Corruption, Fast or Slow? Ethical Leadership Interacts With Machiavellianism to Influence Intuitive Thinking and Corruption

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Muhammad U. Manara¹  Suzanne van Gils³  Annika Nübold¹  Fred R. H. Zijlstra¹ 

[1] Department of Work and Social Psychology, Maastricht University;Faculty of Psychology, University of Merdeka Malang;Department of Communication and Culture, BI Norwegian Business School

关键词: corruption;    ethical leadership;    Machiavellianism;    intuitive thinking style;    survey;    experiment;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.578419

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Ethical leadership has been suggested as an organizational factor that could reduce unethical behaviors in an organization. We extend this research by examining how and when ethical leadership could reduce followers’ corruption. We examined the moderating role of followers’ Machiavellianism and the mediating role of intuitive thinking style in the negative effect of ethical leadership on corruption. Across two different studies (field study and experiment), we found that ethical leadership decreases followers’ corruption (Studies 1 and 2) and that this negative effect is mediated by followers’ intuitive thinking style (Study 2). Furthermore, followers’ Machiavellianism moderated the direct negative effect of ethical leadership on corruption. However, the pattern of this moderation was not consistent. In Study 1, we found that ethical leadership has the strongest direct negative impact on corruption when followers’ Machiavellianism is high, whereas in Study 2, we found that ethical leadership has the strongest direct negative effect on corruption when followers’ Machiavellianism is low. The theoretical implications for corruption, ethical leadership, and information processing research, as well as practical implications for corruption prevention, will be discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY