Moral Allyship At Work: Ethical Leadership and Black Employees' Psychological Diversity Climate

Abstract

The issues of anti-Black racism, discrimination, marginalization, and exclusion have become a prominent topic for management and leadership scholars. Subsequently, organizations and organizational leaders have sought to understand how to be better allies to Black employees in the workplace. We seek to extend this literature by investigating how organizational leaders can improve the workplace for Black employees. For this purpose, we integrate ethical leadership and social information processing theories to explain how ethical leadership impacts Black employees’ workplace experiences. We propose that ethical leadership involves structuring of a fair work environment. Correspondingly, as ethical leaders work to establish a fair work environment, this cultivates a positive psychological diversity climate for Black employees. In turn, by establishing a positive psychological diversity climate, Black employees are more likely to be engaged and are less likely to be ostracized in the workplace. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. We conclude with limitations and future research ideas.