A Qualitative Investigation of Unethical Leadership: Toward a Model of Antecedents and Consequences

Unethical leadership has been shown to harm organizations and their stakeholders, such as employees and customers. Previous work related to unethical leadership has been fragmented, with studies primarily focusing on interpersonal leader behavior (e.g., abusive supervision), others focusing on unethical acts (e.g., cheating, lying), others discussing leader attributes (e.g., narcissism), and still, others concentrating on leader strategies (e.g., performance pressure). The different approaches have created confusion and potential confounds in understanding unethical leadership and separating it from its causes and consequences. Moreover, the extant literature and existing measures and constructs often presume these constructs embody unethical leadership – without asking employees. Thus, it is essential to understand what employees perceive to be unethical leadership as a starting point for conceptualizing it and then investigating its antecedents and consequences. To understand and focus on employees’ perceptions, we take an inductive approach, exploring how employees perceive unethical leadership and identifying what they believe are the perceived causes and consequences of it. We offer an emergent model and discuss implications for theory, practice, and future investigations.