Ethical Leadership

A leader's lack of ethical communication

1) Inadvertently signals that "anything goes" to support the org's bottom line

Transformational Leaders

1) Similar to EL because: concern for others, ethical decision-making, integrity, role modeling 2) Different from EL because: EL's emphasize ethical standards and moral management; transformational leaders emphasize vision, values, and intellectual stimulation

Ethical Leadership and Authentic Leadership

1) Similar to EL because: concern for others, integrity, role modeling 2) Different from EL because: EL's emphasize moral management and "other" awareness; authentic leaders emphasize authenticity and self-awareness

Ethical Leadership and Spiritual Leadership

1) Similar to EL because: concern for others, integrity, role modeling 2) Different from EL because: EL's emphasize moral management; spiritual leaders emphasize visioning, hope/faith, work as a vocation

Ethically neutral leaders perceived as

1) not morally aware, selfish, focused on the bottom line with little concern for other people 2) but the leader's self-views may be very different

Amoral Management Definition (Greenbaum et al., 2104)

1. A manager's failure to support a socially salient ethical agenda by not using ethical communication and not visibly demonstrating ethical practices.

Ethically Neutral Leadership and Amoral leadership

1. A self-centered leader who lacks ethical awareness and cares mostly about himself or herself and the organization's bottom line rather than other people 2.Not clearly ethical or unethical (Trevino et al., 2003; Carroll, 1987)

Individual Characteristics of Ethical Leaders (Brown et al., 2006)

1. Agreeableness 2. Conscientiousness 3. Moral Reasoning 4. Locus of Control Moderating Influences 1. Need for Power * Inhibition 2. Moral Reasoning * Moral Utilization

Unethical Leadership

1. Behavior conducted and decisions made by organizational leaders that are illegal and/or violate moral standards and those that impose processes and structures that promote unethical conduct by followers (Brown & Mitchell, 2010)

Threats to Ethical Leadership

1. Competence 2. Integrity 3. Group harmony 4. Efficiency and effectiveness 5. Social Capital 6. Likability

Nurturant Models

1. Demonstrate care and concern and treat others fairly 2. Attractive to followers and garner positive attention

Attention & Ethical Leadership

1. Effective role modeling requires attention to be focused on the model and the behavior being modeled 2. To be perceived as ethical leaders they must be attractive, credible, and legitimate a) Do this by engaging in behavior that is normatively appropriate and altruistically motivated 3. Leaders gain attention through ethics communication and using reinforcement to support message

Ethical Credibility

1. Ethical Leaders are trustworthy and practice what they preach. 2. This enhance the effectiveness of their modeling

Ethical Leadership & Transactional Leadership

1. Ethical leaders use transactional type influence processes such as standard setting, performance, appraisal, and rewards/punishments to hold followers accountable for ethical leadership 2. Along with transformational leadership styles

Outcomes of Ethical Leadership (Brown et al., 2006)

1. Follower Ethical Decision-Making 2. Prosocial Behavior 3. Counterproductive Behavior (-) 4. Follower Satisfaction, Motivation, and Commitment

What are ethical leaders are characterized as?

1. Honest, caring, and principled individuals who make fair and balanced decisions. 2. Communicate, set clear standards, use rewards 3. Practice what they preach (are proactive role models for ethical conduct)

Ethical Leadership positively related to Leadership styles/characteristics (Brown et al., 2005)

1. Idealized Influence 2. Consideration 3. Interactional Fairness 4. Affective Trust 5. Leader Honesty

Ethical Leadership as Social Learning Theory (SLP; Bandura, 1977)

1. Leaders model ethical conduct for followers 2. Employees can learn what behavior is expected, rewarded/punished via role modeling. 3. Leaders are a source of modeling due to the virtue of their assigned role, status/success in org, and power to affect the behavior and outcomes of others. a) in sum attractive and credible models

Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS) Items 1-5

1. Listens to what employees have to say 2. Disciplines employees who violate ethical standards 3. Conducts his/her personal life in an ethical manner 4. Has the best interests of employees in mind 5. Makes fair and balanced decisions

Situational Influences of Ethical Leadership (Brown et al., 2006)

1. Role Modeling 2. Ethical Context Moderating Influences 1. Ethical Context * Moral Intensity 2. Ethical Context * Self Monitoring

Ethical Leadership to Positive & Negative Behavior

1. SLT = ethical leaders are attractive legitimate role models who focus followers attention on their ethical standards and behavior. Followers emulate this behavior. 2. Social Exchange = ethical leadership engenders personal feeling of obligation, gratitude and trust

Ethical Leadership positively related to Follower attitudes and performance (Brown et al., 2005)

1. Satisfaction with leader 2. Leader effectiveness 3. Extra Effort (job dedication) 4. Willingness to report probelms

Ethical Leadership Definition (Brown et al., 2005)

1. The demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships 2. And the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision making.

Moral Intensity

1. The magnitude of the consequences 2. Social consensus

Ethical climate

1. The prevailing perceptions of typical org practices and procedures that have ethical content 2. Those aspects of work climate that determine what constitutes ethical work behavior

Instrumental Climate

1. When an org's policies and procedures reward and support the maximization of one's personal gain, as well as org profitability, strategic advantage, and efficiency. 2. Tend to promote self-interested desires 3. Encourage employees to think primarily in terms of achieving bottom-line outcomes, and avoid threats that may detract from attaining it.

The problem with amoral management is...

1. employees are left to their own judgment when addressing ethical issues. 2. Orgs tout strong messages about profits, and without a corresponding ethics message, employees may reason that the bottom line is more important than anything else 3. While the amoral manager may not be unethical, without a strong moral role model employees may adopt loose moral standards to meet bottom-line expectations.

Two key differences between ethical leadership and amoral managment

1. the use of ethical communication 2. the visible demonstration of ethical practices

Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS) Items 6-10

6. Can be trusted 7. Discusses business ethics or values with employees 8. Sets an example of how to do things the right way in terms of ethics 9. Defines success not just by results but also the way that they are obtained 10. When making decisions, asks "what is the right thing to do?"

Ethical Culture

A subset of an org's overall culture that can moderate the relationship between an individual's moral reasoning level and ethical/unethical behavior

What does "promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication" mean?

Ethical leaders make ethics salient by talking about it, but also provide followers with a voice (a procedurally or interpersonally just process)

What does "demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships" mean?

Model conduct that followers consider to be normatively appropriate (e.g., honesty, trustworthiness, fairness, and care)

Moral Person Aspect of Ethical Leadership

Perspective of a leader's personal traits, character, and altruistic motivation

Moral Manager Dimension of Ethical Leadership

The leader's proactive efforts to influence followers ethical and unethical behavior 1. communicate message 2. visibly/intentionally role model 3. reward ethical behavior

Ethical Leaders and the Bottom Line

They strongly care about the org's bottom line, but they also pay attention to the way it is obtained. They communicate to followers that one must first "do the right thing" in terms of ethics, and then high financial returns will naturally follow

Because business is about making money, ethical leadership practices may be viewed as...

too time consuming and unnecessary to achieve bottom-line results