How do leaders foster morally courageous behavior in employees? Leader role modeling, moral ownership, and felt obligation
研究整合社会认知与社会交换理论，发现领导者的道德榜样通过培养员工的道德所有权和组织义务感，促进员工在目睹不当行为时挺身而出，且道德效能感增强这一效应。
Summary Recent trends in the academic literature indicate growing interest in bottom‐up strategies for addressing workplace misconduct. Scholars argue that leaders may empower employees to speak up and engage in morally courageous behaviors (MCB) when they witness transgressions. In this research, we integrate social cognitive theory and social exchange theory to explain how and when leaders—in their capacities as role models and organizational representatives—promote employee MCB. In Study 1, we find that leader ethical role modeling influences MCB by nurturing employee moral ownership and a sense of obligation to the organization. We show that the path from moral ownership to MCB is stronger for employees with high (versus low) moral efficacy. In Study 2, we find similar results with respect to the roles of safety‐specific moral ownership and felt obligation in explaining how leader safety role modeling influences safety‐related whistleblowing, a specific form of MCB. We also replicate the moderating effect of moral efficacy on the moral ownership—whistleblowing link. However, we find an unexpected negative moderating effect on the felt obligation—whistleblowing link. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding and promoting morally courageous behaviors in the workplace.