How does ethical leadership trickle down? Test of an integrative dual-process model

Although the trickle-down effect of ethical leadership has been documented in the literature, its underlying mechanism still remains largely unclear. To address this gap, we develop a cross-level dual-process model to explain how the effect occurs. Drawing on social learning theory, we hypothesize that the ethical leadership of high-level managers could cascade to middle-level supervisors via its impact on middle-level supervisors’ two ethical expectations. Using a sample of 69 middle-level supervisors and 381 subordinates across 69 sub-branches from a large banking firm in China, we found that middle-level supervisors’ ethical efficacy expectation and unethical behavior–punishment expectation (as one form of ethical outcome expectations) accounted for the trickle-down effect. The explanatory role of middle-level supervisors’ ethical behavior–reward expectation (as the other form of ethical outcome expectations), however, was not supported. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Strategic Thinking and Dimensions of Effective Leadership

WOS: 000444687500010The concept of strategic thinking, which becomes a necessity in today's management understanding, requires to think about every issue which is meaningful from strategic point of view. Leadership, on the other hand, appears to be the most important organizational variable providing a basis for this perspective. Strategic thinking provides the managers with the courage to make the right decision at the point they want to get opportunities, the convenience of gaining problem-solving skills and being able to see the big picture and identify threats. In this study, it is aimed to examine the relationship between strategic thinking and leadership and to reveal the areas of interaction according to the basic dimensions of both concepts. In the study, the conceptual framework for strategic thinking and leadership is first presented, and then the relational context is explained. It is understood that the sub-dimensions of strategic thinking and leadership variables are mutually complementary and that the strategic thinking capacity of the organization can be guided through the interaction of two variables in the framework of the findings and evaluations revealed in the study

Does entrepreneurial leadership foster creativity among employees and team?: The mediating role of creative efficacy beliefs

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how entrepreneurial leadership relates to workplace creativity in organizations from the compatibility perspective. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we propose that individual creative self-efficacy and team creative efficacy beliefs mediate the relationships between entrepreneurial leadership and individual and team creativity. This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and creativity through creative efficacy. Survey data were collected from multiple sources, including 43 leaders and 237 employees in eight Chinese companies. Cross-level relationships are tested by means of a hierarchical linear modeling analysis (HLM). The results reveal that entrepreneurial leadership is positively related to employee and team creativity, and these relationships are found to be mediated by both employee creative self efficacy and team creative efficacy. Furthermore, team creative efficacy is found to exert a cross-level mediating influence on the entrepreneurial leadership-employee creativity relationship. This study suggests that employees and teams led by entrepreneurial leaders are likely to produce creative outcomes. The findings further confirm the important role of creative efficacy beliefs in explaining how entrepreneurial leadership relates to employee and team creativity, as such beliefs serve as a within-level and cross-level mediating mechanism in these relationships. Our study is among the first to empirically investigate the concept of entrepreneurial leadership in a broader organizational context. We examine how entrepreneurial leadership contributes to workplace creativity. Our study shows that creative efficacy beliefs exert both within-level and cross-level mediating influences in the entrepreneurial leadership-creativity relation