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Following the Leader

Smeal’s Linda Treviño studies perceptions of ethical leadership at the executive level. She and her coauthors find that leaders who reason at higher levels of ethical thinking are more likely to be perceived by their followers as ethical leaders. They say organizations should provide rigorous training for leaders that focus on facilitated ethical discussions with peers about hypothetical or real ethical dilemmas.

May 10, 2011

lt0_bio.jpgExecutive-level leaders greatly influence the ethical culture within an organization and the thinking of the high-level employees who work for them. They are strategic leaders who form organizational policies and procedures that set the ethical tone within a company but little is known about why some executives are more likely to be perceived as ethical leaders than others.

Recent research by a professor at the Penn State Smeal College of Business investigates the direct relationship between leaders’ style of ethical reasoning and followers’ perceptions of leaders’ ethical leadership.

Linda Treviño, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Behavior and Ethics, and coauthors Michael Brown of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, Sydney Finkelstein of Dartmouth College, and Jennifer Jordan of the University of Groningen, turn to Lawrence Kohlberg’s research on cognitive moral development for answers.

Kohlberg devised a hierarchical model of ethical reasoning that focused on the structures of reasoning that people use to decide what is and is not ethically right. Cognitive moral development explains how people think through ethical issues and resolve ethical dilemmas by focusing on their moral reasoning processes.

The researchers find that leaders who reason at a more sophisticated level of cognitive moral development are more likely to be perceived by their followers as ethical leaders. Given the definition of ethical leadership, this means that executives who reason at higher levels are perceived to care about employees’ well-being, value employees’ opinions, make decisions that balance multiple interests, act in a fair and principled manner, set ethical standards, and hold employees accountable to those standards.

The authors also examine the relationship between follower and leader cognitive moral development as a potential influence on the follower’s perception of ethical leadership.

The researchers find that divergence on cognitive moral development (when the leader’s cognitive moral development is above the follower’s) is associated with stronger follower perceptions of ethical leadership. They theorize that message salience is integral to being perceived as an ethical leader. Demonstrating ethical behavior and delivering moral messages are likely to be noticed, making the leader stand out to followers and contributing to perceptions of ethical leadership.

“The divergence finding is consistent with the social learning foundation of ethical leadership, which emphasizes the importance of the salience and credibility of the leader’s ethics message,” they write.

Both findings suggest that leaders who are high on cognitive moral development are not just reasoning silently about ethical issues but are translating this reasoning into communication and (or) action that affect followers’ perceptions of them as ethical leaders.

These findings offer new ways of thinking about ethical leadership for organizations. Organizations may want to incorporate this information into leadership selection and assessment programs. For example, executive searches should consider the sophistication of a candidate’s ethical reasoning and think of executives as “thought leaders” in terms of ethics.

Treviño and coauthors also recommend rigorous cognitive moral development-based training that focuses on facilitated ethical discussions with peers about hypothetical or real ethical dilemmas. Research says that such training is most effective when it lasts between 4 and 12 weeks and the dilemmas are based on the organization’s own experience.

“We know of no organizations that have taken an individual-difference approach to ethical leadership and none that have focused on the cognitive moral development of leaders or followers,” they write. “Therefore, this research has the potential to inform organizations about a new way of thinking about selecting executives and developing them as ethical leaders.”

Their study, “Someone to Look Up To: Executive-Follower Ethical Reasoning and Perceptions of Ethical Leadership,” is forthcoming in the Journal of Management.

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"At a Glance"

Linda Treviño and coauthors examine executive-follower relationships, followers’ perceptions of leaders’ ethical leadership, and the relationship between leader and follower cognitive moral development as a potential influence on follower perception. Key findings include:

  • Leaders who reason at a more sophisticated level of cognitive moral development are more likely to be perceived by their followers as ethical leaders.
  • Divergence on cognitive moral development (when the leader’s cognitive moral development is above the follower’s) is associated with stronger follower perceptions of ethical leadership.
  • Leaders who are high on cognitive moral development are translating this reasoning into communication and (or) action that affect followers’ perceptions of them as ethical leaders.
  • The researchers recommend rigorous cognitive moral development-based training that focuses on facilitated ethical discussions with peers about hypothetical or real ethical dilemmas.