Leadership Psychology: Ethics, Theories, and Organizational Behavior

Ethical leadership

Concerns how leaders use influence and make choices, as well as whether they reach a goal, including considering multiple perspectives, fairness, and justice.

Kohlberg's Preconventional Level - Stage 1 (Punishment and obedience)

An action seems wrong mainly because it may bring punishment, with the authority figure defining the boundary.

Kohlberg's Preconventional Level - Stage 2 (Exchange and personal reward)

An action seems right when it brings a direct benefit, fair trade, or useful return to the individual.

Kohlberg's Conventional Level - Stage 3 (Approval and relationships)

An action seems right when people important to the person approve or when it protects relationships and reputation.

Kohlberg's Conventional Level - Stage 4 (Law, duty, and social order)

An action seems right when it follows legitimate rules, fulfills duties, and supports a stable system.

Kohlberg's Postconventional Level - Stage 5 (Social contract and individual rights)

Rules are agreements for the common good and may be revised fairly when they fail to protect rights or community welfare.

Kohlberg's Postconventional Level - Stage 6 (Universal ethical principles)

A person acts from conscience and chosen principles such as justice, dignity, equality, and respect, even at personal cost.

Ethical climate

The shared environment people learn from repeated signals about what conduct is expected.

Diffusion of responsibility

A moral disengagement pattern where a person feels less individually responsible because the action is shared across a group.

Euphemistic labeling

A moral disengagement pattern where softened or cosmetic wording disguises the harm or offensiveness of conduct.

Principle centered leadership

Links personal trustworthiness, trusting relationships, sound management, and aligned organizational systems across four levels (Personal, Interpersonal, Managerial, Organizational).

Theory X

A management assumption that people tend to avoid work and responsibility and need close direction or control.

Theory Y

A management assumption that people can find work meaningful, direct their own effort, accept responsibility, and value achievement and growth.

Five Factor Model (OCEAN)

Groups recurring behavior patterns into five broad dimensions: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Emotional intelligence

Concerns recognizing and working with emotions in ways that affect thought, decisions, and behavior (perceiving, using, understanding, and regulating emotions).

Analytical intelligence

General problem solving ability; evaluating evidence and reasoning through defined problems.

Practical intelligence

Relevant knowledge and experience used to adapt to, shape, or select real world situations.

Creative intelligence

Ability to create novel and useful solutions to problems.

Divergent thinking

Thinking that opens up options and generates multiple possible ideas, including unusual ones, before evaluation.

Convergent thinking

Thinking that narrows a set of ideas by comparing them against the problem, evidence, resources, and consequences.

Initiating structure

Leadership behavior focused on organizing work, assigning roles, setting standards, and clarifying expectations.

Consideration

Leadership behavior focused on respect, trust, support, and concern for individuals.

Impoverished Management (1,1)

Leadership Grid style with low concern for people and low concern for production.

Produce or Perish Management (9,1)

Leadership Grid style with low concern for people and high concern for production.

Country Club Management (1,9)

Leadership Grid style with high concern for people and low concern for production.

Middle of the Road Management (5,5)

Leadership Grid style with moderate concern for people and moderate concern for production.

Team Management (9,9)

Leadership Grid style with high concern for people and high concern for production.

Social capital

Relationships, reciprocal trust, connections, and shared norms that help people work together in a community.

Mobilization

Engaging a critical mass of people to act toward a defined outcome or set of outcomes.

Credibility

The ability to engender trust in others, judged through both capability (expertise) and character (trust).

Active listening

The effort to understand the speaker's intended meaning by reducing distractions, withholding judgment, and paraphrasing.

Assertiveness

Standing up for one's own or the group's rights while recognizing the rights of others in a direct, frank, and respectful way.

ABC Model (Activating event, Belief, Consequence)

Separates an observable situation (A) from the meaning or self-talk given to it (B) and the resulting emotional, physical, or behavioral response (C).

Nominal group technique

A structured way for people to contribute and organize ideas by generating them individually first, then sharing in a round robin.

Performance

Behaviors directed toward an organization's mission or goals.

Effectiveness

A judgment about how adequate behaviors are in relation to criteria such as team or organizational goals.

Job satisfaction

How much a person likes or feels positively about a kind of work.

Engagement

The extent to which people feel absorbed in, committed to, and enthusiastic about assigned tasks and their broader connection to work.

Organizational citizenship behavior

Helpful behavior related to a job but not directly tied to team or unit performance.

Pygmalion effect

The phenomenon where high expectations increase motivation and performance.

Golem effect

The phenomenon where low expectations decrease motivation and performance.

Operant approach

Uses consequences (rewards and punishments) to influence whether behavior is repeated.

Empowerment

Combines delegating leadership and decision making with equipping followers with the skills, knowledge, resources, and support needed to decide well.

Parenthetical paraphrase citation

APA format using the author surname and year in parentheses (e.g., Smith, 2020).

Narrative citation

APA format where the author name appears in the sentence with the year in parentheses right after (e.g., Smith [2020] explains...).