Agents or Stewards? Linking Managerial Behavior and Moral Development

The goal of this paper is to connect managerial behavior on the “agent-steward” scale to managerial moral development and motivation. I introduce agent- and steward-like behavior: the former is self-serving while the latter is others-serving. I suggest that managerial moral development and motivation may be two of the factors that may predict the tendency of managers to behave in a self-serving way (like agents) or to serve the interests of the organization (like stewards). Managers at low levels of moral development are more likely to behave like agents, while managers at higher levels of moral development are more likely to behave like stewards. I also argue that managers at the highest level of moral development may serve the interests of people other than the firm’s owners and thereby transfer wealth from the firm’s owners to third parties. Moral motivation is likely to be a factor that moderates the proposed relationships. Finally, I develop propositions that address the role of material incentives in controlling behavior of managers at different levels of moral development.     

In or Out? Standards,Discretion, Compliance and the WTO

Self‐enforcement in international agreements in the presence of uncertainty in the form of shocks and imperfect information regarding the extent of compliance by other members is enhanced by the use of standards in performance of commitments. Standards are less precise than rules. They must be sufficiently demanding that undercompliance is distinguishable from non‐compliance. Discretion permits undercompliance as an alternative to renegotiation of commitments, safeguards and the filing of disputes. Undercompliance, particularly when restrained, is a lower cost and less confrontational resolution to addressing adverse shocks. Signatories are restrained in undercomplying so that the effects of their actions are imperfectly distinguishable from the effects of shocks. Compliance and evidentiary standards for formal disputes define the accomplishments of the agreement. Evidentiary standards serve as an important discipline to undercompliance even in the absence of formal disputes.     

The Role of Individual Variables,Organizational Variables and Moral Intensity Dimensions in Libyan Management Accountants’ Ethical Decision Making

This study investigates the association of a broad set of variables with the ethical decision making of management accountants in Libya. Adopting a cross-sectional methodology, a questionnaire including four different ethical scenarios was used to gather data from 229 participants. For each scenario, ethical decision making was examined in terms of the recognition, judgment and intention stages of Rest’s model. A significant relationship was found between ethical recognition and ethical judgment and also between ethical judgment and ethical intention, but ethical recognition did not significantly predict ethical intention—thus providing support for Rest’s model. Organizational variables, age and educational level yielded few significant results. The lack of significance for codes of ethics might reflect their relative lack of development in Libya, in which case Libyan companies should pay attention to their content and how they are supported, especially in the light of the under-development of the accounting profession in Libya. Few significant results were also found for gender, but where they were found, males showed more ethical characteristics than females. This unusual result reinforces the dangers of gender stereotyping in business. Personal moral philosophy and moral intensity dimensions were generally found to be significant predictors of the three stages of ethical decision making studied. One implication of this is to give more attention to ethics in accounting education, making the connections between accounting practice and (in Libya) Islam. Overall, this study not only adds to the available empirical evidence on factors affecting ethical decision making, notably examining three stages of Rest’s model, but also offers rare insights into the ethical views of practising management accountants and provides a benchmark for future studies of ethical decision making in Muslim majority countries and other parts of the developing world.     

The Influence of Organizations’ Tax Avoidance Practices on Consumers’ Behavior: The Role of Moral Reasoning Strategies,Political Ideology,and Brand Identification

Journal of Business Ethics - This study adopts moral reasoning strategies (moral rationalization and decoupling) to investigate why consumers support companies involved in ethical transgressions....     

Doing It Purposely? Mediation of Moral Disengagement in the Relationship Between Illegitimate Tasks and Counterproductive Work Behavior

Journal of Business Ethics - Employees perceive illegitimate tasks as inappropriate assignments because such tasks are beyond what they expect to do in any given job position. Extant literature...     

Businessman or host? Individual differences between entrepreneurs and small business owners in the hospitality industry

Prior research has identified individual characteristics that distinguish business owners from non-business owners. The researchers tested their contention that not every successful business owner can be characterized by such typical ‘entrepreneurial’ characteristics. Multiple analysis of variance on a unique data set of 194 business owners in the hospitality industry revealed that several individual characteristics discriminated between entrepreneurs and small business owners. Entrepreneurs possessed higher levels of independence, tolerance of ambiguity, risk-taking propensity, innovativeness, and leadership qualities, but not of market orientation and self-efficacy. It is concluded that ‘entrepreneurial’ characteristics identified in the literature may be useful predicting a specific type of business ownership. However, other criteria need to be developed in order to describe other groups of business owners operating in the service industries.     

The Relationship Between Ethical Leadership and Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior: Linear or Curvilinear Effects?

In this study, we examine the nature of the relationship between ethical leadership and unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), defined as unethical behavior conducted by employees with the aim of benefiting their organization, and whether the strength of the relationship differs between subordinates experiencing high and low identification with supervisor. Based on three-wave survey data obtained from 239 public sector employees in China, we find that ethical leadership has an inverted u-shaped (curvilinear) relationship with UPB. As the level of ethical leadership increases from low to moderate, UPB increases; as the level of ethical leadership increases from moderate to high, UPB decreases. Further, we find that the strength of this inverted u-curve relationship differs between subordinates with high and low identification with supervisor. That is to say, the inverted u-shaped relationship between ethical leadership and UPB was stronger when subordinates experienced high levels of identification with supervisor. The theoretical and managerial implications of our findings for understanding how to manage UPB in an organizational context are discussed.     

For the Good or the Bad? Interactive Effects of Transformational Leadership with Moral and Authoritarian Leadership Behaviors

Although the ethical aspects of transformational leadership have attracted considerable attention, very little is known about followers’ reactions to the moral and immoral conduct of transformational leaders. Against this background, this study examined whether and how transformational leadership interacts with moral and authoritarian leadership behaviors in predicting followers’ in-role and extra-role efforts. Building on attribution theory, we hypothesized that the positive and negative effects of these leadership behaviors would be particularly pronounced for highly transformational leaders given that this leadership style elicits strong attention and sense-making efforts among followers. We tested our model in a sample of 228 individuals comprising 114 leader–follower dyads from a wide range of organizations and industries. In line with our hypotheses, results revealed that for highly transformational leaders, moral leadership behaviors related positively to employees’ in-role and extra-role efforts whereas authoritarian leadership behaviors related negatively to employees’ in-role and extra-role efforts. In contrast, moral and authoritarian leadership behaviors did not significantly affect followers’ reactions to leaders low in transformational leadership. Taken together, these findings suggest that transformational leadership, contrary to its largely positive perception in the literature, can be a rather mixed blessing. Implications for theory, future research, and managerial practice are discussed.     

How Yoga-Based Practices Build Altruistic Behavior? Examining the Role of Subjective Vitality,Self-transcendence,and Psychological Capital

Journal of Business Ethics - Broader outlook, ethics, and social responsibility have been long-standing concerns in business practices and management. In this regard, an effective management...     

Followers’ Innovative Behavior in Organizations: The Role of Transformational Leadership,Psychological Capital and Knowledge Sharing

This study develops and tests a conceptual model of followers’ perceptions of transformational leadership as an antecedent to their innovative behavior in organizations. Specifically, we hypothesize that followers’ innovative behavior can be directly and indirectly influenced by their perceptions of transformational leadership. Knowledge sharing has a mediating effect and followers’ psychological capital has a moderating role in the relationship between transformational leadership and followers’ innovative behavior. A total of 212 employees from a diverse range of industries filled out questionnaires. Hierarchical linear modeling is used to analyze the relations. Results reveal that transformational leadership produces positive and significant impacts on followers’ innovative behavior and this relationship is fully mediated by knowledge sharing. Results also indicate that the positive relationship between transformational leadership and followers’ innovative behavior is enhanced only when followers possess high psychological capital. This paper adds to innovation literature by empirically testing the moderating role of psychological capital and the mediating role of knowledge sharing on the link between transformational leadership and followers’ innovative behavior. Implications of the findings for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Honorableness or Beneficialness? Cicero on Natural Law, Virtues, Glory, and (Corporate) Reputation

During the last decade corporate reputation as one of the central efforts of corporate citizenship behavior has gained increasing attention in scholarly research, as has the way that reputation can serve as an instrument for business purposes. This poses the question of how such reputation will be achieved. To answer these questions this article examines Cicero’s considerations concerning the interrelation of honorableness and beneficialness made in his work ‘On Duties’. Based on Cicero’s understanding of universal natural law and his idea that reputation derives solely from honorable behavior and the orientation in the common good, we show that also corporate reputation is achieved only if it is based primarily on ‘honorableness’, and that reputation is lost if financial interests override the intentions of honesty of a company.     

Wayward agents,dominant elite,or reflection of internal diversity? A critique of Folkman,Froud, Johal and Williams on financialisation and financial intermediaries

Based on their earlier work on managerial capitalism and the literature on financialisation, P. Folkman, J. Froud, S. Johal, and K. Williams (2007, ‘Working for themselves: Financial intermediaries and present day capitalism’, Business History, 49(4), 552–572) argue that the rise of capital market intermediaries has both eroded traditional managerial power, and constitutes a powerful interest grouping with a distinct agenda that has a vested interest in permanent corporate restructuring and redistribution away from traditional stakeholders in the firm and, ultimately, shareholders as well. This paper critically evaluates these assumptions and conclusions. It specifically critiques the underlying assumptions of the Folkman et al. paper, and explores its relevance to understanding the changing relationship between stakeholders, and, indeed, the 2008 financial crisis.     

To Pay or Not to Pay? Dynamic Transparency and the Fight Against the Mafia’s Extortionists

This article presents the results of the longitudinal study of Addiopizzo, a successful anti-bribery organization founded in Sicily in 2004. It analyzes how this organization has used information disclosure as a strategy to fight adverse environmental conditions and the immoral activities of the Sicilian Mafia. This article extends the business ethics and corporate social responsibility literature by showing how multi-level strategic information disclosure processes can help gain organizational legitimacy in adverse social environments and successfully fight against social resistance to change, low levels of moral imagination and attacks from criminal organizations. This article provides an additional contribution to the literature by linking the three research streams on corporate transparency, the fight against corruption, and organizational legitimacy. The results of this research also contribute to the special issue of the EBEN AC 2010, “Which values for which organizations”, since it provides a unique example of an organization capable of spreading the values of social justice and honesty in a difficult social environment plagued by Mafia.     

Buy,Lie, or Die: An Investigation of Chinese ST Firms’ Voluntary Interim Audit Motive and Auditor Independence

In the Chinese stock market, special treatment (ST) firms are the firms listed as facing imminent danger of delisting, unless they return to profitability after reporting two consecutive annual losses. Some ST firms voluntarily pay substantial fees to their external auditors to conduct interim audits, which are not required by regulations. In this study, we investigate and find that ST firms that pay for voluntary interim audits report greater discretionary accrued earnings, higher non-operating earnings, and higher returns on assets in ensuing annual reports. As a result, these firms are more likely to return to profitability and reduce their delisting risk. Our results, which contribute to the current debate on auditor independence, appear to be consistent with the possibility that ST firms “buy” external auditors’ cooperation to manipulate earnings when faced with the threat of delisting.     

Is the Market Perceived to be Civilizing or Destructive? Scientists’ Universalism Values and Their Attitudes Towards Patents

Journal of Business Ethics - Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting is becoming mainstream, yet there is limited research on whether and how CSR reports communicate value relevant...     

What are you?: pragmatic,self-confident, #hashtag or a vital senior? Using marketing to curb alcoholism and encourage healthy consumption!

From a public administration approach, alcohol consumption is responsible for 3.8% of overall mortality. From a private approach, companies in the alcohol industry are faced with increasing competition, which forces them to focus their business more while promoting responsible consumption.

In this scene, an empirical investigation was carried out to determine the individual and environmental factors with most impact on alcohol consumption in the Spanish market. 1031 valid responses were obtained. Using multivariate techniques, four different consumer groups of highly alcoholic vs. slightly alcoholic beverages were identified: Pragmatic group; Self-confident group; #hashtag group and Vital Seniors group. Based on the variables (individual and environmental) that significantly define each cluster, two groups of managerial implications were stated: (i) four to recommend private managers how to reach each cluster of alcohol consumers; (ii) three to recommend public authorities how to deal with the most problematic areas (curb alcoholism & encourage healthy consumption).     

Philanthropy, Integration or Innovation? Exploring the Financial and Societal Outcomes of Different Types of Corporate Responsibility

This article argues that previous research on the outcomes of corporate responsibility should be refined in two ways. First, although there is abundant research that addresses the link between corporate responsibility (CR) and financial performance, hardly any studies scrutinize whether the type of corporate responsibility makes a difference to this link. Second, while the majority of CR research conducted within business studies concentrates on the financial outcomes for the firm, the societal outcomes of CR are left largely unexplored. To tackle these two deficiencies, this article extends the different conceptualizations of corporate responsibility and elaborates both the financial and the societal outcomes of different types of CR.     

What shapes adolescents’ attitudes toward luxury brands? The role of self-worth,self-construal,gender and national culture

PurposeThe main growth of the luxury market comes from Generation Z. This study addresses the research gap on the effects of adolescents’ self-construal and contingencies of self-worth (CSW), both extrinsic (social approval and competition) and intrinsic (family support and virtue), on their attitudes toward luxury brands across cultures. The results show that extrinsic domains of CSW (competition and social approval) are associated with more pronounced attitudes toward luxury brands. In contrast, the intrinsic domains of CSW (virtue) are associated with weaker attitudes toward luxury brands. Our model also investigates the effect of two moderators: national culture and gender. This research samples 1087 teenage consumers (343 French, 357 American, and 387 Chilean teens). The paper highlights the contributions of the findings to luxury research, and illustrates their practical value for luxury companies interested in targeting Generation Z from different cultures.