Abstract
This study explored the link between organisational performance pressure and ethical leadership in the South African environment. It originates from ethical challenges from the heavy pressures on business leaders to meet and exceed performance targets to achieve organisational economic success.
The effects of leadership behavioural intentions may be altered due to immense organisational performance pressures. The literature rarely studies organisational performance pressures that compromise ethical leadership behavioural intentions. The present study aims to contribute to the social scientific body of knowledge by exploring and developing knowledge that reinforces theory and practice around threat-appraised organisational performance pressures on ethical leadership behaviour.
It used a two-study phased research methodological approach to fulfil the study purpose. The first study employed a qualitative ranking-type Delphi method, and the second study used the confirmatory narrative method. The criteria for considering the participant as an “expert” was informed by their in-depth knowledge and experience, having valuable contributions in the field of ethical leadership and organisational performance and must have time to participate in the study as iterations to reach consensus may be time-consuming.
A convenience sampling, as a form of non-probability sampling was used to select experts participants. Based on the insights of 21 academic and 19 practitioner experts, this Delphi study explores the complex relationship and intersection between organizational performance pressure and factors that compromise ethical leadership. The research gives valuable insights into how these factors intersect and offers expert-driven recommendations for ethical leadership practices in high-performance, high-pressure environments.
The confirmatory process surveyed 10 leaders to confirm the results from the Delphi method and provide an in-depth explanation of the link between performance pressure and ethical leadership in practice. A convenience sampling of 10 leaders was informed by research questions seeking to increase understanding of the linkage of the primary constructs in the real world.
Exploring the link between organisational performance pressures and ethical leadership
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The survey data was analysed using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), a method that is well-suited for exploring complicated causal linkages in qualitative data.
The findings of the study show that when organisational leaders are in pursuit of profitability, pressure to present positive financial reports results in dishonest behaviour. When they are in pursuit of productivity, the pressure to achieve greater efficiency results in compromising their moral judgement. When they pursue competitive advantage, competitive pressure results in unfair competitive practices. When organisational leaders are in pursuit of market share growth, pressure to grow through acquisitions results in lack of accountability. In short, when threat-appraised performance pressure is exerted, dishonesty, low moral judgement, unfairness and lack of accountability are the outcomes. In obtaining the central unit of analysis, through working through the transcript, the data was coded, categorised, and themes emerged, and finally, theorisation took form. These findings were obtained through three rounds of qualitative surveys to rank performance pressures and the factors that compromise ethical leadership, ascertain the most important factors, and understand their relative importance amongst the participants. The participants were then requested to rank the factors and pressures in each category and attempt to reach a consensus as determined by Kendall’s W coefficient of concordance.
In terms of practical implication, the study provides a blueprint for ethical value statement development and provides a better understanding of between organisational performance pressure and the factors that compromise ethical leadership. The theoretical implication includes an attempt to develop an ethical performance model (EPM).
Keywords: organisational performance pressure, performance pressure, ethical performance model, balanced score card, ethical leadership, Delphi study and ethical performance model (EPM).