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Ethical Leaders and Their Followers: The Transmission of Moral Identity and Moral Attentiveness

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  • Zhu, Weichun
  • Treviño, Linda K.
  • Zheng, Xiaoming

Abstract

In the expanding field of ethical leadership research, little attention has been paid to the association between ethical leaders’ ethical characteristics (beyond personality) and perceived ethical leadership, and, more importantly, the potential influence of ethical leadership on followers’ ethical characteristics. In this study, we tested a theoretical model based upon social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) to examine leaders’ moral identity and moral attentiveness as antecedents of perceived ethical leadership, and follower moral identity and moral attentiveness as outcomes of ethical leadership. Based upon data from 89 leaders and 460 followers in China, collected at two points in time, we found that leaders’ moral identity and moral attentiveness are associated with follower’s perceptions of ethical leadership. Ethical leadership is, in turn, associated with their followers’ moral identity and moral attentiveness. We found furthermore that ethical leadership mediates the effect of leaders’ moral identity on followers’ moral identity, but not the effect of leaders’ moral attentiveness on followers’ moral attentiveness. We discuss the findings, theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhu, Weichun & Treviño, Linda K. & Zheng, Xiaoming, 2016. "Ethical Leaders and Their Followers: The Transmission of Moral Identity and Moral Attentiveness," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(1), pages 95-115, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:26:y:2016:i:01:p:95-115_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhiyu Feng & Fong Keng-Highberger & Hu Li & Krishna Savani, 2023. "Implicit Morality Theories: Employees’ Beliefs About the Malleability of Moral Character Shape Their Workplace Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 193-216, April.
    2. Masoud Shadnam & Andrey Bykov & Ajnesh Prasad, 2021. "Opening Constructive Dialogues Between Business Ethics Research and the Sociology of Morality: Introduction to the Thematic Symposium," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(2), pages 201-211, May.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Ahmad A. Toumeh & Maha D. Ayoush, 2024. "Does Ethical Leadership Constraint Earnings Management Practices? A Systematic Literature Review and Content Analysis," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 130-143.
    6. Hina Shahid & Shafaq Arif Chaudhry & Furrakh Abbas & Saira Ghulam Hassan & Shoaib Aslam, 2023. "Do Morality-Based Individual Differences and Relational Climates Matter? Ethical Leadership and Knowledge Hiding: A Multilevel Framework," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    7. Moazzam Ali & Muhammad Usman & Muhammad Aamir Shafique Khan & Imran Shafique & Farooq Mughal, 2024. "“Articulating Cognizance About What to Hide What not": Insights into Why and When Ethical Leadership Regulates Employee Knowledge-Hiding Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(4), pages 885-895, April.
    8. 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.
    9. 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).
    10. Sajjad A. Afridi & Bilal Afsar & Asad Shahjehan & Zia U. Rehman & Maqsood Haider & Mehboob Ullah, 2020. "Retracted: Perceived corporate social responsibility and innovative work behavior: The role of employee volunteerism and authenticity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1865-1877, July.
    11. Meijui Sun & Ming-Chang Huang, 2022. "Does CSR reputation mitigate the impact of corporate social irresponsibility?," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(2), pages 261-285, April.
    12. Mari Huhtala & Päivi Fadjukoff & Jane Kroger, 2021. "Managers as Moral Leaders: Moral Identity Processes in the Context of Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(4), pages 639-652, September.
    13. Lianying Zhang & Xiaocan Li & Ziqing Liu, 2022. "Fostering Constructive Deviance by Leader Moral Humility: The Mediating Role of Employee Moral Identity and Moderating Role of Normative Conflict," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 731-746, October.
    14. Shakeel Ahmed & Zarain Islam & Mashhood Ur Rehman & Muhammad Hasnain Ali, 2021. "Meaningful Leadership: How Can Leader Contribute To Meaningful Work? The Mediating Role Of Cooperativeness," ILMA Journal of Social Sciences & Economics (IJSSE), Ilma University, Faculty of Management Science, vol. 1(1), pages 1-14.
    15. Junghyun Lee & Se-Hyung Oh & Sanghee Park, 2022. "Effects of Organizational Embeddedness on Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior: Roles of Perceived Status and Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 111-125, February.
    16. Tomasz Gigol & Katarzyna Kreczmanska-Gigol & Renata Pajewska-Kwasny, 2021. "Socially Responsible Leadership’s Impact on Stakeholder Management, Staff Job Satisfaction and Work Engagement," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 4), pages 775-805.
    17. 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.
    18. Muhammad Asif & Muhammad Ali Hussain & Shazia Humayun & Muhammad Awais & Mingxing Li, 2023. "Investigating the Role of Ethical Leadership on Employee Innovativeness through Bottom-Up Job Redesigning: Self-Leadership as a Catalyst," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-12, April.
    19. Michal Szostak, 2020. "Does Creativity Influence the Perception of Creative Identities?," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 312-333.
    20. Khuram Shahzad & Ying Hong & Alan Muller & Marco DeSisto & Farheen Rizvi, 2024. "An Investigation of the Relationship Between Ethics-Oriented HRM Systems, Moral Attentiveness, and Deviant Workplace Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(3), pages 591-608, July.
    21. Jin Cheng & Haiqing Bai & Xijuan Yang, 2019. "Ethical Leadership and Internal Whistleblowing: A Mediated Moderation Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 115-130, March.
    22. Zhen Wang & Haoying Xu, 2019. "When and for Whom Ethical Leadership is More Effective in Eliciting Work Meaningfulness and Positive Attitudes: The Moderating Roles of Core Self-Evaluation and Perceived Organizational Support," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 919-940, June.
    23. Michal Szostak, 2021. "Post-communist Burden Influence on the Perception of Crea-tive Identities: Consequences for Managers and Leaders," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 282-302.

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