The Effects of Organizational and Ethical Climates on Misconduct at Work

Questionnaire data obtained from 97 supervisory and nonsupervisory employees representing the Production, Production Services, Marketing, and Administration departments of an Israeli metal production plant were used to test the relationship between selected personal and organizational attributes and work related misbehavior. Following Vardi and Wiener's (1996) framework, Organizational Misbehavior (OMB) was defined as intentional acts that violate formal core organizational rules. We found that there was a significant negative relationship between Organizational Climate and OMB, and between the Organizational Climate dimensions (Warmth and Support, and Reward), and OMB. Also, the activities of misbehavior reported by both managers and employees were negatively related to the Rules, Instrumental and Caring dimensions of Ethical Climates as defined by Victor and Cullen (1988).     

Framing and Organizational Misconduct: A Symbolic Interactionist Study

This study expands theoretical understanding of organizational misconduct through qualitative analysis of widespread deceptive sales practices at a large U.S. life insurance company. Adopting a symbolic interactionist perspective, this research describes how a set of taken-for-granted interpretive frames located in the organization’s culture created a worldview through which deceptive sales practices were seen as normal, acceptable, routine operating procedure. The findings from this study extend and modify the dominant theoretical ‘pressure/opportunity’ model of organizational misconduct by proposing that the process engine driving misconduct is not amorally rational organization members, but rather is organizational members acting on socially constructed views of the organization that normalize misconduct. Tammy L. MacLean is an assistant professor of management at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. She teaches in the areas of organizational behavior and managing diversity. Her research interests include how the process of decoupling organizational policies and programs from core organizational functions affects organizational behavior. Her research has been published in academic journals such as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Journal of Management Inquiry, and Business & Society. She received a Ph.D. in Organization Studies in 2001 from Boston College.     

Individual and Organizational Antecedents of Misconduct in Organizations

A heterogeneous survey sample of for-profit, non-profit and government employees revealed that organizational factors but not personal characteristics were significant antecedents of misconduct and job satisfaction. Formal organizational compliance practices and ethical climate were independent predictors of misconduct, and compliance practices also moderated the relationship between ethical climate and misconduct, as well as between pressure to compromise ethical standards and misconduct. Misconduct was not predicted by level of moral reasoning, age, sex, ethnicity, job status, or size and type of organization. Demographic variables predicted job satisfaction and organizational variables added significant incremental variance. Results suggest the importance of promoting a moral organization through the words and actions of senior managers and supervisors, independent of formal mechanisms such as codes of conduct.

The Effect of Leader Positive Affectivity on Team Member Turnover Intention and Team Organizational Citizenship Behavior

This paper develops two models to investigate the effect of team leader positive affectivity (PA) on team member turnover intention and team organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), at the individual and team levels, respectively. A two-wave longitudinal study was conducted involving a survey of 58 team leaders and 174 team members in a large Chinese telecom company across a three-month period. We found that team members’ organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) at Time 1 mediates the relationship between team leader PA at Time 1 and team member turnover intention at Time 2, whereas team aggregated OBSE at Time 1 mediates the relationship between leader PA at Time 1 and team OCB at Time 2.     

Organizational Ambidexterity and Innovation Performance: The Moderating Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation

The influence of organizational ambidexterity on innovation and the growth of enterprises has gradually become an important research topic in the field of strategic management and organization theory. This paper builds up a theoretical framework of the relationship between organizational ambidexterity and innovation performance with regards to corporate entrepreneurship orientation. We select 175 companies from high and new technology industries in China’s three large cities, Beijing, Tianjin and Dalian, as samples to carry out an empirical test. We find that the balance and complement of organizational ambidexterity are positively correlated with the innovation performance of enterprises; a corporate entrepreneurial orientation has a significantly moderating effect on the relationship between the balance dimension of organizational ambidexterity and innovation performance, yet it has no significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between the combined dimension of organizational ambidexterity and innovation performance.     

Stigma and Settling Up: An Integrated Approach to the Consequences of Organizational Misconduct for Organizational Elites

In this article, I address the question of the apportionment of the consequences of organizational misconduct to individual members of the organizational elite. I argue that this process can be best understood by marrying the behavioral aspects of stigma theory to the economic mechanisms of ex post settling up. Viewed in conjunction with stigmatization, ex post settling up following organizational misconduct can be seen as the result of attempts to avoid stigma by association. Efforts at stigma avoidance on the parts of various stakeholders produce the diminished social interaction associated with ex post settling up: departure from the focal firm, and loss of seats on other boards. This also suggests that the process of stigmatization, and hence ex post settling up, can be influenced by characteristics of social interaction unrelated to the misconduct itself. Jo-Ellen Pozner’s research addresses the social processes that differentiate what is legitimate from what is illegitimate in organizational practice, and how changing definitions of legitimacy affect organizations and individuals.     

The Mediating Effects of Managerial Skills on the Relationship Between Managerial Values,Ethical Leadership,and Organizational Reputation

Drawing on the upper echelons theory, this study examines the mediating effects of managerial skills on the relationship between managerial values, ethical leadership, and organizational reputation. Data were obtained from 209 manufacturing companies in the People’s Republic of China. Regression results reveal that (1) managerial values positively affect ethical leadership and organizational reputation and (2) managerial skills mediate the effects of managerial values on ethical leadership, and on organizational reputation. The study sheds light on the mechanisms through which managerial self-transcendence values but not self-enhancement values affect ethical leadership and organizational reputation.     

Leader and Organizational Behavioral Integrity and Follower Behavioral Outcomes: The Role of Identification Processes

Journal of Business Ethics - This qualitative field study is based on interviews with 20 experienced audit partners in France and documents the dialogical dimension of ethical deliberation in...     

The Effect of Demographics,Work Status,and Relative Equity on Organizational Commitment: Looking Among Part-Time Workers

Abstract This study investigated differences in organizational commitment among part-time workers. This contrasts with the traditional comparison of differences between part-time workers and their full-time counterparts. The most significant predictors of organizational commitment among part-timers were their perceptions of relative equity and job satisfaction, compared with full-timers. Neither demographics nor work status were significant after controlling for relative equity and satisfaction. Satisfaction acted as a partial mediator between the independent variable, relative equity, and the dependent variable, organizational commitment. This research indicates that organizations need to recognize that part-timers' attitudes toward their jobs depend a good deal on their perceptions of their treatment relative to full-time employees. Résumé Cette étude analyse les differences d'engagement envers l'employeur chez les employés à temps partiel seule-ment, au lieu de la comparaison traditionnelle entre les employés à temps partiel et les employés à temps plein. Les prédicteurs les plus significatifs de I'engagement envers I'employeur chez les employés à temps partiel sont la perception de l'équité relative de leur traitement par rapport aux employés à temps plein, et la satisfaction associée à leur travail. Ni les critères démo-graphiques, ni le rang dans la hiérarchie sur le lieu de travail ne s'avèrent significatifs après normalisation, compte tenu des variables équité relative et satisfaction. La satisfaction joue le rôle de médiateur partiel entre la variable indépendante, équité relative, et la variable dépendante, engagement envers I'employeur. Ces résul-tats indiquent que les employeurs ont besoin de reconnoitre que les attitudes de travail des employés à temps partiel dépendent beaucoup de la faeon dont ceux-ci ont I'impression d'ětre traités par rapport aux employés a temps plein.     

On Ethically Solvent Leaders: The Roles of Pride and Moral Identity in Predicting Leader Ethical Behavior

The popular media has repeatedly pointed to pride as one of the key factors motivating leaders to behave unethically. However, given the devastating consequences that leader unethical behavior may have, a more scientific account of the role of pride is warranted. The present study differentiates between authentic and hubristic pride and assesses its impact on leader ethical behavior, while taking into consideration the extent to which leaders find it important to their self-concept to be a moral person. In two experiments we found that with higher levels of moral identity, authentically proud leaders are more likely to engage in ethical behavior than hubristically proud leaders, and that this effect is mediated by leaders’ motivation to act selflessly. A field survey among organizational leaders corroborated that moral identity may bring the positive effect of authentic pride and the negative effect of hubristic pride on leader ethical behavior to the forefront.     

服务模块化对金融企业创新绩效的影响：组织模块化的调节作用

本文通过数据样本证实服务模块化对金融企业创新绩效存在正向影响。在此基础上,进一步发现组织模块化对服务产品模块化－创新绩效之间的关系有正向的调节作用,但对服务流程模块化－创新绩效之间的关系的正向调节作用未予证实。加入到“镜面假设”的新近对话中,有助于探明产品模块化、流程模块化和组织模块化三个维度之间的关系,从而把握技术型创新与管理型创新之间的紧密联系。     

基于权力博弈的企业领导人更替机制分析

依存状态所有权理论和控制权理论都无法准确地解释企业领导人更替问题。本文认为,企业领导人更替是企业行为人权力博弈的结果。文章分析了企业行为人权力的来源、作用机理及谈判力变化与企业领导人更替的关系。区分了基于股权集中度和领导能力双纬度交叉组合的企业治理型式,建立了与之对应的企业领导人更替机制状态模型,并从企业领导人更替角度分析了企业权力均衡和制约问题,提出企业应根据权力分布状态,采取有针对性的改进策略,并指出即使是相同方向的改进策略,其具体措施也可能不同。     

Leaders,Values, and Organizational Climate: Examining Leadership Strategies for Establishing an Organizational Climate Regarding Ethics

This paper examines the critical role that organizational leaders play in establishing a values based climate. We discuss seven mechanisms by which leaders convey the importance of ethical values to members, and establish the expectations regarding ethical conduct that become engrained in the organizations climate. We also suggest that leaders at different organizational levels rely on different mechanisms to transmit values and expectations. These mechanisms then influence members practices and expectations, further increase the salience of ethical values and result in the shared perceptions that form the organizations climate. The paper is organized in three parts. Part onebegins with a brief discussion of climates regarding ethics and the critical role of values. Part two provides discussion on the mechanisms by which leaders and members transmit values and create climates related to ethics. Part three provides a discussion of these concepts with implications for theory, research, and practice.     

The Impact of Managerial Performance Decay on Franchisors' Store Allocation Strategies

Multi-unit franchising (i.e., one franchisee owning and operating multiple units) is no longer the exception; it is the norm. Nevertheless, because of the decay in managerial performance associated with the increasing span-of-control, systems built on multi-unit (versus single unit) expansion strategies may be jeopardizing some of the efficiencies which fueled franchising in the first place. Many franchisors have adapted to this problem by developing rules of thumb for allocating new outlets to new or existing franchises. This paper formalizes had compares several different strategies for allocating new outlets. In doing so, we specifically incorporate the effects of managerial performance decay on the various strategies. Using empirically obtained starting values for the rate of decay, we calcualate the reults for a hypothetical ten store expansion. The starting values are then varied systematically revealing complex relationship between decay rates, population variance, and managerial performance not accommodated in the less formal strategies currently employed.     

Environmental Mutual Funds: Financial Performance and Managerial Abilities

For 15 years, former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky used his Penn State University perquisites to lure young and fatherless boys by offering them special access to one of the most revered football programs in the country. He repeatedly used the football locker room as a space to groom, molest, and rape his victims. In February 2001, an eye-witness alerted Penn State’s top leaders that Sandusky was caught sexually assaulting a young boy in the showers. Instead of taking swift action against Sandusky, leaders began a cover-up that is considered one of the worst scandals in sports history. While public outcry has focused on the leaders’ silence, we focus on the talk that occurred within the organization by key personnel. Drawing from court documents and internal investigative reports, we examine two euphemism clusters that unfolded in the scandal. The first cluster comprises reporting euphemisms, in which personnel used coded language to report the assault up the chain of command. The second cluster comprises responding euphemisms, in which Penn State’s top leaders relied on an innocuous, but patently false, interpretation of earlier euphemisms as a decision-making framework to chart their course of (in)action. We use this case to demonstrate how euphemistic language impairs ethical decision-making, particularly by framing meaning and visibility of acts, encouraging mindless processing of moral considerations, and providing a shield against psychological and material consequences. Further, we argue that euphemism may serve as a disguised retort to critical upward communication in organizations.     

差绩效中层领导在不同组织承诺下的素质差异

本文以差绩效中层领导为研究对象,选择组织承诺为情境变量,利用统计软件对已建立的数据库进行方差分析、多重比较检验等统计分析,结果发现导致领导绩效差的素质特征存在显著差异,高承诺情境中差绩效领导者的“感觉/直觉型”行为倾向最低,而理智型组织承诺情境中差绩效领导者的“感觉/直觉型”行为倾向最高。     

When Servant Becomes Leader: The Corazon C. Aquino Success Story as a Beacon for Business Leaders

This article makes the case for servant leadership as a model for business in its analysis of the leadership style of former Philippine president, Corazon C. Aquino. Premised on the idea that self-management requires deep spirituality lived integrally (and sustained by an interior or inner life), we identify specific traits and virtues of Aquino and their implications on her leadership and effect on people. The article begins with an introduction to establish the contribution of servant leadership on business. It continues with a summary of key points in servant leadership literature. Then, we analyze Aquino as a person and leader and find that the former spilled over to the latter. We conclude by providing a model based on Aquino’s journey into the role of servant leader; thus, presenting a framework that charts the path toward servant leadership to help businesses address the leadership crisis brought on by an Enron-WorldCom-Tyco dominated business culture.