Understanding the Multifaced and Dynamic Nature of Behavioral Integrity in Leadership: Multi-Foci Referents and Implications for Identity and Identification Processes

Abstract

This thesis investigates the concept of behavioral integrity within organizational settings, examining its importance for leaders, organizations, and followers. Employing a multi-focal approach, this research integrates theories of behavioral integrity, social learning, social identity, leader identity, and ego depletion to explore how behavioral integrity influences various workplace outcomes across different organizational actors. The primary purpose is to address the need for a more comprehensive exploration of behavioral integrity through a series of four empirical studies employing three distinct research methodologies at two levels of analysis. This examination is designed to provide insights into the entire process, ranging from novel antecedents to diverse outcomes through different mediating mechanisms, and to capture the nuances of behavioral integrity, thus enhancing both its empirical depth and practical relevance.
The thesis comprises two main empirical papers. The first paper examines the effects of leader and organizational behavioral integrity on follower outcomes, specifically focusing on how behavioral integrity influences followers’ behavioral integrity and organizational citizenship behaviors through the mediating role of identification with leaders and organizations. Through three studies—two online experiments and a multi-source field study—this paper demonstrates that both leader and organizational behavioral integrity significantly enhance followers' identification, which in turn promotes ethical and prosocial behaviors. The second paper shifts focus to a within-person level, exploring daily fluctuations in leader behavioral integrity and its impact on leaders’ well-being and behaviors. This paper presents a single experience sampling study that explores how daily variations in leader identity influence leaders’ behavioral integrity and subsequently their well-being and leadership behaviors through the mechanisms of identity threat and resource depletion. Findings indicate that strong daily leader identity enhances daily behavioral integrity, which reduces identity threats and resource depletion, thereby improving leaders' daily psychological need fulfillment and engagement in effective leadership behaviors.
Overall, this thesis contributes to the behavioral integrity literature by demonstrating the importance of considering multiple organizational actors and levels of analysis, thereby offering a more comprehensive understanding of how behavioral integrity functions within organizations. It highlights the dynamic nature of behavioral integrity, not only in how it influences followers but also in its day-to-day impact on leaders, providing significant implications for both theory and practice in organizational behavior.