Elevation at work: The effects of leaders’ moral excellence

Abstract

Leaders influence followers in many ways; one way is by eliciting positive emotions. In three studies we demonstrate that the nearly unstudied moral emotion of 'elevation' (a reaction to moral excellence) mediates the relations between leaders' and their followers' ethical behavior. Study 1 used scenarios manipulated experimentally; study 2 examined employees' emotional responses to their leaders in a natural work setting; study 3 compared the effects of elevation to those of happiness, serenity, and positive affect. We found that leaders' interpersonal fairness and self-sacrifice are powerful elicitors of elevation, and that this emotion fully mediates leaders' influence on followers' organizational citizenship behavior and affective organizational commitment. In the first study, we also observed a moderation effect of interpersonal fairness on self-sacrifice. Results underline the importance of positive moral emotions in organizations and shed light on the emotional process by which ethical leaders can foster positive organizational outcomes.

What triggers prosocial effort? A positive feedback loop between positive activities, kindness, and well-being

“…Finally, as preliminary evidence for the far-reaching influence of elevation, preschool teachers who reported feeling elevated by their school principals showed more positive organizational behaviors and more commitment to the school than those who simply reported feeling happy or serene (vianello, Galliani, & Haidt, 2010). Thus, we expect that expressing gratitude will promote elevation, which, in turn, will predict greater expended effort toward performing kind acts.…”

Transcending the Self: Awe, Elevation, and Inspiration

“…Elevation elicited by a leader can affect followers' ethical inclinations, with downstream implications for cooperative behavior in and commitment to the workplace (Vianello et al, 2010). In one study, workers at an Italian company read scenarios about a fictitious leader.…”

“…Instead, Factor II better predicted self-reported spiritual transcendence and Openness to Experience. Recent research using a modified version of the Elevation Scale suggests the possibility of a third factor emphasizing an affective component, which captures feeling like a better, more open person (Vianello, Galliani, & Haidt, 2010).…”

Moral exemplars in theory and practice

“…Third, there is research on admiration, or what Jonathan Haidt calls "elevation" (e.g. Algoe and Haidt, 2009;Viancello et al, 2010). It would be very interesting to connect these pieces of empirical work, and find out whether there is empirical validation of a connection between the emotion of admiration and imitation, as I am suggesting here, and how the identification of exemplars by other methods connects with the identification of exemplars through the emotion of admiration.…”