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Publication
Ethical Leadership as a Discouragement Agent for Moral Disengagement and Unethical Behaviour in Cross-Cultural Environment
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| 1.16 MB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Abstract(s)
Since the huge corporate scandals that impacted the world, authors keep reviewing
concepts trying to identify what is missing on the ethical behaviour of managers, leaders and
top executives in multinational corporations. Drawing on the Social Cognitive Theory of
Bandura that explains the psychological aspect of the individuals and social interaction given
by the ethical climate, we propose that ethical leadership downhearted individual’s moral
disengagement preventing teams to behave unethically in cross-cultural environment. We
empirically tested this theoretical framework by collecting data from 184 participants
comprised in 39 teams across countries, prompted to answer a multi-source survey in dyads
and in two different moments of time. The findings reveal that ethical leadership has an
indirect influence on unethical behaviour avoidance by stimulating a good ethical climate
and frustrating the moral disengagement of individuals. In addition, could be proved that
organization ethical climate is not influenced by the corruption level of the country. All these
findings offer theoretical and managerial implications that transcend the simply view of the
ethical leader as a good manager, to a broader view of the ethical leader as an asset of the
organization that not only improves ethics, but also performance and societal recognition.
Description
Keywords
Ethical leadership Ethical climate Moral disengagement Displacement of responsibility Unethical behavior Corruption Cross-cultural environment