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The Effect of Leadership Style, Framing, and Promotion Regulatory Focus on Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior

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Abstract

The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of leadership and promotion regulatory focus on employees’ willingness to engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB; Umphress and Bingham, J Appl. Psychol 95:769–780, 2011). Building from a person–situation interactionist perspective, we investigate the interaction of leadership style and how leaders frame messages, as well as test a three-way interaction with promotion focus. Using an experimental design, we found that inspirational and charismatic transformational leaders elicited higher levels of UPB than transactional leaders when the leaders used loss framing, but not gain framing. Furthermore, followers’ promotion regulatory focus moderated this relationship such that the effect held for followers with low promotion focus, but not for individuals with high promotion focus. Our findings extend the understanding of UPB, offer theoretical mechanisms to explain when this behavior occurs, and contribute to leadership theory and research on ethical decision making.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University, 101 N. 33rd Street, Office 320, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Katrina A. Graham, Jonathan C. Ziegert & Johnna Capitano

Authors
  1. Katrina A. Graham
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  2. Jonathan C. Ziegert
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  3. Johnna Capitano
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Correspondence to Katrina A. Graham.

Appendix

Appendix

Manipulation Scripts

  1. 1.

    Transformational leadership condition

    1. a.

      Gain condition (manipulations bolded for emphasis):

      You hold a position in a company that produces paper (BKC). The CEO holds a short speech to describe the company to you and other employees. Here is what the CEO says:

      “At BKC, we make a pledge that our customers will receive high-quality printing and binding. Let me explain our vision for BKC. This vision describes our long-term and ideal goals for BKC–it is the direction we will be heading for many years. If we accomplish this, we will gain market share.*

      From the first day of business, we have prided ourselves on the fact that BKC strives to give the customer a quality product. For example, one time we had completed an entire order when the customer called and told us that they had rewritten a set of pages. They needed us to insert the new pages right away. We were under a lot of pressure with other orders, so we explained to employees that if we inserted the new pages, then we would gain business.**

      Overall, here is the vision for BKC: “BKC Printing Company is in the business of providing both national and international binding and printing services. We pledge that every binding and printing job will be perfect. If it is perfect, we will gain customers.***”

  2. b.

    Loss condition (exchange bolded phrases for):

    • * “If we don’t accomplish this, we will lose market share.”

    • ** “if we didn’t insert the new pages, then we would lose business.”

    • *** “If it is not perfect, we will lose customers.”

  1. 2.

    Transactional leadership condition

    1. a.

      Gain condition (manipulations bolded for emphasis):

      You hold a position in a company that produces paper (BKC). The CEO holds a short speech to describe the company to you and other employees. Here is what the CEO says:

      “At BKC, we expect employees to be ready to go, and flexible, as far as your working hours are concerned. Of course, we will pay for any overtime you may need to work.

      If there are any questions or problems, ask me directly and I will take care of them. I am going to check regularly whether we are meeting our quality standards. I have worked out a plan of what needs to be done, what the deadlines are, and who is responsible for what. If we accomplish this, we will gain market share.*

      Now, before we start, let me give you some technical background that will be important for the project. About 80 % of our jobs are printed on high-grade, machine coated paper while the remainder are printed on high-grade, long-grain paper that is similar to what most people use in copy machines. If we do this, we will gain business.** It is then ready to be cut to size and finished for shipment. The rolls are trimmed, sorted, counted, and packaged. The paper is then transported to the customer. If it is perfect, we will gain customers.***”

    2. b.

      Loss condition (exchange bolded phrases for):

      • * If we don’t accomplish this, we will lose market share.

      • ** If we didn’t do this, we would lose business.

      • *** If it is not perfect, we will lose customers.

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Graham, K.A., Ziegert, J.C. & Capitano, J. The Effect of Leadership Style, Framing, and Promotion Regulatory Focus on Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior. J Bus Ethics 126, 423–436 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1952-3

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