Numerous studies associate ethical leadership with ethical behavior in the public sector. By contrast, the effects of unethical leadership in the public sector have largely not been explored. Yet, unethical leadership need not beget unethical followership. Instead, we theorize that some bureaucrats may perceive unethical leadership as a moral threat and respond to it with moral compensation and greater ethical behavior. We provide evidence for our theorized effect through a vignette experiment with 19,852 bureaucrats in Chile. Bureaucrats exposed in the vignette to unethical role modeling by their superior or peers react with greater ethical awareness and ethical intent. This effect is concentrated among bureaucrats recruited through merit‐based, public service criteria rather than connections, and thus bureaucrats who more likely feel morally threatened by unethical leadership. This suggests that unethical leadership in the public sector may differ in its consequences from the mere absence of ethical leadership.

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不道德的领导、道德补偿和道德追随：来自智利公务员调查实验的证据

许多研究将道德领导力与公共部门的道德行为联系起来。相比之下，效果不道德的公共部门的领导力基本上尚未得到探索。然而，不道德的领导不一定会导致不道德的追随。相反，我们的理论是，一些官僚可能将不道德的领导视为一种道德威胁，并以道德补偿和更大的回报来回应它。道德的行为。我们通过对智利 19,852 名官僚进行的小插曲实验，为我们的理论效果提供了证据。在小插曲中，官僚们在上级或同事的不道德榜样作用下，会表现出更高的道德意识和道德意图。这种效应集中在通过择优、公共服务标准而不是关系来招募的官僚中，因此官僚更有可能感受到不道德领导的道德威胁。这表明公共部门不道德领导的后果可能与单纯缺乏道德领导的后果不同。