How LMX Differentiation Attenuates the Influence of Ethical Leadership on Workplace Deviance: The Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment.

Yirong Guo,Limei Chen,Lynda Jiwen Song,Xiaoming Zheng

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.693557

Abstract

The previous research has mostly proposed that ethical leadership contributed to less deviant behavior; however, recent studies found that this relationship might not always be significant. Therefore, a deeper and more nuanced investigation of how and when ethical leadership influences deviant behavior is highly warranted. In the present research, drawing on social learning theory as our overarching theoretical framework, we posited that high level of LMX differentiation will impede the effect of ethical leadership on employee deviant behavior, and thus, ethical leadership could reduce employees’ deviant behavior in teams with lower LMX differentiation rather than high LMX differentiation. Furthermore, we proposed that the interactive effect of ethical leadership and LMX differentiation on employee deviant behavior is mediated by employee psychological empowerment. More specifically, ethical leadership is more likely to enhance employee psychological empowerment in teams with low LMX differentiation than in teams with high LMX differentiation, and enhanced psychological empowerment contributed to less deviant behavior. Through a multi-source field study via 379 paired samples from the southwest of China, we found support for all of our hypotheses. The results’ contribution to research on organizational behavior, limitations in the study, and future directions for researchers are also discussed.

Highlights

Employee deviant behavior, or workplace deviance, refers to employees’ voluntary actions that violate organizational norms and may potentially cause harm to individuals and/or the property of an organization (Robinson and Bennett, 1995; Robinson and O'Leary-Kelly, 1998), such as deliberately damaging property of organizations, working slow, and saying rude things about others (Robinson and O'Leary-Kelly, 1998)
Drawing upon social learning theory, we propose that the interactive effect of ethical leadership and LMX differentiation on employee deviant behavior is achieved by employees’ increased psychological empowerment, which manifests as the motivational mechanism underlying the social learning process, including the sense of meaningfulness, selfdetermination, competence, and impact (Spreitzer, 1995)
We propose that employee psychological empowerment serves as a critical mechanism wherein ethical leadership and LMX differentiation interact to affect employee psychological empowerment, such that ethical leadership contributes to enhancing employee psychological empowerment in teams with low LMX differentiation, and increased psychological empowerment conduces to decreasing employee deviant behavior

Summary

Introduction

Workplace deviance, refers to employees’ voluntary actions that violate organizational norms and may potentially cause harm to individuals and/or the property of an organization (Robinson and Bennett, 1995; Robinson and O'Leary-Kelly, 1998), such as deliberately damaging property of organizations, working slow, and saying rude things about others (Robinson and O'Leary-Kelly, 1998). Attenuating Effect of LMX Differentiation organizations great productivity and property loss, occupy targeted employee serious mental or emotional distress, and even spill over some negative effect to the broader society (Bennett and Robinson, 2000; Ferris et al, 2009; Bennett et al, 2019; Dhanani and LaPalme, 2019). To reduce these behaviors, researchers and managers have strived for years to figure out possible solutions (Dineen et al, 2006; Mackey et al, 2019). A deeper and more nuanced investigation of how and when ethical leadership influences deviant behavior is highly warranted

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Results

Conclusion