Research to date provides only limited insights into the processes of abusive supervision, a form of unethical leadership. Leaders’ vulnerable narcissism is important to consider, as, according to the trifurcated model of narcissism, it combines entitlement with antagonism, which likely triggers cognitive and affective processes that link leaders’ vulnerable narcissism and abusive supervision. Building on conceptualizations of aggression as a self-regulatory strategy, we investigated the role of internal attribution of failure and shame in the relationship between leaders’ vulnerable narcissism and (...) abusive supervision. We found across three empirical studies with supervisory samples from Germany and the United Kingdom (UK) that vulnerable narcissism related positively to abusive supervision (intentions), and supplementary analyses illustrated that leaders’ vulnerable (rather than grandiose) narcissism was the main driver. Study 1 (N = 320) provided correlational evidence of the vulnerable narcissism-abusive supervision relationship and for the mediating role of the general proneness to make internal attributions of failure (i.e., attribution style). Two experimental studies (N = 326 and N = 292) with a manipulation-of-mediator design and an event recall task supported the causality and momentary triggers of the internal attribution of failure. Only Study 2 pointed to shame as a serial mediator, and we address possible reasons for the differences between studies. We discuss implications for future studies of leaders’ vulnerable narcissism as well as ethical organizational practices. (shrink)

This study explores how being satisfied with one’s life as an entrepreneur is a crucial ethical and psychological outcome of early volition and, subsequently, a vital resource in the development of a richer eudaimonic experience from entrepreneurship. We develop and test our predictions based on two independent datasets: American and Swedish business owners and early stage entrepreneurs. We argue and demonstrate that satisfaction with life as an entrepreneur conveys a distinct state of entrepreneurial well-being and constitutes a crucial self-evaluation which (...) mediates the effects of early volition in entrepreneurship on long-term eudaimonia. We contribute to the emerging conversations on entrepreneurship, business ethics, and well-being. (shrink)

We examine three business-related initiatives designed to achieve peace positive impacts in the Cape Town township of Langa. Each was seemingly straightforward in its purpose, logic, and implementation. However, their positive intent was frustrated and their impacts ultimately harmful to their articulated goals. Understanding why this is so can be difficult in violent, turbulent, and information-poor environments such as Langa, confounding progress even by actors with ethical intentions. To aid in sense making and to provide insight for more positive future (...) action, we develop from 125 interviews conducted for this study causal loop models for these initiatives within their conflict subsystems. These explain the perverse impacts of these initiatives by illuminating their (lack of) salience to key conflict factors, their (in)sufficiency to effect positive change in light of competing systems dynamics, and their (in)attentiveness to interdependencies with the intentions and actions of others. We thus contribute to understanding of the factors required to achieve positive social outcomes in more extreme contexts. More generally, we demonstrate the value of systems analysis both for scholarship related to business and peace and for reducing blind spots that can inhibit sound planning for ethical business action amidst complexity. (shrink)

It is widely accepted that quid pro quo or favoritism exists in bookbuilding IPOs where the securities underwriter has share allocation discretion, and that auctioned IPOs should be largely free from quid pro quo because the underwriter does not have share allocation discretion. Using proprietary data on IPO auctions from China and a regulatory regime change on share allocation, we show that when the share allocation rule shifts from pro rata to lottery draw (that makes quid pro quo valuable to (...) a bidder), mutual fund families having stronger pre-shift brokerage commission ties with the underwriter submit bids later, place more strategic bids, have more bids qualified for the allocation round, and are more likely to receive share allocation than other fund families. These patterns are not apparent in fund families that possess a robust business culture. The evidence is consistent with the existence of quid pro quo in IPO auctions facilitated by the underwriter’s leakage of confidential bidding information in some fund family and underwriter pairs. This unethical practice not only creates conflicts of interest, jeopardizes fair play, but also discourages information production and affects accurate valuation. (shrink)