Leveraging the employee voice: a multi-level social learning perspective of ethical leadership

By Yuntao Bai, Li Lin, Joseph T. Liu. 2019

137 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Extending social learning theory to a multi-level perspective, this study proposes a theoretical model that investigates both individual and team-level mechanisms that mediate the effect of ethical leadership on employee voice. Specifically, in terms of an individual-level social learning perspective, we suggest that an ethical leader acts as a prototype of a moral person (i.e. an ethical role model). From a team-level social learning perspective, we propose that, as a moral manager, team ethical leadership will foster an ethical climate within the team which will create a moral context that impacts employees’ behaviors. In both instances, employee voice behaviors will be enhanced through these mechanisms. Evidencing the importance of the interaction between leader behaviors and context for leader effectiveness, we also show that employees are more likely to regard their ethical leaders as ethical role models in a team that highly values ethical conduct (i.e. high in ethical climate). Results obtained from 47 managers and 211 subordinates in China support our theoretical model. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are also discussed.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Information Systems and Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4ff03752f5061b06f4ec5dba426a932e9d1ad5c4

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. Zhen Wang
2. Lu Xing
3. S. Hannah
4. H. Xu

In Information Systems and Management

1. Zhen Wang
2. Lu Xing
3. S. Hannah
4. H. Xu
5. Dongkyu Kim

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

1. Zhen Wang
2. Lu Xing
3. S. Hannah
4. H. Xu
5. Bruce J. Avolio
6. Eman Aly Abed El-Motalib
7. A. Mostafa

Citations in the corpus

• Not All Followers Socially Learn from Ethical Leaders: The Roles of Followers’ Moral Identity and Leader Identification in the Ethical Leadership Process (2019, result): “Although there is no direct evidence of this relationship, recent findings (Badrinarayanan et al. in press; Bai et al. 2019; Ogunfowora 2014) indicate that role modeling may indeed serve as a mediator between ethical leadership and followers’ general attitudes and behaviors in terms of job satisfact”