How Good Citizens Enable Bad Leaders

Leaders who take credit for their teams’ good deeds sometimes feel entitled to behave unethically.

Anthony C. Klotz, Mark C. Bolino, and Ghufran Ahmad

February 01, 2021

The Research

• The authors conducted three studies to assess whether leaders felt entitled to behave badly after their team members did good deeds.
• Several hundred senior and midlevel managers participated in the studies.
• Combined, the studies showed that two factors could make leaders of “good citizens” susceptible to unethical behavior: narcissistic feelings and close identification with team members.

Effective leaders motivate and inspire their teams to engage in what scholars call citizenship behaviors, which go above and beyond job ...