TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-control Puts Character into Action
T2 - Examining How Leader Character Strengths and Ethical Leadership Relate to Leader Outcomes
AU - Sosik, John J.
AU - Chun, Jae Uk
AU - Ete, Ziya
AU - Arenas, Fil J.
AU - Scherer, Joel A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We wish to thank Abbey Philip and Kaushik Krishnaswamy Kumar for their assistance with this research. We also thank Section Editor Michael E. Palanski and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. An earlier version of this article appears in the Best Papers Proceedings of the 78th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Chicago, IL, USA, August 10?14, 2018.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Evidence from a growing number of studies suggests leader character as a means to advance leadership knowledge and practice. Based on this evidence, we propose a process model depicting how leader character manifests in ethical leadership that has positive psychological and performance outcomes for leaders, along with the moderating effect of leaders’ self-control on the character strength–ethical leadership–outcomes relationships. We tested this model using multisource data from 218 U.S. Air Force officers (who rated their honesty/humility, empathy, moral courage, self-control, and psychological flourishing) and their subordinates (who rated their officer’s ethical leadership) and superiors (who rated the officers’ in-role performance). Findings provide initial support for leader character as a mechanism triggering positive outcomes such that only when officers reported a high level of self-control did their honesty/humility, empathy, and moral courage manifest in ethical leadership, associated with higher levels of psychological flourishing and in-role performance. We discuss the implications of these results for future theory development, research, and practice.
AB - Evidence from a growing number of studies suggests leader character as a means to advance leadership knowledge and practice. Based on this evidence, we propose a process model depicting how leader character manifests in ethical leadership that has positive psychological and performance outcomes for leaders, along with the moderating effect of leaders’ self-control on the character strength–ethical leadership–outcomes relationships. We tested this model using multisource data from 218 U.S. Air Force officers (who rated their honesty/humility, empathy, moral courage, self-control, and psychological flourishing) and their subordinates (who rated their officer’s ethical leadership) and superiors (who rated the officers’ in-role performance). Findings provide initial support for leader character as a mechanism triggering positive outcomes such that only when officers reported a high level of self-control did their honesty/humility, empathy, and moral courage manifest in ethical leadership, associated with higher levels of psychological flourishing and in-role performance. We discuss the implications of these results for future theory development, research, and practice.
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U2 - 10.1007/s10551-018-3908-0
DO - 10.1007/s10551-018-3908-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85046683067
SN - 0167-4544
VL - 160
SP - 765
EP - 781
JO - Journal of Business Ethics
JF - Journal of Business Ethics
IS - 3
ER -