Must it be Good if you Have Strong Ability? The Influence of Subordinate Performance on Leaders’ unethical Directive

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-297-2_106How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Leader’s unethical behavior; subordinate performance; malicious jealousy

Abstract

Academic research confirms that unethical leadership harms organizational well-being, a concern amplified by media coverage of corporate scandals. While the effects on subordinates are well-documented, the impact of subordinates on leaders’ unethical behavior remains less explored. This study aims to explore the influence of high-performing subordinates on leaders’ ethical decisions within organizations. Utilizing linear regression analysis, we analyzed data from 150 leader-subordinate dyads to assess the relationship between high-performing subordinates and the issuance of unethical directives by leaders. Our findings indicate a significant inverse correlation: leaders are less likely to issue unethical directive when subordinates exhibit superior performance. Additionally, we identified malicious jealousy as a mediating factor, suggesting that leaders may act unethically in response to feeling threatened by the outstanding achievements of their subordinates. The study also revealed that the quality of the leader-subordinate relationship can mitigate such jealousy, with a positive relationship reducing the likelihood of unethical directives stemming from jealousy. These insights offer a novel perspective on the psychological underpinnings of unethical leadership and serve as an empirical foundation for the development of robust leader-subordinate dynamics within organizations.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Kaiyu Mi
AU  - Jiayi Liu
AU  - Shuqi Li
AU  - Xu Sun
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/10/31
TI  - Must it be Good if you Have Strong Ability? The Influence of Subordinate Performance on Leaders’ unethical Directive
BT  - Proceedings of the 2024 8th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 876
EP  - 883
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-297-2_106
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-297-2_106
ID  - Mi2024
ER  -