Unethical leadership, moral compensation, and ethical followership
Evidence from a survey experiment with Chilean public servants
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6364898 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christian Schuster (0000-0002-0126-2681, School of Public Policy University College London London UK, corresponding author), Javier Fuenzalida (0009-0002-6126-8695, Blavatnik School of Government University of Oxford Oxford UK), Kim Sass Mikkelsen (0000-0002-5657-245X, Department of Social Science and Business Roskilde University Roskilde Denmark), Jan‐hinrik Meyer‐sahling (0000-0001-8981-8201, School of Politics and International Relations University of Nottingham Nottingham UK) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 84 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 848-869 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Public Administration Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-3352 • E-ISSN: 1540-6210 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/puar.13815 |
| OpenAlex | W4394717530 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 50 |
Numerous studies associate ethical leadership with ethical behavior in the public sector. By contrast, the effects of unethical leadership in the public sector have largely not been explored. Yet, unethical leadership need not beget unethical followership. Instead, we theorize that some bureaucrats may perceive unethical leadership as a moral threat and respond to it with moral compensation and greater ethical behavior. We provide evidence for our theorized effect through a vignette experiment with 19,852 bureaucrats in Chile. Bureaucrats exposed in the vignette to unethical role modeling by their superior or peers react with greater ethical awareness and ethical intent. This effect is concentrated among bureaucrats recruited through merit‐based, public service criteria rather than connections, and thus bureaucrats who more likely feel morally threatened by unethical leadership. This suggests that unethical leadership in the public sector may differ in its consequences from the mere absence of ethical leadership
Compensation (psychology · Followership · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Ethics in Business and Education · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology
Shadows of Integrity in Public Administration
Don't Cry for Me Sri Lanka
Corruption in public service
Corrupção no serviço público
The Organizational Dynamics of Bureaucratic Resistance to Undemocratic Pressures
Impact of low‐performance signals on employee fraud in public organizations
Entrepreneurial Leadership, Well‐Being, and Inclusion in Public Sector Organizations
Public service motivation and ethical behavior
Do Role Models Matter? An Investigation of Role Modeling as an Antecedent of Perceived Ethical Leadership
Emotional Conservatism
Washing Away Your Sins
Does Moral Identity Effectively Predict Moral Behavior?
How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model
The Explanatory and Predictive Scope of Self-Efficacy Theory
Ethical leadership
Economy and Society
What are the practices of unethical leaders? Exploring how teachers experience the “dark side” of administrative leadership
Who are leading? A survey of organizational context explaining leadership behaviour of managers and non-managerial employees in public organizations
Ethical Leadership
Ethical Followership
How the Influence of Unethical Leaders on Followers Is Affected by Their Implicit Followership Theories
Public Service Motivation and Decisions to Report Wrongdoing in U.S. Federal Agencies
What Causes Unethical Behavior? A Meta‐Analysis to Set an Agenda for Public Administration Research
Does a Public Service Ethic Encourage Ethical Behaviour? Public Service Motivation, Ethical Leadership and the Willingness to Report Ethical Problems
Merit recruitment, tenure protections and public service motivation
Distributed leadership and performance‐related employee outcomes in public sector organizations
Legal reform need not come first
Patchwork Leviathan
Careers, Connections, and Corruption Risks
Does Ethical Leadership Matter in Government? Effects on Organizational Commitment, Absenteeism, and Willingness to Report Ethical Problems
Why Public Employees Rebel
What Determines Ethical Behavior in Public Organizations
The Merit of Meritocratization
Behavioral Dishonesty in the Public Sector
(Mis)Led by an Outsider
Whistle Blowers in the Federal Civil Service
The godfather provides
Varieties of connections, varieties of corruption
Merit, Tenure, and Bureaucratic Behavior
The self-importance of moral identity
Guilty by association
Agency Retaliation Against Whistle-Blowers
We Need More Research on Unethical Leadership Behavior in Public Organizations
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |