Influence and Ethics: The Importance of Role Models

Role model is Who do you most admire? A former teacher, a world leader, a neighbor, your boss? As adults, we tend to give little thought to the idea of having a “role model,” as we regard this to be a quality that children seek from the adults in their lives. However, if you stop and consider who most influences you now, and why, you’ll no doubt agree that the people you admire now are giving you your most important life lessons. Role models who uphold high ethical or moral values are typically not the people whose stories make it to the press or social media. We’ve all been exposed to public figures who might qualify as “anti” role models. Their antics may include being aggressive toward admitting to abusing illegal drugs. Being

(Addis, 1996, p. 1467-
1468).
A role model is and both the popular media and the scholarly view suggest that role models are important to individuals career development (Hall, 1976; Speizer, 1981). From educators to government figureheads, people proclaim the need for more role models to inspire our youth, minorities, and women for higher achievement (Ehrenberg, 1995; Karunanayake & Nauta, 2004;
Ruhe & Allen, 1999), and stress the importance of role models as moral exemplars to shape our society and encourage ethical conduct in organizations (Moberg, 2000; Perry & Nixon, 2005;
Weaver, Trevino, & Agle, 2005). The term role model has become more of a cultural cliché than a well-understood concept (Lockwood & Kunda, 1997). Given the consistent speculation that role models are beneficial, surprisingly little is known about the dynamics of this potentially career enhancing relationship. Often the assumptions concerning role models, both popular and scholarly, are not grounded in empirical evidence (Addis, 1996). As Speizer wrote, “despite their almost universal acceptance, there is very little supportive evidence for their validity” (1981,