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Look up, look around: Is there anything different about team-level OCB in China?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Shenjiang Mo ,
Zhongming Wang ,
Kleio Akrivou  and
Simon A Booth
Shenjiang Mo
Affiliation:
Lingnan College, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Zhongming Wang
Affiliation:
School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Kleio Akrivou
Affiliation:
Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, UK
Simon A Booth
Affiliation:
Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, UK
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Abstract

Ethical leadership has been widely identified as the key variable in enhancing team-level organizational citizenship behavior (team-level OCB) in western economic and business contexts. This is challenged by empirical evidence in China and findings of this study. Our study examined the relationship between ethical leadership, organizational ethical context (ethical culture and corporate ethical values) and team-level OCB. Team-level data has been collected from 57 functional teams in 57 firms operating in China. The findings suggest that although ethical leadership is positively associated with team-level OCB, ethical context positively moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and team-level OCB. The higher ethical context is found to be, the greater is the (positive) effects of ethical leadership on team-level OCB and the opposite holds true when ethical context is low. Key implications are discussed on the role of contextual ethics for team-level OCB, while managerial implications include how non-Chinese firms could improve team-level OCB in the Chinese business context.

Keywords

ethical leadershipethical culturecorporate ethical valuesteam-level OCBethical contextethical congruence
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 18 , Issue 6 , November 2012 , pp. 818 - 832
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2012

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