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

    Authors

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

    Comments

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    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

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