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Moral Burden of Bottom-Line Pursuits: How and When Perceptions of Top Management Bottom-Line Mentality Inhibit Supervisors’ Ethical Leadership Practices

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A Correction to this article was published on 13 July 2020

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Abstract

Drawing on theoretical work on humans’ adaptive capacity, we propose that supervisors’ perception of top management’s high bottom-line mentality (BLM) has a dysfunctional effect on their ethical leadership practices. Specifically, we suggest that these perceptions hinder supervisors’ empathy, which eventuates in less ethical leadership practices. We also investigate, in a first-stage moderated mediation model, how supervisors high in trait mindfulness are resistant to the ill effects of perceptions of top management’s high BLM. Supervisors high (versus low) in this trait are less likely to respond to perceptions of top management’s high BLM with reduced empathy that then hinders ethical leadership. Results from a multi-wave, multi-source sample of working adults from the Chinese high technology industry provide general support for our theoretical model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, 94 Rockafeller Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Rebecca L. Greenbaum

  2. United Arab Emirates University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Mayowa Babalola

  3. Baylor University, Waco, USA

    Matthew J. Quade

  4. Shandong University at Weihai, Weihai, China

    Liang Guo

  5. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, USA

    Yun Chung Kim

Authors
  1. Rebecca L. Greenbaum
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  2. Mayowa Babalola
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  3. Matthew J. Quade
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  4. Liang Guo
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  5. Yun Chung Kim
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Correspondence to Rebecca L. Greenbaum.

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Greenbaum, R.L., Babalola, M., Quade, M.J. et al. Moral Burden of Bottom-Line Pursuits: How and When Perceptions of Top Management Bottom-Line Mentality Inhibit Supervisors’ Ethical Leadership Practices. J Bus Ethics 174, 109–123 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04546-w

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