Title

How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model

Authors

Authors

D. M. Mayer; M. Kuenzi; R. Greenbaum; M. Bardes;R. Salvador

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abstract

This research examines the relationships between top management and supervisory ethical leadership and group-level outcomes (e.g., deviance, OCB) and suggests that ethical leadership flows from one organizational level to the next. Drawing on social learning theory [Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.; Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.] and social exchange theory [Blau, p. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. New York: John Wiley.]. the results support our theoretical model using a sample of 904 employees and 195 managers in 195 departments. We find a direct negative relationship between both top management and supervisory ethical leadership and group-level deviance, and a positive relationship with group-level OCB. Finally, consistent with the proposed trickle-down model, the effects of top management ethical leadership on group-level deviance and OCB are mediated by supervisory ethical leadership. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Volume

108

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2009

Document Type

Article

First Page

1

Last Page

13

WOS Identifier

WOS:000262947800001

ISSN

0749-5978

Share

COinS