The Emergence of Moral Leadership

Solinger, Omar N, Jansen, Paul GW and Cornelissen, Joep P ORCID: 0000-0003-2500-3876 (2020) The Emergence of Moral Leadership. Academy of Management Review, 45 (3). pp. 504-527.

Text The emergence of moral leadership Cornelissen.docx - Author Accepted Manuscript Download (302kB)

Abstract

The emergence of “moral leadership,” discussed here as a situation wherein individuals take a moral stance on an issue, convince others to do the same, and together spur change in a moral system, abounds in practice. Existing ethical and moral leadership theories, however, have remained confined to micro-level behavioral research. Therefore, in this paper, we develop a process theory of the socially situated emergence of moral leadership and its development into a broader movement affecting moral systems within and across formal organizations. We theorize the pathways through which moral leadership emerges; the triggers that bring about moral awareness and the moral courage to offer an alternative moral stance toward an issue, and leaders’ ability to deftly connect followers and their moral convictions into a broader movement, such that a moral system changes from within. With our process theory, we bridge between micro and macro levels of analysis, and highlight the crucial ability of leaders to be both principled and pragmatically savvy, and thus capable of bridging between their own moral convictions and those of others in order to develop a common and mutually binding ground toward change.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	behavioral ethics, boundary work, charisma, communication, emergence, ethical leadership, ethos, framing, institutional theory, micro-foundations, moral system, morality, organizational change, process, social issues, temporal, transformational leadership
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	28 Sep 2020 07:59
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 23:31
DOI:	10.5465/amr.2016.0263
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3102821