Work Engagement and Machiavellianism in the Ethical Leadership Process
Open accessAbstract
Leaders who express an ethical identity are proposed to affect followers’ attitudes and work behaviors. In two multi-source studies, we first test a model suggesting that work engagement acts as a mediator in the relationships between ethical leadership and employee initiative (a form of organizational citizenship behavior) as well as counterproductive work behavior. Next, we focus on whether ethical leadership always forms an authentic expression of an ethical identity, thus in the second study, we add leader Machiavellianism to the model. For Machiavellian leaders, the publicly expressed identity of ethical leadership is inconsistent with the privately held unethical Machiavellian norms. Literature on surface acting suggests people can at least to some extent pick up on such inauthentic displays, making the effects less strong. We thus argue that the positive effects of ethical leader behavior are likely to be suppressed when leaders are highly Machiavellian. Support for this moderated mediation model was found: The effects of ethical leader behavior on engagement are less strong when ethical leaders are high as opposed to low on Machiavellianism.
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Research suggests that ethical leaders may even exploit policies and rules to enhance their own ends.
“Furthermore, research suggests that ethical leaders may even exploit policies and rules to enhance their own ends (Den Hartog & Belschak, 2012).”
From Taking Stock of Moral Approaches to Leadership: An Integrative Review of Ethical, Authentic, and Servant Leadership (2019) · cites this paper as Den Hartog & Belschak, 2012
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Self-citationServant Leadership and Work Engagement: The Contingency Effects of Leader–Follower Social Capital
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- Authors
- Den Hartog, D. N., & Belschak, F. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- ORCID
- Belschak, Frank D.
- Venue
- Journal of Business Ethics
- Published
- 2012-04
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 35-47
- ISSN
- 0167-4544 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-0697
- OpenAlex
- W2154533371
- Cited by
- 417
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 44 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 40.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Journal of Business Ethics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Social Sciences › Demography › Workplace Spirituality and Leadership
- Keywords
- ethical leadership, Machiavellianism, work engagement, employee initiative, organizational citizenship behavior, counterproductive work behavior, moral identity, surface acting, leader authenticity, moderated mediation
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