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Unfortunately, ethical breaches are common in many areas of life, including in organizations (e.g., Gorshunov, Armenakis, & Field, 2019). Due to the prevalence of ethical misconduct and the negative consequences of such behavior, there has been an increased interest in studying unethical behavior in order to better understand ethical decision-making and develop interventions to improve ethical decision-making (Kalichman, 2014). It is imperative to study the factors that influence ethical decision-making so that individuals can make better ethical decisions, and so that organizations can develop and implement better ethical decision-making interventions and policies designed to maximize ethical decision-making across all areas of the organization.
One specific area in organizations that is likely to have an important impact on ethical decision-making across the organization is leadership (Carson, 2003; Jenkins & Delbridge, 2017). The present study seeks to examine whether followers whose leaders engage in deception make better or worse ethical decisions, and whether they engage in different decision-making strategies than followers whose leaders are not deceptive.
Leader deception has been demonstrated to have a negative impact on both leader-follower relationships and organizational commitment (Griffith, Connelly, & Thiel, 2011). Leaders communicate important information to followers regarding organizational culture, values, and norms (Carson, 2003; Hinrichs, 2007; Oz, 2001). Research has demonstrated that it is imperative that followers are able to trust their leaders, in order to develop positive working relationships (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994); leader deception, however, has a negative impact on trust in the leader. Therefore, it is possible that followers who are subordinate to leaders who engage in deception may respond to ethical problem situations in a different way than followers whose leaders are not deceptive.
Mumford et al. (2006; 2008) have identified seven cognitive processes involved in ethical decision-making: recognizing circumstances, seeking help, considering others’ perspectives, dealing with emotions, anticipating consequences, questioning one’s own judgment, and looking within to analyze personal motivations. Multiple research studies have established these processes as important cognitive elements in effectively making ethical decisions (Antes et al., 2009; Antes et al., 2012; Caughron et al., 2011; Mumford et al., 2006). Individuals who make use of these ethical decision-making strategies are better able to analyze the ethical problem, its likely causes and consequences, the perspectives of other people involved, and the importance of the emotions at play. The use of these cognitive processes during ethical decision-making can be influenced by situational variables (Caughron et al., 2011; Martin et al., 2011) and emotions (Kligyte et al., 2013). Because these processes can be influenced by situational factors and emotions involved in the situation, it seems possible that having a deceptive (vs. honest) leader could influence the extent to which a follower makes use of these processes, and the quality of the ultimate decision.