Research suggests that CSR is increasingly becoming an ambiguous signal of ethical information for external stakeholders. This is because a variety of firms—including those that are morally responsible and those that have been implicated in corporate scandals—routinely adopt CSR policies and invest in CSR initiatives. Not surprisingly, this trend has contributed to rising public skepticism of CSR. In the current research, we examine the unique role of CEO ethical leadership (i.e., relative to CSR) as an alternate source of substantive and rhetorical ethical signals for an important stakeholder group: job seekers. Integrating signaling theory, and the elaboration likelihood model, we argue that CEO ethical leadership substantively signals how fairly an organization treats its employees and its commitment to social and environmental responsibility. We further propose that ethical CEOs serve as a source of rhetorical signal that triggers moral elevation in job seekers. Using a policy capturing methodology in Study 1, we find that real job seekers place significantly greater weight on CEO ethical leadership in making job pursuit decisions compared to CSR. CEO ethical leadership also uniquely predicts job pursuit intentions relative to traditional factors such as salary, person-job fit, and person-organization fit. In a second, quasi-experimental field study (Study 2), we find support for the three hypothesized signaling mechanisms through which CEO ethical leadership influences job seekers. In a third, quasi-experimental field study (Study 3), we find that job seekers with strong (versus weak) moral identities are more likely to weigh the nuanced ethical information signaled by CEO ethical leadership compared to CSR. We discuss the implications of proactively advertising CEO ethical leadership during the recruitment process.

中文翻译：

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CEO道德领导力作为吸引求职者的实质性和修辞性道德信号的独特来源：求职者道德认同的调节作用

研究表明，企业社会责任日益成为外部利益相关者道德信息的模糊信号。这是因为各种公司——包括那些有道德责任的公司和那些卷入公司丑闻的公司——通常会采用企业社会责任政策并投资于企业社会责任举措。毫不奇怪，这种趋势导致公众对企业社会责任的怀疑不断上升。在当前的研究中，我们研究了首席执行官道德领导力（即相对于企业社会责任）的独特作用，作为重要利益相关者群体（即求职者）的实质性和修辞性道德信号的替代来源。结合信号理论和阐述可能性模型，我们认为首席执行官的道德领导力实质上表明了组织如何公平地对待员工及其对社会和环境责任的承诺。我们进一步建议，有道德的首席执行官可以作为修辞信号的来源，触发求职者的道德提升。使用研究 1 中的政策捕捉方法，我们发现，与企业社会责任相比，真正的求职者在制定求职决策时更看重首席执行官的道德领导力。首席执行官道德领导力还可以独特地预测相对于工资、个人与工作适合度以及个人与组织适合度等传统因素的工作追求意图。在第二项准实验性实地研究（研究 2）中，我们发现了对首席执行官道德领导力影响求职者的三种假设信号机制的支持。在第三项准实验性实地研究（研究 3）中，我们发现，与企业社会责任相比，道德认同强（相对于弱）的求职者更有可能权衡首席执行官道德领导力所传达的微妙道德信息。我们讨论了在招聘过程中主动宣传首席执行官道德领导力的影响。