Leadership in organizations as a determinant of silence of employees on moral issues

由于不道德的行为，例如腐败、违反健康和安全法规或对社会不负责任的行为，经济和社会每年必须支付数十亿美元。因此，关于反对组织中不道德行为的最佳方法存在激烈的争论。在这方面，领导者的行为及其对员工行为的影响已被确定为关键因素。此外，全面理解假设的效果需要对道德领导和不道德领导行为进行分析。然而，在领导力研究中，领导力的这一“阴暗面”至今没有得到足够的重视。此外，（不）道德或（不）道德的领导导致真正的（不）道德或（不）道德的员工行为的核心命题到目前为止只得到了初步的检验。拟议的研究项目力求根据一个新的理论模型，采用一种方法上合理的设计（多层次、多来源、多方法、纵向），缩小这一知识差距。这个模型描述了创新的假设道德上反对的领导风格（真实的领导与滥用监督）的影响，故意沉默的员工对道德问题作为一个真正的道德（非）行为。此外，员工沉默现象还包括不沉默或采取行动的方面。多个调解人和主持人在不同层次的分析（二分体，组）和重要的组织成果（工作动机和性能），这与员工的沉默道德问题，被认为是。为了对该模型进行实证检验，我们收集了时间1（T1）时从事医疗保健行业的四个不同组织的数据。我们调查了737名员工和他们的94名主管。此外，20名主管和28名员工参加了结构化访谈，重点是频率，动机和后果的沉默有关的道德问题。这些数据被用来开发一种新的“情境判断测试”，用于测试组织中的沉默。计划在T2时重复所有评估并整合数据进行纵向分析。基于科学中的不道德行为，不幸的是，有必要在几个预备研究中开发新的工具来测量真实的领导力（N = 705）。由于我们计划的这一意外修改，T2的测量值尚不可用。我们研究项目的拟议延长旨在评估这些缺失的数据。总之，该项目将提供有关道德行为的重要驱动因素及其在组织中的测量的新见解，并为制定干预措施提供基础，促进对工作中的道德问题和问题的公开讨论。

Economy and society have to pay billions every year due to unethical behavior, e.g. through corruption, violation of health and safety regulations or socially irresponsible action. Therefore, there is an intense debate about the best way to work against unethical behavior in organizations. The behavior of leaders and their influence on the behavior of their employees have been identified as crucial factors in this context. Moreover, a comprehensive understanding of the assumed effects requires both the analysis of moral leadership and unethical leadership behaviors. However, in leadership research this “dark side” of leadership has received insufficient attention up to now. Furthermore, the central proposition that (un)ethical or (im)moral leadership leads to genuine (un)ethical or (im)moral employee behavior has only been rudimentarily tested so far. The proposed research project seeks to close this knowledge gap using a methodologically sound design (multi-level, multi-source, multi-method, longitudinal) based on a new, theoretically derived model. This model describes innovative hypotheses about the effects of morally opposed leadership styles (authentic leadership vs. abusive supervision) on the intentional silence of employees on moral issues as a genuine ethical (non-)behavior. In addition, the phenomenon of employee silence also encompasses aspects of non-silence or taking action. Multiple mediators and moderators at different levels of analysis (dyad, group) and important organizational outcomes (work motivation and performance), which are associated with employee silence on moral issues, are considered. In order to test this model empirically, we collected data from four different organizations engaged in the health care sector at time 1 (T1). We surveyed 737 employees and their 94 supervisors. In addition, 20 supervisors and 28 of their employees participated in structured interviews focusing on the frequency, motives and consequences of silence related to moral issues. This data is used to develop a new “Situational Judgment Test” for silence in organizations. At T2 it was planned to repeat all assessments and integrate data for a longitudinal analysis. Based on unethical behavior in science it was, unfortunately, necessary to develop new instrument for the measurement of authentic leadership in several preparatory studies first (N = 705). Due to this unexpected modification from our plan, measures at T2 are not available yet. The proposed prolongation of our research project has the goal to assess this missing data. Taken together, the project will give new insights regarding important driving factors of ethical behavior and their measurement in organizations and provides a basis for developing interventions that promote an open discourse about moral concerns and issues at work.