The Impact of Political Skill on Employees’ Perceptions of Ethical Leadership
Abstract
We investigate whether leader political skill (LPS) increases employees’ perceptions of ethical leadership, even among leaders who acknowledge engaging in deviant behaviors. Study 1 indicated a positive relationship between LPS and ethical leadership perceptions, resulting in improved commitment and reduced stress levels among employees. Study 2 indicated that politically skilled leaders who engaged in deviant behaviors were perceived to be more ethical than deviant leaders with low political skill. Study 2 also suggested that LPS was negatively associated with employee deviance. These results suggest that political skill promotes ethical employee behaviors and other beneficial outcomes but might also help leaders disguise deviant intentions.
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Ethical leadership may suppress citizenship in the presence of strong rules and HR policies and is unrelated to a leader's own workplace deviance behaviors.
“Supporting this perspective, ethical leadership may suppress citizenship in the presence of strong rules and HR policies (Kalshoven & Boon, 2012) and is unrelated to a leader's own workplace deviance behaviors (Harvey et al., 2014).”
From Taking Stock of Moral Approaches to Leadership: An Integrative Review of Ethical, Authentic, and Servant Leadership (2019) · cites this paper as Harvey et al., 2014
Of the moral approaches, only ethical leadership is associated with political skill.
“Of the moral approaches, only ethical leadership is associated with political skill (Harvey, Harris, Kacmar, Buckless, & Pescosolido, 2014), but individuals with low political skill may benefit the most from the ethical compliance environment generated by ethical leaders (Kacmar, Andrews, Harris, & Tepper, 2013).”
From Taking Stock of Moral Approaches to Leadership: An Integrative Review of Ethical, Authentic, and Servant Leadership (2019) · cites this paper as Harvey, Harris, Kacmar, Buckless, & Pescosolido, 2014
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- Authors
- Harvey, P., Harris, K. J., Kacmar, K. M., Buckless, A., & Pescosolido, A. T.
- Affiliations
- University of New Hampshire (US)
- Indiana University Southeast (US)
- University of Alabama (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-04-02
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 5-16
- ISSN
- 1548-0518 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-7089
- OpenAlex
- W1992254337
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 3
- FWCI
- 4.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies (publishedVersion)
- 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 › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Leadership and Management in Organizations
- Keywords
- political skill, ethical leadership, employee perceptions, workplace deviance, employee commitment, occupational stress
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