In the moral eye of the beholder:the interactive effects of leader and follower moral identity on perceptions of ethical leadership and LMX quality

Abstract

Previous research indicated that leader moral identity (MI; i.e., leaders’ self-definition in terms of moral attributes) predicts to what extent followers perceive their leader as ethical (i.e., demonstrating and promoting ethical conduct in the organization). Leadership, however, is a relational process that involves leaders and followers. Building on this understanding, we hypothesized that follower and leader MI (a) interact in predicting whether followers will perceive their leaders as ethical and, as a result, (b) influence followers’ perceptions of leader–follower relationship quality. A dyadic field study (N = 101) shows that leader MI is a stronger predictor of followers’ perceptions of ethical leadership for followers who are high (vs. low) in MI. Perceptions of ethical leadership in turn predict how the quality of the relationship will be perceived. Hence, whether leader MI translates to perceptions of ethical leadership and of better relationship quality depends on the MI of followers.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01126
Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School > Work & Organisational Psychology
College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School
Additional Information: © 2015 Giessner, Van Quaquebeke, van Gils, van Knippenberg and Kollée. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Publication ISSN: 1664-1078
Last Modified: 15 Feb 2024 08:10
Date Deposited: 19 Mar 2018 11:45
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://www.fro ... 2015.01126/full (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2015-08-04
Authors: Giessner, S..R
Quaquebeke, N.V
Van Gils, S
Van Knippenberg, Daniel L (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-0269-8102)
Kollee, J.A.J.M

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