Synthesis Paper

Call for Papers

The Leadership Quarterly Special Issue on Leader Integrity

Integrity is often cited as a critical component of leadership. Despite its acknowledged importance, there is little direct research about the role integrity plays in leadership effectiveness. Palanski and Yammarino (2009) pointed out that there are three main problems with respect to integrity and leadership. First, there is little agreement in the literature about the meaning of integrity. The word is frequently used to represent a wide variety of constructs, and often overlaps with other terms such as honesty, morality, ethics, justice, and authenticity. Second, there is little extant theory about integrity in the leadership literature, and theory which does exist is somewhat narrow and fragmented. Third, there are relatively few empirical studies directly concerning integrity and leadership.

As a beginning point of reference, Palanski and Yammarino (2007) reviewed over thirty articles which specifically contained a definition or definitions for integrity. They classified the various meanings of integrity in the management literature into five main categories: 1) integrity as wholeness; 2) integrity as consistency between words and actions; 3) integrity as consistency in adversity; 4) integrity as being true to oneself; and 5) integrity as morality/ethics (including definitions such as honesty, trustworthiness, justice, and compassion). Given this basic framework, several streams of research may already provide robust bases for examining integrity and leadership. For example, behavioral integrity research (Simons, 2002; Simons, Tomlinson, & LeRoy, forthcoming) is focused on the perceived alignment between managerial words and deeds, while authentic leadership theory (Avolio & Gardner, 2005) identifies how individuals can stay true to themselves. Similarly, ethical leadership (Brown & Treviño, 2006; Brown, Treviño, & Harrison, 2005) is centered on demonstrating normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, including acting consistently, fairly, and in a principled manner.

The purpose of this special issue is to consider the various facets of integrity in leadership in a more systematic way. Examples of some potential research questions include:

• How do the various perspectives on integrity (e.g., authenticity, ethical leadership, and word–deed consistency) relate to one another?

• How is leader integrity challenged in contemporary work environments (e.g., environmental turbulence, ethical scandals, dispersed work groups, diverse stakeholder groups, and incentive systems)?

• How do followers make attributions of leader integrity? • How does leader integrity relate to leader effectiveness, and what roles does context play? • Can leader integrity be identified? Can it be developed? And, if so, how? • Is leader integrity defined similarly and does it function similarly in different cultural contexts? • How do conceptualizations of integrity at different levels of analysis (individual, team, and collective) relate to one another? • What are the drivers (e.g., leader identity, personality, incentive systems, ethical climate or culture) and outcomes (e.g., individual and collective performance and organizational change) of leader integrity?

Theoretical and empirical papers that address these types of questions are invited for the special issue, which will be published in early 2013. The deadline for submissions is February 1, 2012. All authors who would like to submit to the special issue must do so online at http://ees.elsevier.com/leaqua/default.asp. The corresponding author should register in the system then submit their submission on behalf of all the authors of the paper. Please make sure that when submitting to the system, authors select the corresponding article type for the special issue. All other submission instructions can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/ find/journaldescription.cws_home/620221/authorinstructions. Please contact the journal office, leadershipquarterly@elsevier. com, for assistance with online submissions. Questions directly regarding the special issue or Call for Papers should be directed to the guest editors.

References

Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 16, 315–338. Brown, M. E., & Treviño, L. K. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 595–616.

The Leadership Quarterly 22 (2011) 799–800

1048-9843/$ – see front matter © 2011 Published by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.07.002

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

The Leadership Quarterly

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/leaqua

Brown, M. E., Treviño, L. K., & Harrison, D. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97, 117–134.

Palanski, M. E., & Yammarino, F. J. (2007). Integrity and leadership: Clearing the conceptual confusion. European Management Journal, 25, 171–184. Palanski, M. E., & Yammarino, F. J. (2009). Integrity and leadership: A multi-level conceptual framework. The Leadership Quarterly, 20, 405–420. Simons, T. L. (2002). Behavioral integrity: The perceived alignment between managers' words and deeds as a research focus. Organization Science, 13, 18–35. Simons, T. L., Tomlinson, E., & LeRoy, H. (forthcoming). In K. Cameron & G. Spreitzer (Eds.). Handbook of positive organizational scholarship. Oxford, UK: Oxford

University Press.

Michael Palanski Saunders College of Business, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA

E-mail address: [email protected].

Tony Simons School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

E-mail address: [email protected].

Linda Treviño Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

E-mail address: [email protected].

800 M. Palanski et al. / The Leadership Quarterly 22 (2011) 799–800