Humility is increasingly recognized as an essential attribute for individuals at top management levels to build successful organizations. However, research on CEO humility has focused on how humble chief executive officers (CEOs) shape collective perceptions through their interactions and behaviors with other organizational members while overlooking CEOs’ critical role in making strategic decisions. We address this unexplored aspect of CEO humility by proposing that humble CEOs influence decision-making decentralization at the top management team (TMT) and subsequently promote an organizational ethical culture. Using a sample of CEOs and TMT members from 120 small- and medium-sized enterprises, we find strong support for our hypotheses. We discuss important implications for research on CEO humility and strategic leadership.

谦虚逐渐被认为是高层管理人员建立成功组织的基本要素。但是，有关CEO谦逊的研究集中于谦虚的首席执行官（CEO）如何通过与其他组织成员的互动和行为来塑造集体观念，同时忽略了CEO在制定战略决策中的关键作用。我们通过建议谦虚的CEO影响高层管理团队（TMT）的决策权力下放，并随后推广组织道德文化，来解决CEO谦卑这一未探索的方面。使用来自120个中小企业的CEO和TMT成员的样本，我们为我们的假设提供了有力的支持。我们讨论了有关CEO谦逊和战略领导力研究的重要意义。