The consequences of ethical voice inside the organization: An integrative review.

To better understand the consequences of ethical voice in organizations, we have brought together multiple relevant literatures that focus on behaviors that fit our definition of ethical voice but have previously not been studied together, including internal reporting, social issue selling, ethical voice (in groups), moral objection, and confronting prejudice. Research across them has found both positive and negative responses to ethical voice. Further, emerging evidence suggests ambivalent attitudes and emotions toward ethical voice and voicers, hinting at more complex outcomes. However, a systematic understanding of when and why positive, negative, and more complex outcomes occur has remained elusive and is much needed. Building on empirical evidence, theory and research on ethical decision-making, self-enhancement/protection, and ambivalence, we offer an integrative theoretical framework to understand when and why ethical voice leads to targets'/observers' support for, undermining of, and inaction/disengagement from ethical voice and the voicer. We propose a morally motivated process, an instrumentally motivated process, and emotional ambivalence to explain these different responses. We also propose boundary conditions. We discuss our contributions and propose future directions for ethical voice research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Promotive and prohibitive ethical voice: Coworker emotions and support for the voice.

Despite the importance of ethical voice for advancing ethics in organizations, we know little about how coworkers respond to ethical voice in their work units. Drawing on the fundamental approach/avoidance behavioral system and the promotive and prohibitive distinction in the voice literature, we distinguish between promotive and prohibitive ethical voice and propose that they engender different emotions-elevation (an approach-oriented moral emotion) and feelings of threat (an avoidance-oriented emotion), respectively, in coworkers. We propose that these emotions differentially influence coworker subsequent responses to the ethical voice behavior. In a time-lagged critical incident survey and two experimental studies, we consistently found support for our hypothesis that promotive ethical voice elicits moral elevation in coworkers with subsequent coworker verbal support for the ethical voice (an approach-oriented response). However, results for prohibitive ethical voice were more complex because prohibitive ethical voice leads to mixed emotions in coworkers. It sometimes leads to feelings of threat, with indirect negative effects via threat on coworker support. But surprisingly, it also leads to coworker elevation and hence can have positive indirect effects via elevation on coworker support. We will discuss the research and practical implications of these findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Joint influences of individual and work unit abusive supervision on ethical intentions and behaviors: a moderated mediation model.

We develop and test a model based on social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1991) that links abusive supervision to followers' ethical intentions and behaviors. Results from a sample of 2,572 military members show that abusive supervision was negatively related to followers' moral courage and their identification with the organization's core values. In addition, work unit contexts with varying degrees of abusive supervision, reflected by the average level of abusive supervision reported by unit members, moderated relationships between the level of abusive supervision personally experienced by individuals and both their moral courage and their identification with organizational values. Moral courage and identification with organizational values accounted for the relationship between abusive supervision and followers' ethical intentions and unethical behaviors. These findings suggest that abusive supervision may undermine moral agency and that being personally abused is not required for abusive supervision to negatively influence ethical outcomes.

Leader-follower values congruence: are socialized charismatic leaders better able to achieve it?

In a field study, the authors investigated the relationship between socialized charismatic leadership and values congruence between leaders and followers. Socialized charismatic leadership theory holds that charismatic leaders convey a values-based message and bring about values congruence between themselves and their followers. Yet, other research suggests that individuals' values are stable and closely linked to occupational membership and that employees' values are therefore likely to be quite difficult to change. Results of this study suggest that occupations are indeed associated with multiple types of employee values. The results also demonstrate that, for 3 of the 4 values studied, socialized charismatic leadership is associated with values congruence between the specific values leaders say they transmit to their followers and the values their followers say they use in work. The findings shed additional light on the values alignment process. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Managerial modes of influence and counterproductivity in organizations: a longitudinal business-unit-level investigation.

The authors studied the effect of 3 modes of managerial influence (managerial oversight, ethical leadership, and abusive supervision) on counterproductivity, which was conceptualized as a unit-level outcome that reflects the existence of a variety of intentional and unintentional harmful employee behaviors in the unit. Counterproductivity was represented by an objective measure of food loss in a longitudinal study of 265 restaurants. After prior food loss and alternative explanations (e.g., turnover, training, neighborhood income) were controlled for, results indicated that managerial oversight and abusive supervision significantly influenced counterproductivity in the following periods, whereas ethical leadership did not. Counterproductivity was also found to be negatively related to both restaurant profitability and customer satisfaction in the same period and to mediate indirect relationships between managerial influences and distal unit outcomes.

Socialized charismatic leadership, values congruence, and deviance in work groups.

The authors conducted a field study to investigate the relationship between socialized charismatic leadership and deviance in work groups. Because socialized charismatic leaders are thought to play an ethical leadership role, the authors hypothesized that the socialized charismatic leadership style would be associated with reduced deviance in the leader's work group. This prediction was supported for both the interpersonal and the organizational dimensions of deviance. Next, the authors examined the mediating role of values congruence. The results were partially supportive of the values congruence mediating hypothesis. Implications for future research and for management are discussed.