Leadership Research Summary:
- 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, the study 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.
Leadership Research Implications and Findings:
- Moral identity has been conceptualized as having two sub-dimensions: internalization and symbolization (Aquino and Reed, 2002). We assumed that the internalization dimension should be a stronger predictor of potential behavior by leaders, because powerful persons are more immune to situational pressures and act more upon their internalized value orientation (Galinsky et al., 2008). Furthermore, we also expected that followers’ internalization of MI would moderate the effects between leaders’ internalization of MI and perceptions of ethical leadership, because this facet is more central to followers’ self-concept (Aquino and Reed, 2002) and is therefore more likely to color followers’ perceptions of the leader (Markus, 1977; Lord and Maher, 1991; Van Quaquebeke et al., 2011). Although our results provide support for these assumptions, we do not aim to argue that the symbolization dimension plays no role in the predicted relationship. Indeed the study’s additional analyses (see Supplementary Material) indicate that the effects are similar, but weaker. An interesting question is under what conditions might these effects of symbolization gain in strength. We may speculate that the sense of power (Anderson et al., 2012) a leader actually experiences may play a moderating role on the link between the MI dimensions and the leader’s actual behavior.
- A stronger sense of power should be related to behavior based on an internalized value-system, because leaders feel very comfortable with acting out what they feel to be (morally) right (Galinsky et al., 2008). In contrast, when leaders feel little power, they may feel more inclined to act in accordance with what others feel to be appropriate. Consequently, their behavior should be influenced more strongly by MI symbolization. While it was not the goal of the current research to test this assumption, future research might examine conditions under which the symbolization of a leader’s MI plays a stronger role in shaping followers’ perceptions of ethical leadership and, consequently, their perceptions of LMX quality.
- The current results also indicate that the interaction between leader and follower MI on perceptions of ethical leadership translates into follower perceptions of LMX quality. More precisely, leader MI exerts its influence on LMX quality via ethical leadership perceptions especially for followers for whom MI is very central. These findings may be thus especially valuable for contexts in which followers have a high MI. In contrast, for followers low in MI, leader MI does not translate into perceived ethical leadership and LMX as easily. This leads to a qualification of the assumption behind LMX theory that “good” leadership should translate into high LMX. One possible reason is that followers low in MI might not pick up the cues from ethical leaders as much, as they do not consider them relevant to their identity. One possible solution for organizations might be to establish a culture with strong ethical values, an ethical mandate, and/or formal or informal ethical infrastructures (cf. Eisenbeiß and Giessner, 2012). In such cases, the leader’s MI is likely to translate better into followers’ perceptions of ethical leadership, because the increased emphasis makes it easier to notice, and hence should also improve the quality of the leader–follower relationships.
- Leaders who define themselves strongly in terms of moral traits are more likely to behave consistently in ways that fit with this moral sense of self, but this does not imply that all followers will have the same perception of the ethicality of such behavior and, as a result, will judge the quality of their relationship with the leader to be equally positive. Thus, the study results extend the perspective on ethical leadership by defining it as a perceptional phenomenon that is rooted in the relationship between leader and follower. This is especially important when we are focusing on the question of what followers perceive as ethical leadership. MI and the moral actions it elicits have been defined in terms of moral traits like honesty, kindness, and compassion (Aquino and Reed, 2002). We do not assume that low MI implies having no morality or having low expectations of morality. Rather, in line with the original definition of MI as a parameter of social identity (Markus, 1977; Tajfel and Turner, 1986; Aquino and Reed, 2002), we argue that low MI simply indicates that a person does not connect moral traits such as honesty, kindness, and compassion with his or her self-concept. Consequently, for these persons other aspects of their self-concept might be salient when they are judging leader behaviors (cf. Lord and Maher, 1991; Van Quaquebeke et al., 2011). Extending this idea, individuals might differ in the traits they consider to represent morality, and might therefore disagree about what behaviors or characteristics qualify as moral and which are thus useful to judge the ethicality of a leader. This is reflected in the ongoing philosophical discussion dating back to Plato and Aristotle (Northouse, 2010). Northouse (2010), for instance, differentiates three moral perspectives: ethical egoism, utilitarianism, and altruism. The first reflects the view that an individual strives for the best results for herself or himself (Avolio and Locke, 2002). The second aims “to create the greatest good for the greatest number” (Northouse, 2010, p. 379).
- Finally, altruism refers to moral behavior whose primary purpose is to help others. MI seems to have the strongest overlap with the concept of altruism. Hence, if followers have other conceptions of morality, the behavior of leaders who are high in MI (as defined by Aquino and Reed, 2002) should not have any effect on their perception of ethicality. For instance, if followers value utilitarianism, they might base their judgment of ethical leadership not on a leader’s altruistic behavior, but in how far that leader maximizes specific utilities with an action (e.g., laying off an employee in order to secure the jobs of all other employees).
- The study research supports this view, and we may speculate that followers low in MI might have other moral conceptualizations and, as a result, might use different moral schema when judging what makes the leader ethical (cf. Giessner and Van Quaquebeke, 2010). Therefore, it might be interesting to study other types of self-defined moral traits and how these relate to followers’ own self-definitions in future research. A promising approach was, for instance, laid out by Giessner and Van Quaquebeke (2010); they outline how “normatively appropriate conduct” can be defined in ethical leadership theory using Fiske’s (2004) idea of four discrete relational models that dictate what is considered the right mode of exchange. One of these relational models is communal sharing, which overlaps with the concept of MI as defined by Aquino and Reed (2002) in the sense that it also places emphasis on caring and altruism. Studying the other types of morality in the relationship between leaders and followers (i.e., authority ranking, equality matching, and market pricing) might therefore be a valuable avenue for future research.