Most prior work on dominance and prestige has linked prestige to more positive outcomes for both leaders and followers. Challenging this predominant view, the current research proposes that prestige-oriented leaders are more likely to receive unethical requests from their followers. We tested and found support for this hypothesis across five experimental studies that manipulated leader hierarchical orientation and measured followers’ intention as well as their actual decision to make unethical requests to their leader. Furthermore, we found that this effect is explained by the perceived approval motive of prestige-oriented leaders: followers are more likely to make unethical requests to prestige-oriented leaders because these leaders are perceived to be more concerned about being socially approved. Finally, team ethical climate served as a boundary condition that can amplify or attenuate this effect of leader hierarchical orientation on followers’ unethical requests.
