Ethical Role Models Research Articles

Not All Followers Socially Learn from Ethical Leaders: The Roles of Followers’ Moral Identity and Leader Identification in the Ethical Leadership Process

Recent literature suggests that ethical leadership helps to inhibit followers’ unethical behavior, largely built on the premise that followers view ethical leaders as ethical role models and socially learn from them, thereby engaging in more (less) (un)ethical conduct. This premise, however, has not been adequately tested, leaving insufficient understanding concerning the conditions under which this social learning process occurs. In this study, we revisit this premise, theorizing that not all followers will equally regard the same ethical leader as being a personal ethical role model, thereby bounding the leader’s effects in reducing followers’ unethical behavior. We integrate the role of follower self-concepts into social learning theory, hypothesizing that the extent followers emulate their ethical leaders is contingent on how they identify with ethics (i.e., moral identity) as well as the particular leader (i.e., leader identification). We test our hypotheses with three-wave survey data collected from 214 employees, finding that ethical leaders are viewed as being role models only amongst followers higher in moral identity and leader identification, and that followers’ perceptions that the leader is an ethical role model mediated the effect of ethical leadership on followers’ unethical behavior. Interestingly, results for the full-model tests show that ethical leadership evokes unethical behavior amongst followers lower in both moral identity and leader identification. These results suggest that ethical leadership is not a universally useful practice to decrease unethical behavior and that a more nuanced understanding of its contingent effects needs to be better understood.

Management accountants and ethical dilemmas: How to promote ethical intention?

Multiple incidents of misconduct have strengthened the need to foster ethical behavior in organizations. Unfortunately, the reasons why some people tend to ignore ethical considerations are largely unclear. In particular, comprehensive analyses in the context of management accounting are still rare. As a distinctive characteristic, our study therefore aims at generating more knowledge about the driving factors in ethical decision-making processes of professional management accountants and thus complements findings of experimental studies in other fields. Based on survey data from 90 international management accountants, we find evidence that the ethical environment strongly affects management accountants’ tendency not to engage in ethically questionable behavior. In detail, our results support the notion that the connection between ethical awareness and the intention to engage in ethically questionable behavior is rather indirect and also mediated by the level of ethical experience, i.e., individuals’ exposure to ethical role models in organizations. In sum, our research study helps to disentangle the ethical decision-making process of professional management accountants and illustrates that ethical environments are necessary to enforce adequate ethical behavior.

Challenging Gendered Social Norms: Educational Insights from Confucian Classics

ABSTRACTThis article highlights the salient educational insights concerning the roles and identities of women from four Confucian classics known as the Four Books for Women (Nü sishu). Written by women, the texts collectively challenge three prevailing gendered social norms: the deprivation of education for girls, the necessity of the wife to obey her husband all the time, and the assumption of the moral inferiority of women. Correspondingly, the authors argue for the right of girls to schooling, the need for the wife to remonstrate with her husband, and the potential of women to become moral exemplars and sages. The authors legitimise their arguments by drawing on selected Confucian teachings pertaining to gender mutuality, normative behaviours, innate moral nature and self-cultivation. Going beyond the traditional roles of women as wives, mothers and daughters-in-law, the texts envisage women as educated and ethical role models who complement the men in advancing the Way.

Explaining the challenges of academic professional ethics training from the perspective of faculty members at Ardabil University of Medical Sciences: a qualitative study

Purpose Education systems throughout the world seek to take the advantage of every presenting opportunity for achieving a standard level of ethical accountability and capability. The purpose of this paper is to explain the challenges of professional ethics training from the perspective of faculty members at the Ardabil University of Medical Sciences (ARUMS). Design/methodology/approach The present qualitative framework analysis held interviews with 21 key faculty members were selected using the purposeful and snowball method to interview from ARUMS in 2016. The duration of each interview varied between 45 and 120 min. The data obtained were analyzed in MAXQDA-10. Codes were extracted using inductive methods. Findings Three main themes were extracted from the interviews, namely, educational efficacy, professional interaction and equity in education along with 12 subthemes, namely, teacher’s personal capability, work in the area of expertise, regular class attendance, quality class attendance, inclusion of theoretical bases, the teacher as an ethical role model, respect for the student, encouragement of ethical behaviors, respect for the patient’s rights, fair assessment, attention to differences and positive discrimination. Practical implications This study results could help to improve the quality of training and ethical standards in medical education. Originality/value To comply with the codes of ethics in research, permission was obtained from the Ethics Committee and the participants were ensured about the confidentiality of their data and their right to withdraw from the study at any stage. Given that this project was a qualitative study, the authors did not have a moral or practical problem in the study. This study was approved with number “IR.ARUMS.FEC.1394.25” at the Ardabil University of Medical Sciences Research Ethics Council. The cooperation of participants in the study was completely voluntary; moreover, the authors obtained written consent from participants for the study.

Collaborative inquiry into service learning: ethical practice through a Pedagogy of CARE

Practitioner inquiry is an ethical process that begins from a stance of caring. When one cares about the principles of democratic participation and social justice, one wants to advocate for them through modelling them in practice. When teachers engage in practice-based research that is democratic and radical in its intent and process, they act as ethical role models. The aims of this inquiry were to explore ethical principles of practice through a ‘students as researchers’ approach to service learning at the high school campus of an international school in Central Switzerland. The research question that drove the inquiry was; ‘How does meaningful teacher and student involvement as collaborative inquirers into service learning model a pedagogy for service learning?’ The participatory methodology of practice-based, collaborative inquiry involved a teacher-researcher and student researchers engaging in a pedagogy that was based on mutual understanding and respect and critical reflection. A rich variety of qualitative, practice-oriented methods were employed within cycles of inquiry and spirals of action and reflection. Through modelling and reflecting on the pedagogical strategies that were part of the collaborative research process, a framework for a ‘Pedagogy of CARE’ was developed. The acronym CARE, whilst representing the underlying stance of caring, stands for the required and desired personal attributes within collaborative inquiry; one is conscious, active, responsible and experimental. At the same time, it also embodies pedagogical principles; one engages in a practice of consciousness, action, responsibility and experimentation. This framework, conceptualised as a non-hierarchical pyramid model, can be used by teachers and educational researchers within international education and beyond to inform a practice that is ethical in both its process and intent.

How complexity impacts salesperson counterproductive behavior: The mediating role of moral disengagement

We explore the mediating role of moral disengagement in counterproductive behavior by professional sellers. Moral disengagement is a cognitive state in which moral standards are deactivated from one's actions. We theorize that the effect of job-related complexity on salesperson counterproductive behavior is better explained when this relationship is mediated by salesperson moral disengagement. Our empirical findings support the explanation that complexity influences salesperson's moral disengagement. In turn, this influences counterproductive salesperson behavior. Ethical role modeling is found to play a strong mitigating role. Overall, our results indicate how counterproductive salesperson behavior develops, why salespeople engage in such behavior, and how sales managers can project themselves as ethical mentors to lessen unfavorable behaviors by salespeople.

When do followers emulate ethical leaders: It depends on ethical identity and leader identification

Recent literature suggests that ethical leadership helps to inhibit followersi¯ unethical behaviors, with the premise that followers view ethical leaders as ethical role models and learn from them ...

Leveraging the employee voice: a multi-level social learning perspective of ethical leadership

Extending social learning theory to a multi-level perspective, this study proposes a theoretical model that investigates both individual and team-level mechanisms that mediate the effect of ethical leadership on employee voice. Specifically, in terms of an individual-level social learning perspective, we suggest that an ethical leader acts as a prototype of a moral person (i.e. an ethical role model). From a team-level social learning perspective, we propose that, as a moral manager, team ethical leadership will foster an ethical climate within the team which will create a moral context that impacts employees’ behaviors. In both instances, employee voice behaviors will be enhanced through these mechanisms. Evidencing the importance of the interaction between leader behaviors and context for leader effectiveness, we also show that employees are more likely to regard their ethical leaders as ethical role models in a team that highly values ethical conduct (i.e. high in ethical climate). Results obtained from 47 managers and 211 subordinates in China support our theoretical model. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are also discussed.

Fairness and respect in nurse educators' work- nursing students' perceptions.

This study describes how the ethical principles of fairness and respect come true in the work of nurse educators from the perspective of nursing students. Nurse educators' competence of professional ethics is important in providing an ethical role model to nursing students and to professionals in the field of health care. The descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. The data were collected from graduating nursing students (n=202) in Finland with an internet-based questionnaire consisting of 22 structured questions with 5-point Likert scale. The data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that educators' fairness and respect towards others (colleagues, superiors, mentors, nursing leaders) was good but towards students their fairness did not achieve as good a level. Also, according to the students' assessment, the educators did not respect the students' individual opinions in all cases. Educators' fairness and respect towards their colleagues was satisfactory. The appreciation of educators in the society was reasonably good, but in the opinion of the students the views of educators were not respected very much. As a conclusion, can be said that educators need to put more emphasis on their action.

Ethical role modeling of clinical teacher: a key element in strengthen the relationship in clinical settings

In student-teacher relationship, role modeling of the clinical teachers has frequently been identified as a strategy to promotion of professional development of students and their learning. The aim of current study was to explore the experiences of nursing students and teachers concerning role modeling in clinical education.In this qualitative content analysis study, nine bachelor nursing students and eight clinical teachers in school of Nursing and Midwifery were selected through purposive sampling. Data were gathered and analyzed through semi-structured interviews and conventional content analysis. Analysis was done through the coding, abstraction and creating categories. Also, the MAXqda software was used for managing data.Two major categories were emerged from the data. These include teacher’s role modeling at bedside and relationship training. Results showed that the role modeling by the clinical teachers especially in relationship behaviors and ethical aspects was identified as a helping strategy to development of relationship.

Is the Ethical Culture of the Organization Associated with Sickness Absence? A Multilevel Analysis in a Public Sector Organization

The main aim of the present study was to examine whether an ethical organizational culture is associated with sickness absence in a Finnish public sector organization at both the individual (within-level) and work unit (between-level) levels. The underlying assumption was that employees working for organizations that are characterized by a strong ethical organizational culture report less sickness absence. The sample consisted of 2192 employees from one public sector city organization that included 246 different work units. Ethical organizational culture was measured with the Corporate Ethical Virtues scale covering eight sub-dimensions. Sickness absence was inquired by asking the participants to report how many days they had been absent from work because of their own sickness over the past year. Multilevel structural equation modelling showed that, at the individual level, perceptions of a strong ethical organizational culture were associated with less sickness absences after controlling for the background factors. This link was not found at the work-unit level. The findings indicate that an ethical organizational culture plays a significant role in enhancing employee well-being measured as sickness absence. It seems that especially supervisor’s ethical role modeling and possibilities to discuss about ethical issues are important factors in preventing sickness absence in the organizations.

New Insights into Ethical Leadership: A Qualitative Investigation of the Experiences of Executive Ethical Leaders

Ethical leadership has become a thriving research field. However, on reviewing previous research, we argue that several fundamental questions remain unclear and need further investigation. (1) Ethical leaders are defined as behaving ‘normatively appropriate[ly]’ (Brown et al., Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 97(2):117–134, 2005), but it remains unclear what this entails. What specific behaviours does an ethical leader show? (2) To date, ethical leadership has focused primarily on leader behaviour towards employees. Which stakeholders apart from employees are important to the ethical leader, and what kind of ethical behaviour does the ethical leader show towards them? (3) What are further antecedents and consequences of ethical leadership? We addressed these questions by qualitatively analysing interviews with 17, mostly Swiss, executive ethical leaders. The results indicate that executive ethical leaders care not only about employees but also about other stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, owners of companies, the natural environment and society. Additionally, this study identified a broad range of executive ethical leaders’ behaviours towards these stakeholders, and, therefore, may function as a useful resource for future quantitative studies. Furthermore, we identified several antecedents of executive ethical leadership, for example ethical role models, business strategy and owner’s values, and consequences such as effects on other stakeholders than employees. Finally, our results shed more light on the processes of ethical guidance of employees. Managerial implications and avenues for further research are discussed.

Do Role Models Matter? An Investigation of Role Modeling as an Antecedent of Perceived Ethical Leadership

Thus far, we know much more about the significant outcomes of perceived ethical leadership than we do about its antecedents. In this study, we focus on multiple types of ethical role models as antecedents of perceived ethical leadership. According to social learning theory, role models facilitate the acquisition of moral and other types of behavior. Yet, we do not know whether having had ethical role models influences follower perceptions of one’s ethical leadership and, if so, what kinds of role models are important. We conducted a field study, surveying supervisors and their subordinates to examine the relationship between three types of ethical role models and ethical leadership: the leader’s childhood role models, career mentors, and top managers. We found that having had an ethical role model during the leader’s career was positively related to subordinate-rated ethical leadership. As expected, this effect was moderated by leader age, such that the relationship between career mentoring and ethical leadership was stronger for older leaders. Leader age also moderated the relationship between childhood models and ethical leadership ratings, such that having had childhood ethical role models was more strongly and positively related to ethical leadership for younger leaders. We found no effect for top management ethical role models. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Character centered leadership: Muhammad (p) as an ethical role model for CEOs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the leadership style of Muhammad (p) within a character‐centric framework as a useful alternative to the transactional, self‐centered model and the value‐neutral transformational approach that currently permeate business management. The author differentiates such perspectives from the character‐centered, moral approach to leadership suggested by the Qur’an and modeled by Muhammad (p), and proposes that this approach may be of practical use to CEOs.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual, comparative discussion of Muhammad's leadership style based on the primary Islamic sources is shown to have practical implications for the leadership process in management.FindingsThe current malaise in business leadership can be resolved by a new focus on character and on virtues.Practical implicationsThe character‐centered, moral approach of Muhammad provides exemplars of virtues and behaviors that, if emulated by CEOs, may help pre‐empt potentially self‐serving, individualistic and narcissistic tendencies.Originality/valueThe leadership model of Muhammad has been applied to a number of arenas before, but this is the first attempt at explicating the Qur’anic emphasis on the role‐modeling aspects of his character (khuluqin azeem). When fully expounded, it is likely to offer a more virtue‐centric alternative to transactional and/or transformational approaches to leadership and their associated relativistic values.

Framing Faculty and Student Discrepancies in Engineering Ethics Education Delivery

BackgroundThe importance of ethics education in professional engineering preparation programs is well established, yet student outcomes remain mixed despite the efforts of engineering educators.Purpose (Hypothesis)A long line of research has suggested that students and faculty often have different perceptions of educational efforts and practices. In this study, we consider this as a potential reason for the continued mixed results of engineering ethics education by examining differing perceptions of faculty and students about ethics education and identifying contributing factors to those differences.Design/MethodWe conducted focus groups and interviews with engineering undergraduate students, faculty, and administrators on 18 campuses. Transcripts were analyzed using both deductive and inductive analyses and constant comparison. We identified both themes of discrepancies between faculty/administrator and student perceptions and factors in the educational environment that contributed to those discrepancies.ResultsDiscrepancies between the perceptions of faculty/administrators were seen in two forms. Faculty/administrators believed that ethics education encompasses teaching about laws, ethical codes, and other black‐and‐white solutions while also addressing more nuanced ethical dilemmas; students reported only experiencing the laws‐and‐rules approach. Students also did not see faculty as the positive ethical role models that faculty believed they are. Factors that contribute to both types of discrepancies are identified and reported.ConclusionsThis approach can be effective in examining difficulties in teaching engineering ethics. Educators should take steps to understand the different ways faculty/administrators and students perceive ethics education, and how factors in the educational environment contribute to differences in those perceptions.

Ethical Leadership

Ethical Leadership

Someone to Look Up To

Despite a business environment that highlights the importance of executives’ ethical leadership, the individual antecedents of ethical leadership remain largely unknown. In this study, the authors propose that follower perceptions of ethical leadership depend on the executive leader’s cognitive moral development (CMD) and, more importantly, on the relationship between executive leader and follower CMD. In a sample of 143 leader–follower dyads, the authors find a direct positive relationship between leader CMD and perceptions of ethical leadership. Using polynomial regression, they find that ethical leadership is maximized when the leader’s CMD diverges from and is greater than the follower’s CMD. The authors explain these findings using a social learning theory framework. Leaders who are more advanced ethical reasoners relative to their followers are likely to stand out as salient ethical role models whose ethics-related communication and behavior attract followers’ attention. The authors discuss the research and practical implications of these findings.

Understanding unethical behavior by unraveling ethical culture

Unethical behavior in the workplace is a widespread phenomenon. In this article a model for the ethical culture of organizations that consists of eight dimensions is employed to explain unethical behavior. The sample was composed of 341 triads consisting of a manager and two direct reports. The results show that six dimensions of ethical culture were negatively related to observed unethical behavior: ethical role modeling of management, ethical role modeling of supervisors, capability to behave ethically, commitment to behave ethically, openness to discuss ethical issues, and reinforcement of ethical behavior. Two of the eight dimensions, clarity of ethical standards and visibility of (un)ethical behavior, were not significantly related to unethical behavior. This study demonstrates that multiple dimensions of ethical culture have to be taken into account to reduce unethical behavior. The study opens up avenues for future research about the significance of each dimension in specific settings, the dynamic relationship between these dimensions, and the instruments required to improve each dimension of ethical culture.

Ethical Elders: Campus Role Models for Moral Development

Dana is a graduate assistant in the second year of a master's program in student personnel. In a class discussion of assistantship issues, Dana reveals that he has decided not to enforce the university's policy of “writing up” all underage students who are in a residence hall room where alcohol is present. He says that in his opinion the punitive nature of the policy, which imposes a $200 fine, flies in the face of any opportunity for learning and drives the targeted behavior further underground. Dana says that the residence hall supervisors know about the decision and that they have discussed the possible ramifications and consequences. As an educator, what is your responsibility to both Dana and to others in the campus community? What are the obligations of others?The purpose of this article is to explore the layered dimensions of learning in the context of everyday ethical dilemmas and to examine the ways in which student affairs educators, classroom faculty, and institutional leaders can serve as ethical elders on campus. We believe that educators are obligated to serve as ethical role models, especially for students and younger colleagues who aspire to serve as educators themselves.

Educating for ethical leadership

In this article we consider the nature of ethical leadership in nursing. An appreciation of the basis of such leadership requires an understanding of responsibility and of key intellectual and ethical qualities or virtues. We examine some of the educational and practice strategies to promote ethical leadership. We argue that there are different levels of ethical leadership. All members of the nursing workforce are ethical leaders in so far as they demonstrate a commitment to ethical practice in their everyday work and act as ethical role models for others. Nurse managers are responsible for influencing their team and for acting as arbiters between organisational and professional values. Nurse educators are role models and ethical leaders as they ensure that the explicit and hidden curriculum demonstrate a commitment to professional values. Nurses who assume political roles have an obligation to lead on ethical agenda compatible with the values of nursing.