How leaders can turn their “good citizen” employees into bad

– Effective leaders motivate and inspire their teams to engage in “citizenship behaviors,” which go above and beyond job requirements to benefit the organization.
– There is a human tendency to balance out virtuous acts with subsequent behavior that is less virtuous.
– So even if effective leaders inspire their team members to be good citizens, we can’t assume that employee citizenship behaviors will then inspire leaders to respond in kind.

This MITSloan article by Anthony Klotz, Mark Bolino and Ghufran Ahmad got my attention. It pieces together three studies that showed two factors could make leaders of “good citizens” susceptible to unethical behavior: narcissistic feelings and close identification with team members.

I pulled out some bullets to highlight the article:

• Effective leaders motivate and inspire their teams to engage in what scholars call “citizenship behaviors,” which go above and beyond job requirements to benefit the organization.
• Citizenship behaviors can also benefit the individuals who demonstrate them.
• There is a human tendency to balance out virtuous acts with subsequent behavior that is less virtuous. For example, research shows that people are more likely to cheat and steal after buying environmentally friendly products than they are after buying conventional ones, and they’re more likely to express prejudice after recommending a Black or female candidate for a job.
• Research further shows that people also engage in “vicarious moral licensing,” granting themselves leeway to do bad things in light of good deeds performed by those who are interpersonally close to them.
• So even though effective leaders inspire their team members to be good citizens, we can’t assume that employees’ citizenship behaviors will then inspire leaders to respond in kind. Rather, leaders may feel entitled to take credit for their teams’ good deeds, thereby psychologically freeing themselves to engage in unethical behavior.

The article goes on to explain the implications of this behavioral science – and how companies might mitigate or prevent the conditions that can give rise to vicarious moral licensing. For example, for someone applying for a leadership role, look at their past behavior for evidence of narcissism — or to search for signs of empathy, which narcissists tend to lack.