My boss leads the right way: Understanding how and when the institutionalization of ethics impacts supervisors’ leadership styles

Abstract

Our paper aims to extend the management literature that independently examines ethical leadership and abusive supervision within the same theoretical framework. Whereas the majority of this literature has sought to uncover the shared outcomes of abusive supervision and ethical leadership, we investigate the shared antecedents of abusive supervision and ethical leadership. To accomplish this, we ground our research in deonance theory. Accordingly, we argue that the institutionalization of ethics operates as a salient ethical ought force. Subsequently, the institutionalization of ethics should positively impact perceived supervisor duty orientation. In turn, as perceived supervisor duty orientation is positively impacted, this results in a positive impact on ethical leadership and a negative impact on abusive supervision. We also argue that the positive impact of the institutionalization of ethics on perceived supervisor duty orientation is attenuated when LMX is relatively high compared to relatively low. Across three studies, we find support for the conceptualized model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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