Prior research on the effects of leader humility implies that the more humility the leader exhibits, the greater the positive effect on recipients (e.g., followers and teams). However, little or no attention has so far been paid to the effects on the actors (e.g., leaders), who espouse humble behavior. In response to recent calls to theorize and examine how humility impacts these actors, this research draws on moral licensing theory, adopting an actor-centric approach to examine the mechanisms through which leader humility can lead to unethical behavior, such as unethical behavior for an organization (pseudobeneficial) and unethical behavior toward the organization (detrimental). Ultimately, we propose leader relational accountability as a moderator to mitigate the moral licensing effect of humble leaders. Results from a survey study provide support for the proposed hypotheses.

先前关于领导者谦逊影响的研究表明，领导者表现出的谦逊越多，对接受者（例如，追随者和团队）的积极影响就越大。然而，到目前为止，很少或根本没有关注对支持谦逊行为的演员（例如领导者）的影响。为了响应最近对谦逊如何影响这些行为者进行理论化和研究的呼声，本研究借鉴了道德许可理论，采用以行为者为中心的方法来研究领导者谦虚可能导致不道德行为的机制，例如组织的不道德行为（伪有益的）和对组织的不道德行为（有害）。最终，我们建议将领导关系问责制作为调节器，以减轻谦虚领导的道德许可效应。