The Effects of Authentic Leadership in Bolstering Followers’ Ethical Decision-Making in the Face of Temptation: An Experimental Study

• In Event: Ethics in Decision Making

Abstract

The present research investigates the impact of authentic leadership in bolstering followers’ morality, operationalized as ethical decision-making in the face of temptation. This experiment finds that authentic leadership and temptation interacted to affect individuals’ ethical decision-making. Specifically, authentic leadership significantly inhibited individuals’ from making unethical decisions in the face of temptation, whereas followers of inauthentic leaders were more likely to succumb to temptation. Authentic leadership did not have a significant impact when temptation was absent. Further, results showed a significant moderated-mediated effect whereby the interactive effect of authentic leadership and temptation on individuals’ guilt was mediated through the nature of the ethical decision. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Authors

• Anna M. Cianci, Wake Forest University

• Sean T. Hannah, Wake Forest University

• Ross Person Roberts, High Point University

• George Theodore Tsakumis, University of Delaware