Matthew Valle, professor of management in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, had his research published in the Fall 2011 issue of the Journal of Character and Leadership Integration.
The article, titled “Bad Character and Leadership: Exploring the Consequences of Abusive Supervision in the Armed Forces,” was co-authored by Dave Levy, professor of management at the United States Air Force Academy. The research was conducted while Valle was the 2010-2011 Distinguished Visiting Professor of Management at the Air Force Academy.
Abstract
Leaders have the potential to be the agents of virtue or vice in organizations because they shape and influence the collective moral character of the organization. As such, we believe that the study of bad character, as a complement to the study of virtue, has value for leadership education and development. This research presents a causal model which lists the factors necessary for the perception of abusive supervision by military subordinates, the likely consequences of those perceptions, and a discussion of the factors which might lead to outcomes for subordinates exposed to this form of destructive leader behavior.