Abstract
This paper investigates the concept of behavioral integrity from three important foci in organizational settings: i.e., leader, organization, and follower. Drawing from theories of behavioral integrity, social learning, and social identity, we examine the effects of leader and organizational behavioral integrity on follower behavioral integrity and organizational citizenship behavior via follower identification with leader and with organization, respectively. To test our hypotheses, we used data from three studies. Studies 1 and 2 were online experiments (N = 211 and N = 200, respectively) in which behavioral integrity was manipulated in written scenarios to explore the proposed causal relationships. Study 3 was a multisource field study that tested a mediation model using matched data collected from 280 employees and their co-workers from a Fire and Rescue Service in the United Kingdom. The findings provide partial support for our hypothesized model and highlight the importance of examining multiple foci of behavioral integrity as well as the role of follower identification as key mediating mechanisms of the relationship between leader and organizational behavioral integrity and follower behavioral outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Highlights
Publicized corporate ethical scandals have highlighted the need to recognize the importance of ethics and virtues within organizations and the importance of studying organizational actors’ ethical behaviors (Brown et al 2005; Brown and Treviño 2006; Kacmar et al 2011)
Following the empirical evidence that indicates leader behavioral integrity (BI) plays an important role in the leader–follower relationship, we argue that organizational BI could play a role in the organization–employee relationship
We conducted a univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) to see that the validity of manipulations for leader BI and organizational BI
Summary
Publicized corporate ethical scandals have highlighted the need to recognize the importance of ethics and virtues within organizations and the importance of studying organizational actors’ ethical behaviors (Brown et al 2005; Brown and Treviño 2006; Kacmar et al 2011) This line of research mainly aims to establish that organizations can encourage managers and employees to act ethically, leading to positive organizational outcomes (Ford and Richardson 1994; Kacmar et al 2011; Ete et al 2020). On, let’s make it our priority, and that, includes me, to be here by 1 pm after our lunch break." They all agreed
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