Why Good Leaders Choose to Play the Villain : The Effects of Moral Licensing and Perceived Trust on Leader Behavior

This study investigated why leaders who feel trusted by their followers might take license to perform immoral behaviors. Trust exists between agents who believe that the other party has their best interest in mind. This trust is established through social exchanges and has, in past studies, acted as a form of moral currency giving leaders license to behave poorly. This study found limited support for moral licensing when leaders perceive themselves to be trusted based on employee behaviors. Furthermore, I found little to no support for the effects of individual differences that might have informed how leaders would keep track of or choose to spend this moral currency through moderation effects via leaders’ motives and personality. This paper is to examine the process through which leaders develop a perception of being trusted by followers and if this perception mediates the relationship between employee and leader behaviors. Additional exploratory hypotheses suggest that the three factors of trust—ability, benevolence, and integrity—might matter when considering leader perceptions of feeling trusted by their followers, but the overall effects are relatively insignificant. Future studies should consider not only the effects of the three factors of trust, but also how trustors and trustees might respond to feeling trusted as the relationship continues to develop.