Higher-up Managers’ Behavioural Integrity and Subordinate Managers’ Use of Power

Past literature posits that power can motivate both destructive and constructive leadership behaviors, primarily depending on powerholders’ internal regulatory forces. This research breaks from this predominant perspective by identifying a new external regulatory force in regulating subordinate managers’ use of power: higher-up managers’ behavioral integrity. Drawing on the focus theory of normative behavior, we theorize that higher-up managers’ behavioral integrity functions as norm activators and determines whether subordinate managers translate their experience of power into self-serving behavior through psychological entitlement or servant leadership leader behavior through prosocial motivation, respectively. Results of a multi-wave, multisource field study based on a sample of 297 subordinate managers and 1281 followers have largely supported our propositions. As predicted, the positive effect of subordinate managers’ psychological power on psychological entitlement was weakened when higher-up managers’ behavioral integrity was higher (vs. lower), reducing their subsequent self-serving behavior. Unexpectedly, psychological power was positively related to prosocial motivation regardless of integrity level. Our findings shed new light on how organizations can adopt effective external monitoring mechanisms to contain powerholding managers’ power abuse.