Leading by example: Testing a moderated mediation model of ethical leadership,value congruence,and followers' openness to ethical influence

In this study, we investigate a key question of ethical leadership theory: Are ethical leaders able to gain followers' openness to their ethical influence? When describing ethical leadership, we distinguish between leaders’ moral person behavior (i.e., behaviors that are normatively appropriate) and moral management (i.e., using position power to reinforce ethical standards). We then draw on mechanisms of social learning and social exchange and test a moderated mediation model. It is predicted that the effect of leaders' moral person behavior on followers’ openness to ethical influence is mediated by leader‐follower ethical value congruence. Moreover, we examine whether moral management amplifies the effects of moral person behavior. For hypothesis testing, existing measures from the literature are integrated to operationalize four underlying normative reference points of leaders' moral person behavior: humane, justice, responsibility/sustainability, and moderation orientation. After establishing the psychometric properties of this integrative measure, the main hypotheses are tested in two separate studies. While results showed a positive effect of leaders' moral person behavior on followers' openness to ethical influence through ethical value congruence, the moderating effect of moral management was, contrary to our expectation, negative. With this, our study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms of ethical leadership.     

When organizations are too good: Applying Aristotle's doctrine of the mean to the corporate ethical virtues model

Aristotle's doctrine of the mean states that a virtue is the mean state between two vices: a deficient and an excessive one. The Corporate Ethical Virtues (CEV) Model defines the mean and the corresponding deficient vice for each of its seven virtues. This paper defines for each of these virtues the corresponding excessive vice and explores why organizations characterized by these excessive vices increase the likelihood that their employees will behave unethically. The excessive vices are patronization, pompousness, lavishness, zealotry, overexposure, talkativeness, and oppressiveness.     

Perceived moral intensity,ethical perception,and ethical intention of American and Malaysian managers: a comparative study

In this study, differences in perceived moral intensity, ethical perception, and ethical intention of managers from the United States and Malaysia are investigated. Models are proposed with perceived moral intensity, ethical perception, and ethical intention as dependent variables, the country of residence of the managers as the independent variable, and gender and age of the managers as covariates. By using scenarios involving ethical situations, it is found that American managers perceive higher levels of moral intensity than Malaysian managers on the components that relate to the extent of harm done to the victim. However, there are no significant differences between the two groups on those components that relate to social pressure. Also, the ethical perception and ethical intention of American managers are higher than those of Malaysian managers. An explanation for the direction of the differences is offered based on the divergence of the United States and Malaysia with respect to the societal moral climate, organizational culture, cultural factors, and cognitive moral development. Implications and suggestions for future research are also offered.     

Common good leadership in business management: an ethical model from the Indian tradition

While dominant management thinking is steered by profit maximisation, this paper proposes that sustained organisational growth can best be stimulated by attention to the common good and the capacity of corporate leaders to create commitment to the common good. The leadership thinking of Kautilya and Ashoka embodies this principle. Both offer a common good approach, emphasising the leader's moral and legal responsibility for people's welfare, the robust interaction between the business community and the state, and the importance of moral training of leaders in identifying and promoting the common good. We argue that the complex process of re‐orientating corporate priorities towards the common good requires alertness and concerted effort if both business and society are to truly benefit. As Ashoka said: ‘A good deed is a difficult thing’.     

Hear nothing,do nothing: The role of word of mouth in the decision-making of older consumers

Abstract

In some product categories, older consumers (aged 65+) tend to be more brand loyal, have smaller consideration sets and defer purchase more than younger consumers. This conservative behaviour may arise, in part, because older people are more socially isolated and thus receive less social influence relating to product options. In this multi-study research, the volume of word of mouth (WOM) is used as an indicator of social influence. The WOM received by men and women falls substantially beyond age 65, indicating that a deficit in advice may be part of the explanation for conservative decision-making. To test this proposition, the duration of customer tenure of the current brand (how long the respondent has been a customer) is used as a measure of purchase deferral and, as predicted, tenure is longer when less WOM is received. This evidence indicates that some older consumers experience a degree of social isolation, which affects their decision-making. In marketing and social policy, there is a need to promote procedures, technologies and institutions that help older people to connect with others.     

Purchasing professionals in state government: How ethical are they?

A survey of purchasing professionals in the Arizona state government was conducted to determine how familiar the buyers were with the Arizona laws regarding ethical conduct, what ethical standards they followed in purchasing, and what types of ethical dilemmas they faced in their work. The findings indicate that no serious ethical problems exist among the respondents. Employees in the centralized purchasing office seemed to act somewhat more ethically than buyers in peripheral offices, however. Laura B. Forker is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Purchasing, Transportation, and Operations at Arizona State University. She has published in the Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management and Comparative Economic Studies.     

When barriers are irrelevant or undefended: Non-bank banks cash in

Some of the generic barriers to market entry had no relevance to the banking industry. Some other barriers were left undefended. By seeing how non-banks invaded the territory of traditional financial institutions, management in other industries can learn some ways to keep the enemy outside the walls.     

Plato's Statesman and the nature of business leadership: An analysis from an ethical point of view

Plato's paradigm for statesmanship in the Statesman, the “weaving” of temperate and courageous properties, provides the contemporary business ethics theorist with an aid for determining certain problems and solutions with regard to business leadership. The history of American business values manifests the destructive, and especially unethical, effects of deviating from this paradigm by over-emphasizing one or the other of the above types of qualities. However, with the aid of Plato's model for leadership in the Statesman and suggestions from Peters and Waterman's In Search of Excellence, progress can be made towards constructing an adequate model for corporate leadership, especially from an ethical standpoint.     

Blissful Insularity: When Brands are Judged in Isolation from Competitors

The need to evaluate a single brand in isolation, without explicit comparisons to competitors, is ubiquitous in consumer judgment because competitors are often not readily apparent. Although consumers routinely make such judgments, in this paper we show that when a brand is judged in isolation, the judgment is often overly favorable. Moreover, we explore when and why this tendency occurs. Data from 259 participants across 3 experiments that considered very different product categories, and that were conducted with student and adult consumer samples, converge to show that; (1) isolated brand evaluations on average are characterized by a favorableness bias, (2) this bias results from consumers' selective processing of information about the focal brand, (3) favorableness bias is attenuated if context leads consumers to consider alternatives to a salient focal brand, and (4) the isolated brand judgments of experts are much better calibrated than are those of novices.     

Governing partnerships for development in post-conflict settings: Evidence from a longitudinal case study in Colombia

Drawing on a longitudinal case study of a 10-year cross-sector partnership for development in Colombia, this paper makes three contributions to current discussions on new collaborative governance approaches in which business, non-governmental organizations and development agencies jointly address development challenges. First, our study explores how partnerships can be successful in achieving longer term development while being designed as short-term governance arrangements. Second, we shed light on how power asymmetries can shape partnership governance. Many studies have highlighted the negative aspects of donor involvement in cross-sector partnerships. We identify, however, that an interplay of formal and informal governance in partnerships can provide a positive enabling framework for partner relationships to grow and mature. Third, the case highlights that the studied partnership employed governance mechanisms that facilitate local ownership and empower small-scale farmers, which effected (longer term) value chain relationships. In this regard, our case study helps to understand governance processes and conditions under which transformative local partnerships can emerge and sustain in post-conflict settings. The paper adds observations on the collaborative governance content that is required for a more integrative research approach to corporate contributions to development.     

The impact of a shift in organizational role on ethical perceptions: A comparative study

This study investigates ethical decision-making by considering the differences in ethical judgments between undergraduate business and MBA students on selected ethical issues facing employees and managers of today's businesses. The study further investigates differences in ethical judgments between undergraduates and MBAs in terms of a perceived position as an employee or as a manager. The findings indicate that undergraduate students tend to be more ethical than MBA students and that both groups tend to be more ethical when they perceive themselves as managers rather than employees. The authors discuss the implications for both business practitioners and educators.Shohreh A. Kaynama is Associate Professor of Marketing in the School of Business and Economics at Towson State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned a Ph.D. in Marketing and the Decision Sciences. Dr. Kaynama has published extensively in numerous National and International proceedings. Her area of research is strategic marketing, consumer behavior, applications of computers and decision sciences in marketing and global marketing. Louise W. Smith is Professor of Marketing in the School of Business and Economics at Towson State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Smith's main professional interest is consumer behavior. Dr. Smith's articles have appeared in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Journal of Marketing Education, Journal of Services Marketing, and Journal of Consumer Marketing among others. Algin B. King is Professor of Marketing in the School of Business and Economics at Towson State University in Baltimore, Maryland. He has served on the Faculties of seven universities, publishing numerous articles in National Professional Meetings Proceedings and scholarly journals including Journal of Euro-Marketing, Atlantic Economic Journal. In addition he has served as a business consultant to numerous business firms.     

Charismatic leadership in IT firms in Taiwan: an empirical study

This study aims to look at charismatic leadership and management innovation in a sample of Information Technology firms in Taiwan. The literature on such leadership was examined because it reveals how leaders serve as key agents who stimulate others with their vision of the potential of an innovation. Theoretically, we suggest that charismatic leadership behaviour can help management innovation but only when certain conditions are met. Empirically, we find that charismatic leaders must create a higher level of trust in their subordinates at all levels of the organizational hierarchy, based on common perceptions of the firm as a trustworthy entity.     

When a celebrity endorser is disgraced: A twenty-five-year event study

This paper investigates how the announcement of negative information about a celebrity endorser impacts firm value, as measured by abnormal stock returns. The unique data sample consists of 93 celebrity disgraces that occurred between 1986 and 2011, affecting firms listed on US stock exchanges. Some evidence is documented of negative and statistically significant abnormal returns around these events. Returns are lower when the disgrace attracts much media attention, or when the celebrity itself is prominent. No significant returns are observed when a firm decides to terminate its endorsement contract with the disgraced celebrity. Endorsement contracts for “edgy” products, for which consumers may actually be attracted by negative publicity, are less likely to be terminated.     

Bank ethics: An exploratory study of ethical behaviors and perceptions in small,local banks

This article addresses five research questions: What specific behaviors are described in the literature as ethical or unethical? What percentage of business people are believed to be guilty of unethical behavior? What specific unethical behaviors have been observed by bank employees? How serious are the behaviors? Are experiences and attitudes affected by demographics? Conclusions suggest: There are seventeen categories of behavior, and that they are heavily skewed toward internal behaviors. Younger employees have a higher level of ethical consciousness than older employees. The longer one works for a company, the more one may look to job security as a priority; this can lead to rationalizing or overlooking apparently unethical behaviors. More emphasis is needed on internal behaviors with particular attention on the impact that external behaviors have on internal behaviors.     

Much ado about nothing: No fear of becoming a multinational

This paper compares the home employment performance of Spanish “switching” companies, which carry out Foreign Direct Investment for the first time, with employment performance corresponding to non investing local (national) companies. We use data from manufacturing firms for the period 2000–2013. The counterfactual group of national companies is obtained using the Propensity Score Matching technique with a large sample of firms. The analysis shows that the reduction in employment was less relevant among switching companies in comparison with local ones. This result permits us to conclude that internationalization through foreign direct investment is not causing a more intense reduction in employment among parent companies than among local firms. This holds also true for the period prior to the crisis (2000–2007).     

Testing the bases of ethical decision-making: a study of the New Zealand auditing profession

This paper reports on a survey of auditors in New Zealand which investigates the nature of the moral judgements they make on a series of problems with ethical dimensions. The framework adopted for this purpose is developed from earlier work which identifies a range of ethical principles which may be involved in business ethical decision-making. Auditors responded to a questionnaire which posed, firstly, several questions about the context of their ethical decision-making, and secondly, a series of vignettes elaborating problematical dilemmas which required the selection of one of four possible responses. Data was analysed to determine whether or not it confirmed previous findings in suggesting a predominant ethical orientation for auditors. The results were correlated with demographic variables in order to determine whether or not age, gender, position in firm and size of employee firm were significantly correlated to ethical response. The survey results, on the whole, confirmed the ethical orientation suggested by previous findings, but there were some unexpected results in three out of the ten vignettes examined. Although some correlations were found between the demographic variables and subject responses, the evidence of this survey does not strongly suggest a consistent significant correlation.