Abstract
Since time immemorial, the phenomenon of leadership and its understanding has attracted the attention of the business world because of its important role in human groups. Nevertheless, for years efforts to understand this concept have only been centred on people in leadership roles, thus overlooking an important aspect in its understanding: the necessary moral dimension which is implicit in the relationship between leader and follower. As an illustrative example of the importance of considering good morality in leadership, an empirical study is conducted in which a good performance of the “leader–follower” relationship is reflected when individuals perceive ethical leadership in higher hierarchical managerial levels. To be precise, findings of this study demonstrate that follower job response is improved through an ethics trickle-down partial effect from the Top Manager to the immediate supervisor, and also reveal both key aspects and managerial level on which the practice of ethical leadership should rest upon to have a stronger effect on the follower positive job response. Practical implications of these findings and directions for future research are finally presented.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- SDB:
-
Social desirability bias
- SEL:
-
Supervisor’s ethical leadership
- TMEL:
-
Top Manager’s ethical leadership
References
Allen, N.J. and J.P. Meyer: 1990, ‘The Measurement and Antecedents of Affective, Continuance and Normative Commitment to the Organization’, Journal of Occupational Psychology 63 (1), 1-18.
Antioco, M., Moenaert, R.K., Lindgreen, A. and M.G.M. Wetzels: 2008, ‘Organizational Antecedents to and Consequences of Service Business Orientations in Manufacturing Companies’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 36, 337-358.
Aristotle: 2009, The Nichomachean Ethics (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK).
Armstrong, J.S. and T.S. Overton: 1977, ‘Estimating Non Response Bias in Mail Surveys’, Journal of Marketing Research 14 (3), 396-403
Baker, T.L., Hunt, G.H. and M.C. Andrews: 2006, ‘Promoting Ethical Behaviour and Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: The Influence of Corporate Ethical Values’, Journal of Business Research 59, 849-857.
Barclay, D., C. Higgins, and R. Thompson: 1995, ‘The Partial Least Squares (PLS) Approach to Causal Modelling: Personal Computer Adoption and Use as an Illustration’, Technology Studies, Special Issue on Research Methodology 2 (2), 285-309.
Barnett, T. and E. Schubert: 2002, ‘Perceptions of the Ethical Work Climate and Covenantal Relationships’, Journal of Business Ethics 36, 279-290.
Barney, J.B.: 2005, ‘Should Strategic Management Research Engage Public Policy Debates?’, Academy of Management Journal 48, 945-948.
Bass, B.M.: 1985, Leadership and Performance: Beyond Expectations (The Free Press, Collier Macmillan Publishers, London).
Bass, B. M.: 1990, Bass & Stodgill’s Handbook of Leadership, 3rd edition (The Free Press, New York).
Bass, B.M. and P. Steidlmeier: 1999, ‘Ethics, Character and Authentic Transformational Leadership Behaviour’, Leadership Quarterly 10 (2), 181-217.
Beekun, R.I., Hamdy, R. Westerman, J.W. and H.R. HassabElnaby: 2008, ‘An Exploration of Ethical Decision-Making Processes in the United States and Egypt’, Journal of Business Ethics 82, 587-605.
Blake, R. R. and J.S. Mouton: 1964, The Managerial Grid (Guef Publishing, Houston).
Brandes, P., Dharwadkar, R. and K. Wheatley: 2004, ‘Social Exchanges Within Organizations and Work Outcomes: The Importance of Local and Global Relationships’, Group and Organization Management 29, 117-134.
Brown, M. and L.K. Treviño: 2006, ‘Ethical Leadership: A Review and Future Directions’, The Leadership Quarterly 17, 595-616.
Brown, M.E., L.K. Treviño and D.A. Harrison: 2005, ‘Ethical leadership: A Social Learning Perspective for Construct Development and Testing’, Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision processes 97 (2), 117-134.
Burke, R.J., E.S.W. Ng and L. Filksenbaum: 2009, ‘Virtues, Work Satisfactions and Psychological Wellbeing among Nurses’, International Journal of Workplace Health Management 2 (3), 202-219.
Burns, J. M.: 1978, Leadership (Harper & Row, New York).
Cardona, P.: 2000, ‘El Liderazgo Relacional’, in D. Mele (ed.), Raíces Éticas del Liderazgo, (Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona).
Cardona, P., B.S. Lawrence and P.M. Bentler: 2004, ‘The Influence of Social and Work Exchange Relationships on Organizational Citizenship Behaviour’, Group & Organization Management 29 (2): 219-247.
Carmines, E. G. and R. A. Zéller: 1979, ‘Reliability and Validity Assessment’, in Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences (Sage Publications, Beverly Hills), pp. 7–17.
Chiaburu, D.S. and A.S. Lim: 2008, ‘Manager Trustworthiness or Interactional Justice? Predicting Organizational Citizenship Behaviours’, Journal of Business Ethics 83, 453-467.
Chin, W. W.: 1998a, ‘Issues and Opinion on Structural Equation Modelling’, MIS Quarterly 22 (1), 7-14.
Chin, W. W.: 1998b, ‘The Partial Least Squares Approach to Structural Equation Modelling’, in G.A. Marcoulides (ed.), Modern Methods for Business Research (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New York), pp. 295-336.
Chin, W.W: 2003, PLS-Graph, Version 3.00 (Build 1130), University of Houston. Texas, USA.
Chin, W.: 2010, ‘How to Write up and Report PLS Analyses’, in V. E. Vinzi, W. Chin, J. Hensler, and H. Wold (eds.), Handbook of Partial Least Squares (Springer, Heidelberg), pp. 655–690.
Chin, W.W., B.L. Marcolin and P.R. Newsted: 2003, ‘A Partial Least Squares Latent Variable Modelling Approach for Measuring Interaction Effects: Results from a Monte Carlo Simulation Study and an Electronic Mail Emotion/Adoption Study’, Information Systems Research 14 (2), 189-217.
Ciulla, J.B.: 1995, ‘Leadership Ethics: Mapping the territory’, Business Ethics Quarterly 5 (1), 5-28.
Ciulla, J.B.: 2004, ‘Ethics and Leadership Effectiveness’, in J. Antonakis, A.T. Cianciolo and R.J. Sternberg (eds.), The Nature of Leadership (Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California)
Cohen, J.: 1988, Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition (Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ).
Cording, M., Christman, P. and D. King: 2008, ‘Reducing Causal Ambiguity in Acquisition Integration: Intermediate Goals as Mediators of Integration Decisions and Acquisition Performance’, Academy of Management Journal 51 (4), 744–767.
Cotton, J.L. and J.M. Tuttle: 1986, ‘Employee Turnover: A Meta-Analysis and Review with Implications for Research’, Academy of Management Review 11 (1), 55-70.
Davis, A. and H. Rothstein: 2006, ‘The Effects of the Perceived Behavioral Integrity of Managers on Employee Attitudes: A Meta-Analysis’, Journal of Business Ethics 67 (4), 407–419.
Deshpande, S. P. Joseph, J. and R. Prasad: 2006, ‘Factors Impacting Ethical Behavior in Hospitals’, Journal of Business Ethics 69, 207-216.
Drucker, P.: 1986, The Practice of Management (Harper Collins Publishers, New York).
Ehrhart, M.G.: 2004, ‘Leadership and Procedural Justice Climate as Antecedents of Unit-Level Organizational Citizenship Behaviour’, Personnel Psychology 57 (1): 61-95.
Falk, R.F. and N.B. Miller: 1992, A Primer for Soft Modelling (The University of Akron Press, Akron, Ohio).
Falkenberg, L. and I. Herremans, 1995: ‘Ethical Behaviours in Organisations: Directed by the Formal or Informal System’, Journal of Business Ethics 14 (2), 133–143.
Fiedler, F. E.: 1967, A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness (McGraw Hill, New York)
Fornell, C. 1982, ‘A Second Generation of Multivariate Analysis: An Overview’, in C. Fornell (ed.), A Second Generation of Multivariate Analysis (Praeger Publishers, New York), pp. 1-21.
Fornell, C. and D.F. Larcker: 1981, ‘Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error’, Journal of Marketing Research 18 (1), 39-50.
Garcia-Echevarria, S.: 1993, ‘La Ética de las Instituciones Económicas y Empresariales: La Ética en la Dirección de los Recursos Humanos en la Empresa’, in Conferencias y trabajos de investigación del IDOE 200, Universidad de Alcalá, http://dspace.uah.es/jspui/handle/10017/3415. Accessed June 21, 2010.
Geisser, S.: 1975, ‘The Predictive Sample Reuse Method with Applications’, Journal of the American Statistical Association 70, 320–328.
Gini, A.: 1997, ‘Moral Leadership and Business Ethics’, The Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 4 (4), 64-81.
Grant, R.M.: 1991, ‘The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation’, California Management Review 33 (3), 114-135.
Greenleaf, R.K.: 1977, Servant Leadership (Paulist Press, New York)
Greenleaf, R.K: 1979, Seeker and Servant (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco)
Griffeth, R.W., Hom, P.W. and S. Gaertner: 2000, ‘A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents and Correlates of Employee Turnover: Update, Moderator Tests and Research Implications for the Next Millennium’, Journal of Management 26 (3), 463-488.
Guillen, M.: 2006, Ética en las Organizaciones. Construyendo Confianza (Prentice Hall, Madrid).
Guillen, M. and T. Gonzalez: 2001, ‘The Ethical Dimension of Managerial Leadership Two Illustrative Case Studies in TQM’, Journal of Business Ethics 34, 175-189.
Haenlein, M., and A.M. Kaplan: 2004, ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Partial Least Squares Analysis’, Understanding Statistics 3 (4), 283–297.
Havard, A.: 2007, Virtuous Leadership-An Agenda for Personal Excellence (Scepter Publishers, New York)
Hersey, P. and K. H. Blanchard: 1988, Management of Organizational Behaviour (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, Nueva Jersey).
James, L.R., Mulaik, S.A. and J.M. Brett: 2006, ‘A Tale of Two Methods’, Organizational research methods 9 (2), 233–244.
Katz, D., and R.L. Kahn: 1966, The Social Psychology of Organizations (Wiley, New York).
Koh, H.Ch and E.H.Y. Boo: 2001, ‘The Link Between Organizational Ethics and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Managers in Singapore’, Journal of Business Ethics 29 (4), 309-324.
Konovsky, M.A. and R. Cropanzano: 1991, ‘The Perceived Fairness of Employee Drug Testing as a Predictor of Employee Attitudes and Job Performance’, Journal of Applied Psychology 76 (5), 698-707.
Koontz, H. and H. Weichrich: 1994, Administración: Una Perspectiva Global, 10th edition (McGraw Hill, México).
Kouzes, J.M. and B.Z. Posner: 2002, ‘Las Lecciones del Pasado y del Futuro’, in W. Bennis, G.M. Spreitzer and T.G. Cummings (eds.), El futuro del liderazgo (Ediciones Deusto, Planeta Agostini Profesional y Formación, Bilbao).
LePine, J.A. and D.E. Johnson 2002, ‘The Nature and Dimensionality of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis’, Journal of Applied Psychology 87 (1), 52-65.
Liden, R.C., S.J. Wayne, H. Zhao and D. Henderson: 2008, ‘Servant Leadership: Development of a Multidimensional Measure and Multi-Level Assessment’, The Leadership Quarterly 19 (2), 161-177.
Mathieu, J.E. and D.M. Zajac: 1990, ‘A Review and Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents, Correlates and Consequences of Organizational Commitment’, Psychological Bulletin 108 (2), 171-194.
Mayer, D., Kuenzi, M., Greenbaum, R., Bardes, M. and R. Salvador: 2009, ‘How Low Does Ethical Leadership Flow? Test of a Trickle-down Model’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 108 (1), 1-13.
Mele, D.: 2000, ‘Para Dirigir, Servir al Desarrollo Humano. Una Aproximación al Liderazgo desde la Sabiduría Cristiana’, in D. Mele (ed.), Raíces Éticas del Liderazgo (Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona).
Merton, R.K.: 1957, ‘The Role Set: Problems in Sociological Theory’, British Journal of Sociology 8 (2), 106-120.
Moideenkutty, U., G. Blau, R. Kumar and A. Nalakath: 2001, ‘Perceived Organizational Support as a Mediator of the Relationship of Perceived Situational Factors to Affective Organizational Commitment’, Applied Psychology: An International Review 50 (4), 615-634.
Mulki, J.P, Jaramillo, J.F. and W.B. Locander: 2008, ‘Effect of Ethical Climate on Turnover Intention: Linking Attitudinal and Stress Theory’, Journal of Business Ethics 78, 559-574
Neubert, M.J., Carlson, D.S., Kacmar, K.M., Roberts, J.A. and L.B. Chonko: 2009, ‘The Virtuous Influence of Ethical Leadership Behavior: Evidence from the Field’, Journal of Business Ethics 90,157-170.
Nunnally, J.: 1978, Psychometric Theory, 2nd edition (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Offerman, L.R.: 2004, ‘Leader Categorization Theory’, in G.R Goethal, J.S. Sorensen and J.M. Burns (eds.), Encyclopedia of Leadership 3 (Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California), pp. 823-832.
Perez-Lopez, J. A.: 1998, Liderazgo y Ética en la Dirección de Empresas (Ediciones Deusto, Bilbao).
Peteraf, M.A.: 1993, ‘The Cornerstone of the Competitive Advantage: A Resource-Based View’, Strategic Management Journal 14 (3), 179-191.
Peterson, D.K.: 2003, ‘The Relationship between Ethical Pressure, Relativistic Moral Beliefs and Organizational Commitment’, Journal of Managerial Psychology 18 (6), 557-572.
Peterson, D.K.: 2004, ‘Perceived Leader Integrity and Ethical Intentions of Subordinates’, Leadership and Organization Development Journal 25 (1/2), 7-23.
Pettijohn, Ch., Pettijohn, L and A.J. Taylor: 2008, ‘Salesperson Perceptions of Ethical Behaviours: Their Influence on Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions’, Journal of Business Ethics 78, 547-557.
Podsakoff, P.M., S.B. MacKenzie, J.Y. Lee and N.P. Podsakoff: 2003, ‘Common Method Biases in Behavioral Research: A Critical Review of the Literature and Recommended Remedies’, Journal of Applied Psychology 88 (5), 879-903.
Randall, D.M. and M. Fernandes: 1991, ‘The Social Desirability Response Bias in Ethics Research’, Journal of Business Ethics 10, 805-817.
Rego, A., Ribeiro, N. and M.P. Cunha: 2010, ‘Perceptions of Organizational Virtuousness and Happiness as Predictors of Organizational Citizenship Behaviours’, Journal of Business Ethics 93, 215-235.
Roman, S. and J.L. Munuera: 2005, ‘Determinants and Consequences of Ethical Behaviour: An Empirical Study of Salespeople’, European Journal of Marketing 39 (5/6), 473 - 495
Rumelt, R.P.: 1991, ‘How Much does Industry Matter?’, Strategic Management Journal 12 (3), 167-185.
Ryan, J.J.: 2001, ‘Moral Reasoning as a Determinant of Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: a Study in the Public Accounting Profession’, Journal of Business Ethics 33, 233-244.
Schein, E. H.: 1992, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2nd edition (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco).
Schminke, M., A. Ambrose and D. Neubaum: 2005, ‘The Effect of Leader Moral Development on Ethical Climate and Employee Attitudes’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 97 (2), 135–151.
Schroeder, D.: 2002, ‘Ethics from the Top: Top Management and Ethical Business’, Business Ethics: A European Review 11 (3), 260-267.
Scott, S.G. and Bruce, R.A. 1994: ‘Determinants of Innovative Behavior: a Path Model of Individual Innovation in the Workplace’, Academy of Management Journal 37 (3), 580-607.
Seashore, S.E., E.E. Lawler III, P.H. Mirvis and Cammann, C.: 1982, Observing and Measuring Organizational Change: A Guide to Field Practice (Wiley, New York).
Sendjaya, S.: 2005, ‘Morality and Leadership: Examining the Ethics of Transformational Leadership’, Journal of Academic Ethics 3 (1), 75-86.
Shafer, W. E.: 2002, ‘Ethical Pressure, Organizational-Professional Conflict and Related Work Outcomes among Management Accountants’, Journal of Business Ethics 38, 263-275.
Sharma, D., Borna, S. and J.M. Stearns: 2009, ‘An Investigation of the Effects of Corporate Ethical Values on Employee Commitment and Performance: Examining the Moderating Role of Perceived Fairness’, Journal of Business Ethics 89, 251-260.
Sims, R.R. and J. Brinkmann: 2002, ‘Leaders as Moral Role Models: The Case of John Gutfreund at Salomon Brothers’, Journal of Business Ethics 35 (4), 327-339.
Stephens, R.D., D.D. Dawley and D.B. Stephens: 2004, ‘Commitment on the Board: A Model of Volunteer Directors’ Levels of Organizational Commitment and Self-Reported Performance’, Journal of Managerial Issues 26 (4), 483-504.
Stodgill, R. M.: 1948, ‘Personal Factors Associated with Leadership: A Survey of the Literature’, Journal of Psychology 25 (1), 35-71.
Stone, M.: 1974, ‘Cross-Validatory Choice and Assessment of Statistical Predictions’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 36, 111–147.
Strahan, R. and K. Gerbasi: 1972, ‘Short, Homogeneous Versions of Malowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale’, Journal of Clinical Psychology 28, 191-193.
Tenenhaus, M., Vinzi, V.E., Y-M. Chatelin and C. Lauro (2005). PLS Path Modeling. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis 48 (1), 159–205.
Tippins, M. J. and R. S. Sohi: 2003, `IT Competency and Firm Performance: Is Organizational Learning a Missing Link?', Strategic Management Journal 24(8), 745–761
Toor, S-R. and G. Ofori: 2009, ‘Ethical Leadership: Examining the Relationships with Full Range Leadership Model, Employee Outcomes and Organizational Culture’, Journal of Business Ethics 90, 533-547.
Treviño, L.K., K.D. Butterfield, and D.L. McCabe: 1998, ‘The Ethical Context in Organizations: Influences on Employee Attitudes and Behaviours’, Business Ethics Quarterly 8 (3), 447-476.
Treviño, L. K., L. P. Hartman and M. Brown: 2000, ‘Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership’, California Management Review 42 (4), 128-142.
Treviño, L.K., and G. Weaver, 2001: ‘Organizational Justice and Ethics Program “Follow Through: Influences on Employees Harmful and Helpful Behaviour’, Business Ethics Quarterly 11 (4), 651-671.
Tsai, M-T and Ch-Ch. Huang: 2008, ‘The Relationship Among Ethical Climate Types, Facets of Job Satisfaction and the Three Components of Organizational Commitment: a Study of Nurses in Taiwan’, Journal of Business Ethics 80, 565-581.
Valentine, S. and T. Barnett: 2002, ‘Ethics Codes and Sales Professionals’ Perceptions of their Organizations’ Ethical Values’, Journal of Business Ethics 40, pp. 191-200.
Valentine, S. and G. Fleischman: 2004, ‘Ethics Training and Businesspersons’ Perceptions of Organizational Ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics 52, 381-390.
Valentine, S., Godkin, L. and M. Lucero: 2002, ‘Ethical Context, Organizational Commitment and Person-Organization Fit’, Journal of Business Ethics 41, pp. 349-360.
Valentine, S., M.M. Greller and S. Richtermeyer: 2006, ‘Employee Job Response as a Function of Ethical Context and Perceived Organization Support’, Journal of Business Research 59 (5), 582-588.
Viswesvaran, Ch., Deshpande S.P. and J. Joseph: 1998, ‘Job satisfaction as a Function of Top Management Support for Ethical Behaviour: A Study of Indian Managers’, Journal of Business Ethics 17, 365-371.
Vitell, S. J. and D.L. Davis: 1990, ‘The Relationship between Ethics and Job Satisfaction: an Empirical Investigation’, Journal of Business Ethics 9 (6), 489-494.
Vitell, S.J., Ramos, E. and C.M. Nishihara: 2010, ‘The Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility in Organizational Success: a Spanish Perspective’, Journal of Business Ethics 91, 467-483.
Weaver, G.R., Treviño, L.K. and B. Agle: 2005, ‘Somebody I look up to: Ethical Role Models in Organizations’, Organizational Dynamics 34, 313-330.
Werts, C.E., R.L. Linn and K.G. Joreskog: 1974, ‘Interclass Reliability Estimates: Testing Structural Assumptions’, Educational and Psychological Measurement 34 (1), 25-33.
Whetstone, J.T.: 2002, ‘Personalism and Moral Leadership: the Servant Leader with a Transforming Vision’, Business Ethics: a European Review 11 (4), 385-392.
Wold, H.: 1979, Model Construction and Evaluation when Theoretical Knowledge is Scarce: An Example of the Use of Partial Least Squares (Cahiers du Département D économétrie, Faculté des Sciences économiques et Sociales. Université de Genève, Genève).
Wright, T. A. and J. C. Quick: 2009, ‘The Emerging Positive Agenda in Organizations: Greater than a Trickle, but not yet a Deluge’, Journal of Organizational Behavior 30 (2), 147–159.
Zerbe, W. J. and D. Paulhus: 1987, ‘Socially Desirable Responding in Organizational Behavior: A Reconception’, Academy of Management Review 12, 250–264.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ruiz, P., Ruiz, C. & Martínez, R. Improving the “Leader–Follower” Relationship: Top Manager or Supervisor? The Ethical Leadership Trickle-Down Effect on Follower Job Response. J Bus Ethics 99, 587–608 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0670-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0670-3