Whereas the study of leadership has generally focused on how leaders influence the behavior of their followers, this article focuses on how and when the behaviors of followers can influence leaders' behavior. Specifically, we use moral licensing theory to examine the possibility that positive follower behavior could lead to unethical behavior by leaders. Across a pilot study, 2 experiments, and 1 field study, our findings suggest that when their followers perform organizational citizenship behaviors, leaders are more likely to grant themselves moral credit to behave unethically. Moreover, we find that leaders are especially likely to gain moral credit as a result of followers' good deeds when leader narcissism is high or when they identify with their followers. Together, these studies provide evidence that good behavior on the part of followers may psychologically free leaders to engage in subsequent unethical behavior, thereby contributing to our understanding of how followers can influence leader behavior and how vicarious moral licensing operates in organizational contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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好的追随者会造就不道德的领导者吗？追随者公民身份如何导致领导者道德许可和不道德行为。


对领导力的研究通常集中于领导者如何影响其追随者的行为，而本文重点关注追随者的行为如何以及何时影响领导者的行为。具体来说，我们使用道德许可理论来研究积极的追随者行为可能导致领导者不道德行为的可能性。通过一项试点研究、两项实验和一项实地研究，我们的研究结果表明，当他们的追随者执行组织公民行为时，领导者更有可能给予自己不道德行为的道德信誉。此外，我们发现，当领导者自恋程度较高或认同追随者时，领导者特别有可能因追随者的善行而获得道德信誉。总之，这些研究提供的证据表明，追随者的良好行为可能会在心理上使领导者摆脱随后的不道德行为，从而有助于我们理解追随者如何影响领导者行为以及替代道德许可如何在组织环境中运作。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。