اثر رهبری دگرگون کننده معتبر بر اخلاق پیرو و گروه

We propose a theoretical model to examine how authentic transformational leadership influences follower individual and group ethical decision making. We investigate how follower moral identity and moral emotions mediate the effect of authentic transformational leadership on follower authentic moral action. Furthermore, we explore how authentic transformational leadership develops group ethical climate, which in turn contributes to enhancing group ethics and to developing follower moral identity and moral emotions. Future research and practical implications are discussed.

Hardly a day goes by without news of the unethical conduct of a leader, whether in the private sector, not-for-profits, or government organizations. Despite the media's focus on unethical leadership, we also hear from time to time about those leaders who strive to do the right thing, and followers who are willing to question them when they choose to do otherwise. The link between how a leader behaves in terms of moral and ethical behavior, and how the leader's followers view themselves and their actions as a consequence of leadership, is a link that has not been fully explored in either the leadership or ethics literature. Accordingly, in this article, we utilize the moral identity (e.g., Blasi, 1993, Blasi, 2004 and Reed et al., 2007) and moral emotions literature (e.g., Tangney, 2003, Tangney et al., 2007 and Weaver, 2006) to explain how leaders shape follower moral identity and moral emotions to function as central motivational mechanisms for taking moral action. Our work is grounded on Bass and Steidlmeier's (1999) authentic transformational leadership theoretical framework, which is essentially based on the seminal work of Burns, 1978 and Bass, 1985. They studied leaders who, by being both morally uplifting and acting as change agents, transformed followers into moral agents and effective leaders. We specifically posit the dynamics of the relationship between “authentic transformational leadership” and the moral identity and moral actions of followers. We begin our discussion by focusing on what we argue are key mediating mechanisms between leadership and moral action, referred to as one's moral identity and moral emotions. We then explore how both moral identity and emotions enable individuals to address complex ethical challenges, and to ultimately behave and lead more ethically. Furthermore, we investigate how authentic transformational leadership influences group moral action through influencing group ethical climate, which leads to group ethics and helps develop one's moral identity and moral emotions. This focus leads us to the presentation of a model that links leadership, moral identity, moral emotions, ethical climate, and authentic moral action to provide a framework for organizing the remainder of our discussion. Weaver (2006) argued that future ethics research should focus on examining what constitutes one's moral identity (i.e., what a person is or has) rather than merely what a person thinks (i.e., moral reasoning), or what a person does (i.e., moral behavior). Weaver also recommended an examination of how intra- and extra-group factors could affect or help shape one's moral identity. For example, the ethical and moral standards that leaders set, and are seen living up to, could positively affect the moral identity and moral emotional development of individuals led by those leaders. Where leaders fail to live up to and display high ethical standards, we see that groups, organizations, and even societies can become corrupt (Bandura, 1991, Gardner, 1990 and Gottlieb and Sanzgiri, 1996) as evidenced by cases of ethical scandals at Enron, WorldCom, BP, the Catholic Church, and Nazi Germany. With all of the bad press that leaders have received for recent unethical violations in both the public and private sectors (Brown and Treviño, 2006b and Schminke et al., 2005), it is somewhat surprising that prior theories and research on ethics and leadership have not explored the influence of leadership on a follower's level of moral identity, moral emotions and authentic moral action. Similarly, prior theory and research has also failed to examine how leadership and the ethical climate of a work group impacts individuals and group moral actions/outcomes. The model presented in Fig. 1 captures what we suggest are the central elements in determining follower moral identity, moral emotions, and ultimately moral action. In our proposed model, we argue that authentic transformational leaders will positively raise the moral identity and moral emotions of their followers based on prior theory and research on authentic, ethical and transformational leadership (Avolio and Gardner, 2005, Avolio et al., 2004, Bass and Riggio, 2006 and Brown and Treviño, 2006b). Next, using Bandura's (1991) social cognitive theory, we explain how the ethical orientation and style of leadership influences individual follower and group ethics and actions. Specifically, we examine how individuals are shaped through social learning processes such as moral role modeling or vicarious learning, and how these learning processes then develop an individual's capability to address complex ethical challenges (McCauley, Drath, Palus, O'Connor, & Baker, 2006). Beyond our focus on leadership, using theories of moral identity (Aquino and Reed, 2002 and Blasi, 1984), self-concept-based motivation (Leonard et al., 1999 and Shamir et al., 1993), authentic leadership development (Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May, & Walumbwa, 2005), and moral emotions (Eisenberg, 2000 and Tangney, 2003), we also explore how moral identity and moral emotions become persistent motivational sources for authentic moral action. As shown in Fig. 1, we will also examine how group ethical climate, in addition to influencing group moral action, serves as a mediating mechanism through which leadership impacts follower moral identity and moral emotions, which then influences follower moral action. The model presented in Fig. 1 provides the general guiding framework and boundaries for our discussion, while Table 1 offers a more detailed explanation regarding the underlying influence that authentic transformational leadership is expected to have on individual and group ethics.

Despite the increased emphasis on ethics-related models of leadership over the last 30 years, there has been relatively little focus on testing their effects on follower and group ethics. In this paper, we have attempted to fill this gap by introducing a theoretical framework that explores how authentic transformational leadership influences follower moral identity, moral emotions, and group ethical climate, and their roles in promoting follower authentic moral action and group moral action. How followers develop their moral identity and moral emotions may be an important topic especially where we have to increasingly rely upon each follower's internal compass to guide what is considered right and wrong. We hope that by focusing on these important constructs, we have helped pave the way for investigating the role of ATL in developing follower moral perspectives, positive moral emotions, and group moral action. To some degree, we have returned after three decades to Burns' (1978) original distinction that transforming leaders are morally uplifting, while attempting to explain how the “uplifting” process occurs. This seems like an appropriate starting point to launch future work on this core and unique position in ATL theory.