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Not All Followers Socially Learn from Ethical Leaders: The Roles of Followers’ Moral Identity and Leader Identification in the Ethical Leadership Process

Author

Listed:
  • Zhen Wang

    (Central University of Finance and Economics)

  • Lu Xing

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Haoying Xu

    (University of Illinois at Chicago)

  • Sean T. Hannah

    (Wake Forest University)

Abstract

Recent literature suggests that ethical leadership helps to inhibit followers’ unethical behavior, largely built on the premise that followers view ethical leaders as ethical role models and socially learn from them, thereby engaging in more (less) (un)ethical conduct. This premise, however, has not been adequately tested, leaving insufficient understanding concerning the conditions under which this social learning process occurs. In this study, we revisit this premise, theorizing that not all followers will equally regard the same ethical leader as being a personal ethical role model, thereby bounding the leader’s effects in reducing followers’ unethical behavior. We integrate the role of follower self-concepts into social learning theory, hypothesizing that the extent followers emulate their ethical leaders is contingent on how they identify with ethics (i.e., moral identity) as well as the particular leader (i.e., leader identification). We test our hypotheses with three-wave survey data collected from 214 employees, finding that ethical leaders are viewed as being role models only amongst followers higher in moral identity and leader identification, and that followers’ perceptions that the leader is an ethical role model mediated the effect of ethical leadership on followers’ unethical behavior. Interestingly, results for the full-model tests show that ethical leadership evokes unethical behavior amongst followers lower in both moral identity and leader identification. These results suggest that ethical leadership is not a universally useful practice to decrease unethical behavior and that a more nuanced understanding of its contingent effects needs to be better understood.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhen Wang & Lu Xing & Haoying Xu & Sean T. Hannah, 2021. "Not All Followers Socially Learn from Ethical Leaders: The Roles of Followers’ Moral Identity and Leader Identification in the Ethical Leadership Process," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 449-469, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:170:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-019-04353-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-019-04353-y
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    Cited by:

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    2. Sang-Hoon Lee & Won-Moo Hur & Yuhyung Shin, 2023. "Struggling to Stay Engaged During Adversity: A Daily Investigation of Frontline Service Employees’ Job Insecurity and the Moderating Role of Ethical Leader Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 281-295, April.
    3. Al Halbusi, Hussam & Ruiz-Palomino, Pablo & Williams, Kent A., 2023. "Ethical leadership, subordinates’ moral identity and self-control: Two- and three-way interaction effect on subordinates’ ethical behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    4. Mayowa T. Babalola & Matthijs Bal & Charles H. Cho & Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo & Omrane Guedhami & Hao Liang & Greg Shailer & Suzanne Gils, 2022. "Bringing Excitement to Empirical Business Ethics Research: Thoughts on the Future of Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 903-916, October.
    5. D. M. Sachinthanee Dissanayake & Ananda K. L. Jayawardana, 2023. "The impact of personal sense of power on unethical decision-making: a moderated mediation model of love of money motive and power distance orientation," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 50(1), pages 19-34, March.
    6. Zhao, Hongdan & Zhao, Siyong & Chen, Yuanhua & Yu, Xiaoyu, 2023. "Bystanders’ reactions to leader knowledge hiding: The roles of moral disengagement and moral identity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    7. Lixin Chen & Qingxiong Weng, 2023. "Authoritarian-Benevolent Leadership and Employee Behaviors: An Examination of the Role of LMX Ambivalence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(2), pages 425-443, August.

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