Locating Resistance Leadership: Ethical Climate, Injustice Perceptions and Resistant Influence Behavior

• In Event: Agency and Influence in Organizational Contexts

Abstract

This content analysis of organizational stories about workers own and other’s resistance influence behavior demonstrates relationships between such behavior perceptions of ethical climate and descriptions of injustice. Working adults (N = 151) were asked if they had engaged in, or observed co-workers, influencing others to break a rule or disobey a managerial directive and to tell the story if the incident. Participants were asked to rate the resistance influence behavior in terms of positive organizational behavior and rate their ethical organizational climate. Results indicated significant differences in how individuals rated their own and others resistance influence behavior. Findings also revealed significant differences in how participants perceived the ethical climate and the presence of resistance influence behavior within their organization. Content and contingency table analyses did not demonstrate significant differences in injustice types among resistance stories. Implications for theorizing resistance leadership conclude the study.

Authors

• Alaina C. Zanin, Arizona State University

• Nandita Sabnis, Arizona State U