Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-04T19:50:43.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

19 - Ethical leadership: The socially responsible use of power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2010

By
Annebel H. B. de Hoogh  and
Deanne N. den Hartog
Edited by
Dean Tjosvold  and
Barbara Wisse
Dean Tjosvold
Affiliation:
Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Barbara Wisse
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Get access

Summary

Powerful leaders can have a substantial impact on the lives of followers and the fate of groups, organizations, and even societies. The potential for beneficial use or misuse of power has led researchers to focus on the ethical aspects of leadership. A recent series of unprecedented media scandals regarding ethical lapses of high-level business managers has placed the ethical aspects of leadership at the forefront of everyone's attention. Despite this growing interest, however, there is very little theoretically driven research that examines which types of leader behavior should be seen as ethical. Moreover, although preliminary research on ethical leadership suggests positive effects of such leadership (e.g., Brown et al. 2005), it does not yet explain when and why ethical leadership has its effects. Finally, why some people in a leadership situation choose to behave in a principled and ethical manner whilst others (at times) do not, is not yet sufficiently clear. Here, we deal with these points from a power and influence perspective.

The use of power and leadership are intertwined concepts, the power to influence others forms a part of most definitions of leadership. Thus, not surprisingly, the power concept contributes to our understanding of ethical leadership in important ways. First, the socially responsible use of power is a key element of ethical leadership, and, in this chapter, we discuss ethical leadership from this perspective.

Type
Chapter
Information
Power and Interdependence in Organizations , pp. 338 - 354
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aronson, E. (2001) Integrating leadership styles and ethical perspectives. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 18, 244–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashton, M. C. and Lee, K. (2001) A theoretical basis for the major dimensions of personality. European Journal of Personality, 15, 327–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashton, M. C., and Lee, K. (2005) Honesty-Humility, the Big Five, and the Five-Factor Model. Journal of Personality, 73, 1321–1354.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Atkinson, J. W. (Ed.) (1958) Motives in fantasy, action and society, Princeton, N. J.: Van Nostrand.Google Scholar
Audi, R. and Murphy, P. E. (2006) The many faces of integrity. Business Ethics Quarterly, 16, 3–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avolio, B. J. (1999) Full leadership development: Building the vital forces in organizations, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Avolio, B. J. and Locke, E. A. (2005) Should leaders be selfish or altruistic? Letters on leader motivation. In Ciulla, J. B. (Ed.), Ethics: The heart of leadership, 2nd edn, Westport, Conn.: Praeger.Google Scholar
Bass, B. M. (1985) Leadership and performance beyond expectations, New York, N.Y.: Free Press.Google Scholar
Bass, B. M. and Steidlmeier, P. (1999) Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 10, 181–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blasi, A. (1983) Moral cognition and moral action: A theoretical perspective. Developmental Review, 3, 178–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, M. E. and Treviño, L. K. (2006a) Socialized charismatic leadership, values congruence, and deviance in work groups. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 954–962.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, M. E., and Treviño, L. K. (2006b) Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 595–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, M. E., Treviño, L. K., and Harrison, D. A. (2005) Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97, 117–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryman, A. (1992) Charisma and leadership in organizations, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Costa, P. T. Jr. and McCrae, R. R. (1992) Revised NEO Personality Inventroy (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual, Odessa, Fla.: Psychological Assessment Resources.Google Scholar
Costa, P. T. Jr. Mccrae, R. R., and Dye, D. A. (1991) Facet scales for agreeableness and conscientiousness: A revision of the NEO personality inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 887–898.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, S. B. and Gustafson, S. B. (1998) Perceived leader integrity scale: An instrument for assessing employee perceptions of leader integrity. The Leadership Quarterly, 9, 127–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoogh, A. H. B. and Hartog, D. N. (2008) Ethical and despotic leadership, relationships with leader's social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and subordinates' optimism: A multi-method study. The Leadership Quarterly, 19, 297–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoogh, A. H. B., Hartog, D. N., and Koopman, P. L. (2005a) Linking the five factors of personality to charismatic and transactional leadership; Perceived dynamic work environment as a moderator. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 839–865.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoogh, A. H. B., Hartog, D. N., Koopman, P. L., Thierry, H., Berg, P. T., Weide, J. G., and Wilderom, C. P. M. (2004) Charismatic leadership, environmental dynamism, and performance. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 13, 447–471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoogh, A. H. B., Hartog, D. N., Koopman, P. L., Thierry, H., Berg, P. T., Weide, J. G., and Wilderom, C. P. M. (2005b) Leader motives, charismatic leadership and subordinates' work attitude in the profit and voluntary sector. The Leadership Quarterly, 16, 17–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartog, D. N. and Hoogh, A. H. B. (in press) Empowerment and leader fairness and integrity: Studying ethical leader behavior from a levels-of-analysis perspective. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.
Hartog, D. N., Hoogh, A. H. B., and Keegan, A. E. (2007) The interactive effects of belongingness and charisma on helping and compliance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1131–1139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dirks, K. T. and Ferrin, D. L. (2002) Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 611–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feldman, M. S. and Khademian, A. M. (2003) Empowerment and cascading vitality. In Cameron, K. S., Dutton, J. E., and Quinn, R. E. (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline (pp. 343–358), San Francisco, Calif.: Berret-Koehler.Google Scholar
Fry, L. W. (2003) Toward a theory of spiritual leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 14, 693–727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, J. W. (1991) Servant-leadership in organizations: Inspirational and moral. The Leadership Quarterly, 2, 105–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, D. L. and Winter, D. G. (1971) Motives, involvements, and leadership among Black college students. Journal of Personality, 39, 319–332.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoffman, M. L. (1982) The development of prosocial motivation: Empathy and guilt. In Eisenberg, N. (Ed.), The development of prosocial behavior (pp. 281–313), New York, N.Y.: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
House, R. J. and Howell, J. M. (1992) Personality and charismatic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 3, 81–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, J. M. (1988) Two faces of charisma: Socialized and personalized leadership in organizations. In Conger, J. and Kanungo, R. (Eds.), Charismatic leadership: The illusive factor in organizational effectiveness (pp. 213–236), San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Howell, J. M. and Avolio, B. J. (1992) The ethics of charismatic leadership: Submission or liberation?Academy of Management Executive, 6, 43–54.Google Scholar
Howell, J. M. and Shamir, B. (2005) The role of followers in the charismatic leadership process: Relationships and their consequences. Academy of Management Review, 30, 96–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Judge, T. A. and Bono, J. E. (2000) Five-factor model of personality and transformational leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 751–765.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., and Gerhardt, M. W. (2002) Personality and leadership: A qualitative and quantitative review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 765–780.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kalshoven, K., Hartog, D. N., and Hoogh, A. H. B. (2008) Measuring ethical leadership at work. Presented at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, San Francisco, California.Google Scholar
Kanungo, R. N. (2001) Ethical values of transactional and transformational leaders. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 18, 257–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kanungo, R. N. and Mendoca, M. (1996) Ethical dimensions of leadership, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Kanungo, R. N., and Mendonca, M. (2001) Ethical leadership and governance in organizations: A preamble. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 18, 241–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khuntia, R. and Suar, D. (2004) A scale to assess ethical leadership of Indian private and public sector managers. Journal of Business Ethics, 49, 13–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lind, E. A. and Bos, K. (2002) When fairness works: Toward a general theory of uncertainty management. In Staw, B. M. and Kramer, R. M. (Eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior (Vol. XXIV, pp. 181–223), Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Luthans, F. and Avolio, B. J. (2003) Authentic leadership: A positive developmental approach. In Cameron, K. S., Dutton, J. E., and Quinn, R. E. (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship (pp. 241–261), San Francisco, Calif.: Barrett-Koehler.Google Scholar
McAllister, D. J. (1995) Affect- and cognition-based trust as foundations for interpersonal cooperation in organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 24–59.Google Scholar
McCrae, R. R. and Costa, P. T. Jr. (1987) Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 81–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, H. A. (Ed.) (1938) Explorations in personality, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.
O'Connor, J., Mumford, M. D., Clifton, T. C., Gessner, T. L., and Connelly, M. S. (1995) Charismatic leaders and destructiveness: A historiometric Study. The Leadership Quarterly, 6, 529–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Resick, C. J., Hanges, P. J., Dickson, M. W., and Mitchelson, J. K. (2006) A cross-cultural examination of the endorsement of ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 63, 345–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sartre, J. P. (1947) Existentialism, trans. Frechtman, B., New York, N.Y.: Philosophical Library.Google Scholar
Shamir, B. and Howell, J. M. (1999) Organizational and contextual influences on the emergence and effectiveness of charismatic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 10, 257–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spreitzer, G. M. (1995) Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1442–1465.Google Scholar
Stevens, C. D. and Ash, R. A. (2001) Selecting employees for fit: Personality and preferred managerial style. Journal of Managerial Issues, 4, 500–517.Google Scholar
Stogdill, R. M. (1950) Leadership, membership and organization. Psychological Bulletin, 47, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treviño, L. K. and Brown, M. E. (2007) Ethical leadership: A developing construct. In Cooper, C. L. and Nelson, D. (Eds), Positive organizational behavior: Accentuating the positive at work (pp. 101–116), Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treviño, L. K., Brown, M., and Hartman, L. P. (2003) A qualitative investigation of perceived executive ethical leadership: Perceptions from inside and outside the executive suite. Human Relations, 56, 5–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treviño, L. K., Hartman, L. P., and Brown, M. (2000) Moral person and moral manager: How executives develop a reputation for ethical leadership. California Management Review, 42, 128–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, N., Barling, J., Epitropaki, O., Butcher, V., and Milder, C. (2002) Transformational leadership and moral reasoning. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 304–311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winter, D. G. (1987) Leader appeal, leader performance, and the motive profiles of leaders and followers: A study of American presidents and elections. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 196–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, D. G. (1991a) Manual for scoring motive imagery in running text. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Winter, D. G. (1991b) A motivational model of leadership: Predicting long-term management success from TAT measures of power motivation and responsibility. The Leadership Quarterly, 2, 67–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, D. G. (1992a) Scoring system for responsibility. In Smith, C. P. (Ed.), Motivation and personality: Handbook of thematic content analysis (pp. 506–511), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, D. G. (1992b) A revised scoring system for the power motive. In Smith, C. P. (Ed.), Motivation and personality: Handbook of thematic content analysis (pp. 311–324), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, D. G. and Barenbaum, B. B. (1985) Responsibility and the power motive in women and men. Journal of Personality, 53, 335–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yukl, G. (2006) Leadership in organizations, 6th edn, Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Yukl, G. and Falbe, C. M. (1991) The importance of different power sources in downward and lateral relations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 416–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×