How Does Ethical Leadership Trickle Down? Test of an Integrative Dual-Process Model
Although the trickle-down effect of ethical leadership has been documented in the literature, its underlying mechanism still remains largely unclear. To address this gap, we develop a cross-level dual-process model to explain how the effect occurs. Drawing on social learning theory, we hypothesize t...
Autori: | ; ; |
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Tipo di documento: | Elettronico Articolo |
Lingua: | Inglese |
Verificare la disponibilità: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Pubblicazione: |
Springer Science + Business Media B. V
2018
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In: |
Journal of business ethics
Anno: 2018, Volume: 153, Fascicolo: 3, Pagine: 691-705 |
Altre parole chiave: | B
Ethical outcome expectation
B Ethical Leadership B Social Learning Theory B Ethical efficacy expectation |
Accesso online: |
Accesso probabilmente gratuito Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Riepilogo: | Although the trickle-down effect of ethical leadership has been documented in the literature, its underlying mechanism still remains largely unclear. To address this gap, we develop a cross-level dual-process model to explain how the effect occurs. Drawing on social learning theory, we hypothesize that the ethical leadership of high-level managers could cascade to middle-level supervisors via its impact on middle-level supervisors’ two ethical expectations. Using a sample of 69 middle-level supervisors and 381 subordinates across 69 sub-branches from a large banking firm in China, we found that middle-level supervisors’ ethical efficacy expectation and unethical behavior–punishment expectation (as one form of ethical outcome expectations) accounted for the trickle-down effect. The explanatory role of middle-level supervisors’ ethical behavior–reward expectation (as the other form of ethical outcome expectations), however, was not supported. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed. |
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ISSN: | 1573-0697 |
Comprende: | Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3361-x |