Being “in Control” May Make You Lose Control: The Role of Self-Regulation in Unethical Leadership Behavior
By A. Joosten, M. Dijke, Alain Van Hiel, David de Cremer. 2013
114 citations recorded by the source corpus.
In the present article, we argue that the constant pressure that leaders face may limit the willpower required to behave according to ethical norms and standards and may therefore lead to unethical behavior. Drawing upon the ego depletion and moral self-regulation literatures, we examined whether self-regulatory depletion that is contingent upon the moral identity of leaders may promote unethical leadership behavior. A laboratory experiment and a multisource field study revealed that regulatory resource depletion promotes unethical leader behaviors among leaders who are low in moral identity. No such effect was found among leaders with a high moral identity. This study extends our knowledge on why organizational leaders do not always conform to organizational goals. Specifically, we argue that the hectic and fragmented workdays of leaders may increase the likelihood that they violate ethical norms. This highlights the necessity to carefully schedule tasks that may have ethical implications. Similarly, organizations should be aware that overloading their managers with work may increase the likelihood of their leaders transgressing ethical norms.
Subfields: Applied Psychology, Information Systems and Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/56f87fb6776ead9adabc0dc6fdff2bfd723e214f
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In Applied Psychology
In Information Systems and Management
In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Citations in the corpus
- Curbing the Undesirable Effects of Emotional Exhaustion on Ethical Behaviors and Performance: A Salesperson–Manager Dyadic Approach (2019, background): “) that can fluctuate dramatically over time (Joosten et al. 2014; Kammeyer-Mueller et al. 2012).”
- A process model of self-regulation and leadership: How attentional resource capacity and negative emotions influence constructive and destructive leadership (2015, background): “Joosten et al. (2014), following the ego depletion literature (Baumeister, Bratslavsky,Muraven, & Tice, 1998), reported that demandingwork situationswere associatedwith unethical leader behavior (i.e., destructive leadership) in resource-depleted leaders.”