & Carnes, Drew & DeConinck, Mary Beth, 2021. "Antecedents and Outcomes of Duty Orientation Among Salespeople," American Business Review, Pompea College of Business, University of New Haven, vol. 24(2), pages 100-114, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mayowa T. Babalola & Jeroen Stouten & Jeroen Camps & Martin Euwema, 2019. "When Do Ethical Leaders Become Less Effective? The Moderating Role of Perceived Leader Ethical Conviction on Employee Discretionary Reactions to Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 85-102, January.
    2. Nathan Eva & Alexander Newman & Qing Miao & Dan Wang & Brian Cooper, 2020. "Antecedents of Duty Orientation and Follower Work Behavior: The Interactive Effects of Perceived Organizational Support and Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(3), pages 627-639, January.
    3. Dennis J. Marquardt & Wendy J. Casper & Maribeth Kuenzi, 2021. "Leader Goal Orientation and Ethical Leadership: A Socio-Cognitive Approach of the Impact of Leader Goal-Oriented Behavior on Employee Unethical Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 545-561, September.
    4. Yidong Tu & Xinxin Lu, 2016. "Do Ethical Leaders Give Followers the Confidence to Go the Extra Mile? The Moderating Role of Intrinsic Motivation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 129-144, April.
    5. Natalija Keck & Steffen R. Giessner & Niels Quaquebeke & Erica Kruijff, 2020. "When do Followers Perceive Their Leaders as Ethical? A Relational Models Perspective of Normatively Appropriate Conduct," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 477-493, July.
    6. Vishag Badrinarayanan & Indu Ramachandran & Sreedhar Madhavaram, 2019. "Mirroring the Boss: Ethical Leadership, Emulation Intentions, and Salesperson Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 897-912, October.
    7. Fabiola H. Gerpott & Niels Van Quaquebeke & Sofia Schlamp & Sven C. Voelpel, 2019. "An Identity Perspective on Ethical Leadership to Explain Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Interplay of Follower Moral Identity and Leader Group Prototypicality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 1063-1078, June.
    8. Muhammad Arshad & Ghulam Abid & Francoise Venezia Contreras Torres, 2021. "Impact of prosocial motivation on organizational citizenship behavior: the mediating role of ethical leadership and leader–member exchange," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 133-150, February.
    9. Robert Cialdini & Yexin Jessica Li & Adriana Samper & Ned Wellman, 2021. "How Bad Apples Promote Bad Barrels: Unethical Leader Behavior and the Selective Attrition Effect," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(4), pages 861-880, February.
    10. DeConinck, James & Carnes, Drew & DeConinck, Mary Beth, 2021. "Antecedents and Outcomes of Duty Orientation Among Salespeople," American Business Review, Pompea College of Business, University of New Haven, vol. 24(2), pages 100-114, November.
    11. Yau-De Wang & Wen-Chuan Sung, 2016. "Predictors of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Ethical Leadership and Workplace Jealousy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 117-128, April.
    12. Muel Kaptein, 2019. "The Moral Entrepreneur: A New Component of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 1135-1150, June.
    13. John J. Sosik & Jae Uk Chun & Ziya Ete & Fil J. Arenas & Joel A. Scherer, 2019. "Self-control Puts Character into Action: Examining How Leader Character Strengths and Ethical Leadership Relate to Leader Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 765-781, December.
    14. Mayowa T. Babalola & Michelle C. Bligh & Babatunde Ogunfowora & Liang Guo & Omale A. Garba, 2019. "The Mind is Willing, but the Situation Constrains: Why and When Leader Conscientiousness Relates to Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 75-89, March.
    15. Kalra, Ashish & Briggs, Elten & Schrock, Wyatt, 2023. "Exploring the synergistic role of ethical leadership and sales control systems on salesperson social media use and sales performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    16. Angela J. Xu & Raymond Loi & Hang-yue Ngo, 2016. "Ethical Leadership Behavior and Employee Justice Perceptions: The Mediating Role of Trust in Organization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 493-504, March.
    17. Muhammad Asif & Miao Qing & Jinsoo Hwang & Hao Shi, 2019. "Ethical Leadership, Affective Commitment, Work Engagement, and Creativity: Testing a Multiple Mediation Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-16, August.
    18. Julena M. Bonner & Rebecca L. Greenbaum & David M. Mayer, 2016. "My Boss is Morally Disengaged: The Role of Ethical Leadership in Explaining the Interactive Effect of Supervisor and Employee Moral Disengagement on Employee Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(4), pages 731-742, September.
    19. Shenjiang Mo & Chu-Ding Ling & Xiao-Yun Xie, 2019. "The Curvilinear Relationship Between Ethical Leadership and Team Creativity: The Moderating Role of Team Faultlines," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 229-242, January.
    20. Toby Joplin & Rebecca L. Greenbaum & J. Craig Wallace & Bryan D. Edwards, 2021. "Employee Entitlement, Engagement, and Performance: The Moderating Effect of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(4), pages 813-826, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:165:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-018-4095-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.