Situational impacts on leader ethical decision-making

Failure of Ethical Leadership: Implications for Stakeholder Theory and “Anti‐Stakeholders”

“…With this context in mind, this research examines a situation where organizational leaders and followers actively sought to deceive internal and external stakeholders about their treatment of captives under their charge (see Stenmark and Mumford for a more expansive article on situational variables and ethical leadership). The organization is the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and their stakeholders include the White House, U.S. Senate, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), media representatives, internal oversight groups, and others.…”

Inspiring and Equipping Students to Be Ethical Leaders

“…Building on the groundbreaking work of Jones and Bandura, scholars have identified a number of additional situational variables that may influence our decision to engage in unethical behavior (e.g., Detert, Trevino, & Sweitzer, ; Hoyt, Price, & Poatsy, ; Stenmark & Mumford, ). Following is a listing of these situations and an example of how each of these situations might occur within a university setting: Performance pressure (us versus them; winning at all costs) —imagine a college athletic team culture in which everyone is so committed to winning that the team leaders look the other way when a few teammates start using steroids to increase their strength. Threats to self‐efficacy (pressure to be successful) —engineering majors who cheat on a final exam because they are in danger of failing a required class. Decision‐making autonomy (nobody will find out) —a student spends club funds in an inappropriate manner because s/he is confident that nobody will ever find out. Interpersonal conflict (who cares?)…”

“…Building on the groundbreaking work of Jones and Bandura, scholars have identified a number of additional situational variables that may NEW DIRECTIONS FOR STUDENT LEADERSHIP • DOI: 10.1002/yd influence our decision to engage in unethical behavior (e.g., Detert, Trevino, & Sweitzer, 2008;Hoyt, Price, & Poatsy, 2013;Stenmark & Mumford, 2011). Following is a listing of these situations and an example of how each of these situations might occur within a university setting:…”

Creating Better Employees through Positive Leadership Behavior in the Public Sector

“…Given the adverse impact such intentional and illegal unethical practices can pose to the business community, industry and the ordinary people in the wider community, researchers have paid great attention to leader ethical decision making in the academic literature (Eisenbeiss, 2012;Stenmark & Mumford, 2011). As Brown, Trevino, and Harrison (2005) state ethical leadership relates to "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two way communication, reinforcement and decision making" (p. 120).…”