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The current study investigated the role that perceived ethicality of one's leader, as well as perceptions of organizational climate and justice, have in shaping one's own ethical leadership. We expected positive perceptions of organizational climate and justice to increase the trickle-down effect of ethical leadership from higher to lower levels. We used ratings of ethical leadership from 286 followers nested within 167 leaders, who provided ratings of their own leader's ethical leadership as well as their perception of the ethical climate and organizational justice of their organization. Contrary to expectations, multi-level modeling showed that negative perceptions of organizational climate and justice increased the trickle-down effect of ethical leadership. The discussion focuses on the possibility that the counter-intuitive finding may be due to differences in situational strength between higher and lower level leaders (i.e., less consensus at lower levels leads to unclear norms around ethics and justice and greater reliance of leadership for guidance). Further research on situational strength may better delineate when individual versus organizational variables are more influential in moderating the trickle-down effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethical leadership encompasses the personal conduct of the leader and the leader's expectations that followers behave ethically. Building on social learning and social exchange theory, we propose that ethical leadership interacts with coworker ethicality to predict personnel's ethical intentions and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Using data collected from a large organizational sample, we use moderated regression analysis to test the main and interactive effects of ethical leadership and coworker ethicality on ethical intentions and OCB as it relates to conscientiousness, civic virtue, and altruism. Study 1 examines how ethical leadership and coworker ethicality interact to predict ethical intentions using a sample of 1,551 military personnel. Study 2 extends the results of Study 1 by examining how ethical leadership and coworker ethicality interact to predict OCB using a combined sample of 3,363 military and civilian personnel. Consistent with social learning theory, we found positive relationships between ethical leadership and coworker ethicality with ethical outcomes (i.e., intentions and OCB). Consistent with social exchange theory, we found that perceptions of ethical leadership strengthened the relationship between coworker ethicality and ethical intentions and OCB, highlighting the importance of leaders in shaping the behavior of organizational members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not all social groups survive the passage of time. Groups once in existence are now but memories of the past. If history is any indication, other social groups are likely to experience a similar fate and join the list of groups that once were. The concern that one's group might one day join such a list is the focus of this paper. Specifically, we examine the social psychology of collective angst - a group-based emotion that stems from concern for the future vitality of one's social group. We begin by discussing the anatomy of collective angst and how it differs from other collective emotions. We then outline factors that foster collective angst. Importantly, we provide a novel theoretical framework outlining both constructive and destructive means by which members may defend against a future that does not include their group. For example, we examine collective angst as a facilitator of, among other things, ingroup cohesion and outgroup aggression. Finally, we discuss how collective angst has manifested on the world stage as well as implications for relations within and between groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]