Why do leaders practice amoral management? A conceptual investigation of the impediments to ethical leadership

Abstract

We present a theoretical model of amoral management in an effort to understand impediments to ethical leadership. We posit that a number of anticipated negative consequences of engaging in ethical leadership are positively related to amoral management and these relationships are strengthened by contextual factors. Furthermore, we argue that under certain conditions, amoral managers may experience enough moral motivation to engage in initial ethical leadership practices. However, if the leader's newly acquired ethical leadership practices are met with resistance, such that the leader experiences substantial role stressors and reductions in short-term performance and becomes a victim of supervisor-directed deviance and/or workplace ostracism, then the leader will abandon ethical leadership practices and return to the status quo of being an amoral manager.

Not Biting the Hand That Feeds You: How Perverted Accountability Affects the Ethical Leadership of Dutch Mayors

“…(Mayor N) These mayors are in effect admitting that they have consciously failed in their task of being an ethical leader, even though they felt an obligation to act. For a variety of reasons, they deemed themselves not to be in a position to seek active reinforcement (see also Greenbaum et al, 2015).…”

“…Indeed, leading scholars have identified this as a significant knowledge gap (Olsen, 2013;Schillemans, 2016). In addition, as called for by Greenbaum et al (2015), the current research usefully contributes to the empirical study of why leaders may choose to practice amoral management: that is, to not act as ethical leaders. The research question is formulated as:…”

“…As such, the Dutch mayoralty presents an influential case (Seawright & Gerring, 2008) of a unique accountability regime under which an ethical leader operates, which provides crucial empirical insights into the underexplored issue of how accountability, as an institutional factor, affects ethical leadership (Greenbaum, Quade, & Bonner, 2015) as well the pivotal personal resilience of individual office holders (Hartley, 2018).…”

“…Such studies are rare in the literature on accountability, despite their ability to produce valuable insights (Karsten, 2015). In addition, labelled under various types of social and career risks, the existing integrity literature has identified conceptually plausible impediments to ethical leadership, but empirical studies remain rare (Greenbaum et al, 2015). In one of the few of such studies, Heres (2016) was only able to identify a few adverse accountability effects on ethical leadership among senior administrations, but suggested that others may have remained hidden.…”

Ethical Leadership Perceptions: Does It Matter If You’re Black or White?

“…When this ambiguity exists, it falls loosely under the category of what Treviño et al (2003) labeled ethically neutral leadership and what Carroll (1987) described as amoral leadership. These are leaders who for whatever reason, either intentionally or unintentionally, do not make their ethical values, beliefs, and actions clear to their followers (Carroll 1987;Greenbaum et al 2014).…”