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Ethical Leadership in Italy - a preliminary study
No full textA recent review paper of leadership (Avolio, Walumbwa, & Weber, 2009) formulates ethical leadership as the "demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers" (page 424). In line with this definition, emerging research suggest that ethical leaders are characterized as honest, caring, and principled individuals who make fair and balanced decisions (Brown & Treviño, 2006). Given prominent ethical scandals in virtually every type of organization, the importance of an ethical dimension of leadership seems obvious. There is an increasing realization today that business leaders need to become more responsible, not just to their stockholders but also to their other stakeholders - consumers, employees, suppliers, the government, and local communities. Prentice-Hall conducted a survey in 1990, of which it was revealed that 68 % of the employees believed that executives' unethical behaviour resulted in decline of business standards, productivity and success (Bass & Bass, 2008). Most employees justified their own malingering as a consequence of their perception of executives' unethical behaviour. It is no reason to believe that this association should be different now, 22 years later. Although no one will deny that a business must be profitable, the sole preoccupation with profit to the exclusion or neglect of other considerations is no longer acceptable (Mendonca & Kanungo, 2007). Thus, without a consideration of ethics, understanding of leadership is incomplete. The 4 presentations of this symposium about ethical leadership represent different perspectives or challenges to the understanding of the phenomenon. In paper no. 1, entitled “The two faces of ethical leadership regarding employee deviance and OCB”, Jeroen Stouten presents 3 studies, using different methodologies and within 3 nations, to demonstrate that deviance is lower at higher level of ethical leadership. The first challenge in the symposium concerns the issue that high levels of ethical leadership may constitute some kind of drawback. Stouten reveals in his paper that ethical leadership may have a curvilinear relationship with voluntarily cooperative behaviors. Stouten suggest that organizations face a dilemma between rooting out unethical behavior and promoting positive, cooperative behaviors. Another challenge that can be linked to ethical leadership concerns the issue of courage. In paper no. 2, Wim Vandekerckhove and Suzan Langenberg, with their paper “Ethical leadership: Courage and procedures for speaking and hearing critique”, links ethical leadership to organizational critique and whistleblowing. The paper pays attention to the procedural aspect of providing necessary organizational critique. The authors argue that whereas procedures can lower the required level of courage for the speaker of concern, they do not lower the required level of courage of the listener of concern, those in leadership positions. Parrhesia or “fearless speech” is a term borrowed from the French philosopher Foucault (Langenberg, 2010; Mansbach, 2011), and is applied to build an interpretative model of courage required for both speaker and listener of courage. Three cases are presented, applying the “fearless speech” paradigm. Whistleblowing procedures in line makes organizational critique expected and intended, whereas courage is required for the unexpected and unintended, anticipating the groundlessness of the organization, Vandekerckhove and Langenberg argue. The third challenge to be presented in the symposium is to illuminate some of the work processes that seem to be associated with ethical leadership. In paper no. 3, with the title “Ethical leadership within a demand resource model framework”, Stig Berge Matthiesen and Lars Glasø investigate ethical leadership from a stress perspective, conducting a survey study. The Job demands- job resources model of Bakker and Demerouti (2007), with its flexible suggestions of possible job demands and job resources, was applied, with job engagement as the outcome variable. Job demands were e.g. job pace and role conflict, whereas some of the job resources were job variation and skill utilization. It is argued that also ethical leadership may constitute a job resource. In the paper no. 3 study it was found that ethical leadership may mediate the relationship between job demands, job resources, and job engagement. Thus, ethical leadership may constitute a difference within a job context pertaining widespread work stress. This type of leader conduct may however also facilitate positive job resources. The fourth challenge that we in our symposium can link to ethical leadership covers the cultural issue. The last presentation, entitled “Ethical leadership in Italy: A preliminary study”, by Andrea Bobbio, Cecilia Venezia and Stig Berge Matthiesen, presents Italian survey data on the ethical leadership subject. Italy is perhaps amongst the countries most people would not immediately associate with ethical leadership, as many leadership scandals in this country have recently gained widespread media coverage, also internationally. The paper refers to the GLOBE leadership project, with its finding about the Latin Europe leadership cultural cluster, which seems to be characterized by a comparatively lower value placed on the humane orientation (e.g. being fair, altruistic and supportive to others), also with a low score on the societal collective orientation (institutional collectivism). Therefore, the paper highlights the fact that the ethical leadership model indicates a standard for leadership that appears to be distant from the ideal one within this cluster and, consequently, addresses the question if this model may be useful or not in order to properly interpret leadership dynamics within Latin Europe. In this preliminary study, Italian data were compared with Norwegian findings, applying the same scale on ethical leadership. The Italian employees evaluated their immediate superiors more negatively than did the Norwegian counterparts, in terms of ethical leadership, and this gave support to the hypothesis of cultural differences in the display and perception of ethical leadership behaviors. However, the study also demonstrated a link between ethical leadership and some outcome measures (e.g. trust, commitment and job engagement), underlining the importance of ethical leadership within the Italian framework, and leaving several options open both for research and management development programs. REFERENCES Avolio, B. J., Walumbwa, F. O., & Weber, T. J. (2009). Leadership: Current theories, research and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 421-449. Bakker, A. B., & demerouti, E. (2007). The job demands- resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22. Bass, B. M., & Bass, R. (2008). Handbook of leadership: Theory, research & management applications (4th ed.). New York: Free Press. Brown, M. E., & Treviño, L. K. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 595-616. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.10.004. Langenberg, S. (2010). The model of critique in business. In Nandram, S. & Borden, M.E., eds. Spirituality in business, 219-232. Heidelberg: Springer Verlag. Mansbach, A. (2011). Whistleblowing as fearless speech: The radical democratic effects of late modern Parrhesia. In D. Lewis & W. Vandekerckhove (Eds.), Whistleblowing and democratic values (pp. 12-26). London: International Whistleblowing Research Network. Mendonca, M., & Kanungo, R. N. (2007). Ethical leadership. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press
Workplace Bullying Predicted by Trait Anger, and Constructive and Destructive Forms of Leadership. A 3-Wave Longitudinal Study
No full textWorkplace bullying describes someone who is exposed to negative acts repeatedly over a certain time period, and who has difficulty defending him or herself against these acts. The target of workplace bullying feels humiliated or oppressed. The meaningfulness of work tasks may deteriorate as an outcome of being subjected to abrasive behaviour such as bullying. Violent episodes may also occur. Many studies have demonstrated the negative health impact of workplace bullying, e.g. linked to psychosomatic complaints and post-traumatic stress disorder (Matthiesen & Einarsen, 2004), or suicidal thoughts (Nielsen et al., 2015). Due to the power issue the negative impact of workplace bullying may be extra strong when the perpetrator holds a leader position, in particular if he or she possesses the role as immediate superior. Previously, studies have found a link between destructive leadership and workplace bullying (e.g. Hoel et al., 2010). Yet, very few studies have investigated the link between various leadership styles and workplace bulling within a longitudinal design context. Moreover,
studies have demonstrated that the personality issue may play a part in terms of workplace bullying. In line with this, trait anger is found to influence deviant behaviour (Eisenberger et al., 2004). Little research has been conducted thus far, however, to investigate trait anger as part of the vulnerability profile among targets of workplace bullying. One may argue that trait anger may indicate a kind of passive aggressive disposition among the victims.
Data in this presentation is captured in Italy (longitudinal 3 wave study, with 3 months interval between the time lags). 463 Italian employees participated in the study, with mean age 44,5 years (age range 19-62 years of age). 56% of the respondents were women, and 27% of the sample had university degree or equivalent. About 2 in 3 respondents, 70%, was recruited from private sector. In the present study, trait anger (time point 1), as well as positive and destructive leadership styles (time point t1, t2 and t3) were explored, to investigate whether these antecedent factors predict workplace bullying at the final time point. Multivariate statistics revealed that destructive leadership quite strongly predicts future workplace bullying. Contrary to what we expected, constructive leadership does not correspond negatively with such misbehaviour (non-significant effects). Trait anger was found to have a more mixed impact on workplace bullying. Methodological weaknesses are discussed, along with some suggestions for future studies
The link between Destructive Leadership, Moral Disengagement and Counterproductive Work Behavior. A longitudinal study
No full textThe longitudinal link between Destructive Leadership, Moral Disengagement and Counterproductive Work Behavior among the followers is addressed in this survey study. Destructive leadership means that the organization’s interests or goals are undermined, for instance by deteriorating the wellbeing or effectiveness of the subordinates. Three main types of Destructive Leadership exist, according to Einarsen et al (2007): Tyrannical (hurting employees), Derailed (hurting employees as well as the organization) and popular but Supportive-Disloyal leadership (causing loss in engagement or productivity). Moral Disengagement is linked to the process of convincing the self that ethical standards do not apply to oneself in a particular context. Counterproductive Work Behavior is employee behavior that goes against the legitimate interests of the organization. A questionnaire was distributed 3 times to a sample of 281 Italian adult workers (7 weeks interval between each time lag). Various longitudinal associations were found between Destructive Leadership, Moral Disengagement and Counterproductive Work Behavior, all in the expected direction demonstrating negative impact of bad leadership. Supportive-Disloyal leadership was found to influence Counterproductive Work Behavior through Moral Disengagement. A methodological limitation is that the sample is of the convenience type. The study demonstrates negative organizational impact of Destructive Leadership within a longitudinal context. It may be fruitful to separate between different types of Destructive Behavior, and to explore further the Moral Disengagement – Destructive Leadership link. Supportive-Disloyal behaviors seems to be a more subtle path a leader can walk along in order to act destructively against the organization and the followers
A correlational study on the link between destructive-constructive leadership and moral disengagement of followers
No full textThe link between destructive leadership and moral disengagement is addressed in this study.
Destructive leadership can be defined as the ‘systematic and repeated behavior by a leader, supervisor or manager that violates the legitimate interest of the organization by undermining and/or sabotaging the organization’s goals, tasks, resources, and effectiveness and/or the motivation, wellbeing or job satisfaction of subordinates’ (Einarsen et al., 2007, p. 208). Various forms of destructive leadership exist, such as tyrannical, derailed, supportive-disloyal and laissez-faire behaviors (see the Destructive-Constructive model of Leadership, DCL; Einarsen et al., 2007). Fiske (2004) clarified the construct of moral disengagement as the process of convincing the self that ethical standards do not apply to oneself in a particular context. When moral reactions are separated from inhumane conduct the mechanism of self-condemnation can be disabled, that in turn may lead to moral disengagement. Many studies demonstrated various negative outcomes of destructive leadership, such as lower levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, self-rated and leader-rated job performance, and higher level of intention to quit, aggression towards co-workers and counterproductive behaviors (Tepper, 2007). Evidence of an existing connection between moral disengagement and harassment in the workplace already emerged (Claybourn, 2011). Few, if any, studies have thus far explored the interconnections between destructive leadership and moral disengagement, applying established inventories
A contribution to the Italian adaptation of the Destructive-Constructive Leadership Questionnaire
No full textThe study aimed to supply a preliminary contribution to the adaptation of the Destructive-Constructive Leadership Questionnaire (DCL; Ekvall & Arvonen, 1991; Aasland et al., 2010) to the Italian context. The scale, comprising 22 items across 5 dimensions, may represent a comprehensive measure of both negative leadership – such as Tyrannical, Derailed, Supportive-Disloyal, Laissez-faire behaviors – as well as positive leadership, that is Constructive behavior.
The study was carried out with 1230 participants (age: M = 41.75; SD =11.13), both men and women, employed for at least one year at the time of data collection (March-June, 2014). The research questionnaire include the DCL scale, a 5-item measure of Job Satisfaction (Brayfield & Rothe, 1951) and some socio-demographic questions, such as gender, age, level of education, seniority.
Results of a CFA performed via LISREL supported the goodness of fit of the 5 factor model (RMSEA = .03, CFI = .99). Reliability estimates by means of Cronbach’s alpha were acceptable and ranged between .63 to .84. A positive correlation emerged between the measure of Job Satisfaction and that of Constructive leadership. Conversely, the satisfaction measure had a negative connection with Destructive leadership, in line with theoretical assumptions.
The DCL could be a useful tool both for scholars and practitioners who want to detect different facets of leadership behaviors in applied empirical research or intervention, be it positive or negative facets. This is something that already existing leadership inventories rarely offer
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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