Cooperation as a function of leader self‐sacrifice, trust, and identification

Abstract

PurposeTo examine the psychological processes underlying the effect of leaders' self‐sacrifice on follower cooperation, that is, trust and collective identification.Design/methodology/approachThe main effect of leader self‐sacrifice was tested on people's willingness to cooperate. In addition, people's perceptions of trust and collective identification were assessed. These effects were tested using a public good experiment, and a cross‐sectional survey in a German multinational company.FindingsThe findings from both the experimental study and the cross‐sectional survey showed that leader self‐sacrifice has a positive effect on cooperation (measured by contributions in a public good dilemma and organizational citizenship behavior in the survey). Moreover, perceptions of trust in the leader and feelings of collective identification mediated this effect of self‐sacrifice.Practical implicationsThe present finding indicates that organizations need to focus on and implement leadership styles based on self‐sacrifice. It is suggested that one possible way to do this is to train managers more effectively in how they can clearly communicate the goals that they personally value and for the achievement of which they are willing to engage in sacrificial behavior.Originality/valueThis research identifies important mediators of a leadership style considered to be effective in organizations. In addition, the findings of this research also show the usefulness of both experimental paradigms and survey studies to examine the issue of leader self‐sacrifice.

Leading With(Out) Sacrifice? A Public-Goods Experiment with a Super-Additive Player

“…These studies find that participants indeed reciprocate to first movers who provide an example. Our results show that a leader's sacrifice (Choi, Mai-Dalton 1998;De Cremer, van Knippenberg 2005) considerably supports the emergence of this behaviour.…”

When Organizational Identification Elicits Moral Decision-Making: A Matter of the Right Climate

“…The literature on organizational identification has discussed its relationship to pro-social (De Cremer et al 2008;De Cremer and van Knippenberg 2005) and pro-organizational behavior (Ashforth and Mael 1989;Riketta 2005), and in a few studies has been related to ethical organizational behavior (Walumbwa et al 2011). In the present paper, we extend this perspective by addressing the content of the norms that organizational identification motivates employees to adhere to, and by illustrating the importance of an ethical organizational climate to ensure moral decision-making in organizations.…”

When Rules Really Make a Difference: The Effect of Cooperation Rules and Self-Sacrificing Leadership on Moral Norms in Social Dilemmas

“…This had profound implications for behavior: Rules installed by self-benefiting leaders only instigated cooperation if people's behavior was monitored, whereas rules installed by self-sacrificing leaders unconditionally instigated cooperation. Although the positive impact of self-sacrificing leaders over self-benefiting leaders has been shown before (Choi and Mai-Dalton, 1998;De Cremer and van Knippenberg, 2005;De Cremer et al, 2006, 2009, it has never been studied how this aspect of leadership interacts with installing a rule of cooperation. Mere main effects of leadership on cooperation would be in line with, for example, earlier findings that leaders evoke behavioral modeling (Gardner and Cleavenger, 1998).…”

“…However, leaders who are perceived to be self-interested can expect little cooperation from followers. Being selfsacrificing rather than self-benefiting promotes cooperation (De Cremer, 2002;De Cremer and van Knippenberg, 2005;De Cremer et al, 2009;Yorges et al, 1999).…”