myAIPMEthical Leadership and Ethical Voice: The Mediating Mechanisms of Value Internalization and Integrity Identity
Yuyan Zheng, Olga Epitropaki, Les Graham, Nick Caveney | Journal of Management
Abstract
"Drawing upon self-concept and social-information processing perspectives, we theorize and test a model linking ethical leadership with ethical voice via ethical value internalization and integrity identity. In two field studies (N = 972 and N = 765, respectively) of police officers and staff in the United Kingdom and an online three-wave study (N = 448), we investigate the mediating role of ethical value internalization and integrity identity in the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical voice. Study 1 uses time-lagged data and demonstrates ethical leadership to be positively related to followers’ ethical value internalization, which in turn enhances their integrity identity and ethical voice. The serial mediation effect of the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical voice via employees’ ethical value internalization and integrity identity is also significant. Further support for our hypotheses is provided using multisource data (Study 2) and a three-wave cross-lagged design (Study 3). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Following a number of serious corporate scandals, a consensus has emerged in the literature that ethical leadership matters (Brown & Treviño, 2006; Mayer, Aquino, Greenbaum, & Kuenzi, 2012). The majority of empirical studies and meta-analyses have shown positive effects of ethical leadership on individual and organizational outcomes such as work attitudes and job performance (Brown & Treviño, 2006; Chen & Hou, 2016; Ng & Feldman, 2015). We also observe a significant number of studies focusing on the role of ethical leadership in shaping ethical employee behaviors (e.g., Mayer et al., 2012). Ethical voice is an employee behavior of particular interest in this context (Avey, Wernsing, & Palanski, 2012; Huang & Paterson, 2017). It refers to a form of expression that challenges, and seeks to change, the ethically inappropriate behaviors and practices of others (Huang & Paterson, 2017). It is highly important for organizational functioning, as it reveals unethical issues and practices early on and allows for timely counteraction.
Past ethical leadership research has mainly focused on leaders’ direct influence on employee attitudes and behaviors, whereas there has been less exploration of mechanisms through which ethical leadership elicits those outcomes (Moore, Mayer, Chiang, Crossley, Karlesky, & Birtch, 2019). Most importantly, existing research has mainly examined mechanisms implied in the definition of ethical leadership, such as role modeling, trust, and social exchange aspects (Moore et al., 2019; Piccolo, Greenbaum, den Hartog, & Folger, 2010). Despite its valuable insights, such an approach runs the risk of circular theorizing (Antonakis, 2017). We extend prior ethical leadership research by focusing on employees’ self-concepts and personal identities (Lord, Brown, & Freiberg, 1999; Shamir, House, & Arthur, 1993) as possible explanatory mechanisms of the relationship between ethical leadership and behavioral outcomes such as ethical voice. Research on the potentially transformative role of ethical leadership regarding employees’ self-concepts and the process via which ethical leaders make salient those aspects of the followers’ selves associated with ethics and morality is still in its infancy (Gerpott, Van Quaquebeke, Schlamp, & Voelpel, 2017). Examining the role of ethical leadership on ethics-related personal identities is important as “followers’ self-concepts are powerful determinants of follower behavior” (Lord et al., 1999: 167). Of further interest is the mechanism via which ethical leadership influences individual identities. We argue that ethical leaders are important “meaning makers” (Ashford, Sutcliffe, & Christianson, 2009) who provide important cues about ethical norms in the organization and facilitate organizational-individual value convergence. Such value internalization further primes aspects of the self-concept that are aligned with those values, such as ethics-related identities.
In this paper, we integrate leadership self-concept (e.g., Lord & Brown, 2001; Lord et al., 1999; Shamir et al., 1993) and social information processing (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978) theories to extend current research on the mediating mechanisms of the ethical leadership-behavioral outcomes relationship beyond those implied in the ethical leadership definition (Brown, Treviño, & Harrison, 2005; Moore et al., 2019). We examine employee ethical voice as an important behavioral outcome and specifically propose two novel mechanisms of the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical voice—that is, (a) followers’ internalization of the organizational ethical values the leaders signal via their behaviors, and (b) the subsequent implication of followers’ self-concept, in particular aspects of the self that relate to ethics. The role of leadership for follower value internalization and self-concepts has been highlighted in prior work (Chen, Zhu, & Zhou, 2015; Kark, Shamir, & Chen, 2003; Shamir et al., 1993). In this study, we argue that ethical leaders motivate followers to internalize ethics-related values of the organization and that through this internalization they engage follower ethics-related identities. We specifically focus on follower integrity identity, which refers to the extent to which individuals take commitment to ethical principles as an inherently valuable component of their identity (Schlenker, Miller, & Johnson, 2009).
Our study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, by integrating self-concept (e.g., Lord & Brown, 2001; Lord et al., 1999; Shamir et al., 1993) and social information processing theories (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978), we contribute to the ethical leadership literature by testing ethical value internalization and integrity identity as important explanatory mechanisms of the relationship between ethical leadership and employee voice. We build on prior scholarly work postulating that systematic relationships exist between leadership, values, and self-identities (e.g., Brown & Treviño, 2009; Hannah, Schaubroeck, & Peng, 2016; Lord & Brown, 2001; Shamir et al., 1993) and highlight the importance of this motivational process for ethical leadership and ethical voice behaviors. We further argue that ethical leaders are highly instrumental for the convergence of individual’s ethical values to those of the organization. Drawing from social information processing theory (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978), we cast light on how ethical leaders act as important cues for the alignment of organizational and individuals’ values and how they make salient ethics-related aspects of the self, which subsequently drive employees’ voicing of ethical concerns. Through communication of ethical standards, and the guidance and feedback they provide on ethical issues, ethical leaders provide cues about the importance of the organization’s ethical values and help followers to align their own values with these. Such internalization of values makes salient those aspects of the follower self-concept that are related to ethics, such as integrity identity, which subsequently drive ethical voice behaviors.
Second, we extend the examination of mediating mechanisms concerning ethical leadership–ethical voice behavior beyond those implied in the ethical leadership definition (Brown et al., 2005). Past research on ethical leadership and the ethical behavior of followers has mainly adopted social learning, affective and social exchange perspectives (e.g., Ng & Feldman, 2012; Piccolo et al., 2010), but there have been recent calls for the examination of more follower-based mechanisms, distal from the definition of ethical leadership (e.g., Moore et al., 2019). In our paper, we argue for the importance of implicating followers’ values and personal identities in the ethical leadership-outcomes process.
Third, we contribute to the literature on ethical voice by moving beyond the group-focused perspective of past research (Huang & Paterson, 2017). The vast majority of existing studies on ethical leadership and ethical voice (e.g., Huang & Paterson, 2017) have adopted a group-level perspective and examined ethical voice as a “shared unit property” (Klein & Kozlowski, 2000). However, voice in nature is a form of self-initiated action (LePine & Van Dyne, 2001). It is typically not part of a person’s job description to voice ethical concerns (Parker, Bindl, & Strauss, 2010), and as such, “voice acts are self-implicating” (Ashford et al., 2009: 177). Thus, examining ethical voice predominantly as a shared phenomenon underplays individual agency and motivation and assumes homogeneity in the manifestations and drivers of ethical voice behaviors (Klein & Kozlowski, 2000). Furthermore, the study of ethical leadership and ethical voice on the group level of analysis assumes uniformity in leader behaviors and employee reactions and ignores the importance of one-to-one leader-follower relationships (Howell & Shamir, 2005) and the interpersonal nature of ethical leadership (Brown et al., 2005). We argue for an individualized path of ethical leadership influence on ethical voice via employees’ self-concepts—namely, values and personal identities. By raising the salience of ethical organizational values and connecting them with personal values and goals, ethical leaders instill followers with the belief that being ethical is organizationally important and personally meaningful. We theorize ethical voice as a form of behavioral enactment resulting from individuals’ desire to maintain self-consistency and correspondence between their behavior and their self-concept (Gecas, 1982). Thus, our model explores the relevance of the follower’s “self” in the ethical leadership–ethical voice relationship and the motivational significance of self-concepts for individuals engaging in ethical voice behaviors (Shamir et al., 1993).
Finally, we aim to offer more nuanced insights into the causal direction of the proposed relationships. Although prior conceptual work has generally proposed a causal path from personal values to self-concepts to behaviors (McAllister & Bigley, 2002; Verplanken & Holland, 2002), scholars have also argued for a possible reciprocal relationship (Hitlin, 2003; Lord & Brown, 2001). Still, empirical research testing this causal relationship is scant. By using cross-lagged analyses in our third study, we add to this literature by providing a stronger test of the direction of the leadership-value-identity-behavior link in an ethics context."
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Ethical Leadership and Ethical Voice: The Mediating Mechanisms of Value Internalization and Integrity Identity, Yuyan Zheng, Olga Epitropaki, Les Graham, Nick Caveney, Journal of Management, 2021