How and When Leaders’ Perceptions of Team Politics Influence Justice Rule Adherence: A Moral Self-Regulation Perspective

Depeng Liu (), Mo Chen (), Isabelle Yi Ren (), Xuhong Pang and Yapu Zhao
Additional contact information
Depeng Liu: Shandong University
Mo Chen: Harbin Institute of Technology
Isabelle Yi Ren: Montclair State University
Xuhong Pang: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Yapu Zhao: Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Journal of Business Ethics, 2024, vol. 192, issue 2, No 9, 385-405

Abstract: Abstract Leaders enact justice in a workplace that is often replete with various political dynamics such as goal conflicts, cliques, and differential treatments. Understanding how and when workplace politics influence leaders’ justice rule adherence is theoretically and practically important. In this paper, we conceptualize the workplace as a political arena and adopt moral self-regulation theory to explore how and when leaders’ perceptions of team politics (PTP) impact their justice rule adherence. We hypothesize that leaders’ PTP prompts them to justify subordinates-directed unjust behaviors, which in turn reduces their justice rule adherence. Furthermore, we hypothesize that leaders’ high construal level mitigates the negative effect of PTP on justice rule adherence. We conduct three studies to examine our theoretical model at both the within- and between-person levels. Results from two interval-based experience sampling studies (within-person) and one time-lagged scenario-based experiment (between-person) demonstrate consistent support for our hypotheses. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and managerial implications of our research.

Keywords: Justification for unjust behavior; Justice rule adherence; Construal level; Moral self-regulation theory; Perceptions of team politics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-023-05549-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:192:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-023-05549-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-023-05549-z

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().