IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v126y2015i2p273-284.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethical Leadership Influence at Organizations: Evidence from the Field

Author

Listed:
  • Ozgur Demirtas

Abstract

While a number of studies are being done on ethical leadership, little is known about the role of ethical ideology and organizational justice in the relation of the ethical leadership behavior and individual behaviors such as work engagement and organizational misbehavior has tended to be neglected in ethics literature. This study examines the mediating effects of organizational justice on the relations of ethical leadership, work engagement and organizational misbehavior. Also, it investigates the moderating effect of ethical ideology on the relationships among these variables. It proposes that managers’ ethical values and organizational members’ ethical perspectives such as absolutism, exceptionism, situationism, and subjectivism have the potential to be agents of virtue within the organizations. Employee attributions and emotional reactions to the unethical behavior of their leaders are important factors on individual behavior outcomes. So, in this study it is hypothesized that ethical leadership behavior affects organizational justice perception and this, respectively, affects organizational members’ work engagement and organizational misbehavior. It is also hypothesized that ethical ideology would moderate the relationship between the ethical leadership and organizational justice. Results indicate that ethical leadership has both direct and indirect influence on work engagement and organizational misbehavior. Finally, practical implications are discussed, and suggestions for the future research are made. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Ozgur Demirtas, 2015. "Ethical Leadership Influence at Organizations: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 273-284, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:126:y:2015:i:2:p:273-284
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1950-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-013-1950-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-013-1950-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Angelidis & Nabil Ibrahim, 2011. "The Impact of Emotional Intelligence on the Ethical Judgment of Managers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 99(1), pages 111-119, February.
    2. Treviño, Linda Klebe & Weaver, Gary R., 2001. "Organizational Justice and Ethics Program “Follow-Through”: Influences on Employees’ Harmful and Helpful Behavior," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(4), pages 651-671, October.
    3. Stephanie Hastings & Joan Finegan, 2011. "The Role of Ethical Ideology in Reactions to Injustice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(4), pages 689-703, June.
    4. Juliette Koning & Jeff Waistell, 2012. "Identity Talk of Aspirational Ethical Leaders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 65-77, April.
    5. Isabelle Huault & V. Perret & S. Charreire-Petit, 2007. "Management," Post-Print halshs-00337676, HAL.
    6. Cohen-Charash, Yochi & Spector, Paul E., 2001. "The Role of Justice in Organizations: A Meta-Analysis," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 278-321, November.
    7. Greenberg, Jerald, 1993. "Stealing in the Name of Justice: Informational and Interpersonal Moderators of Theft Reactions to Underpayment Inequity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 81-103, February.
    8. Deanne Hartog & Frank Belschak, 2012. "Work Engagement and Machiavellianism in the Ethical Leadership Process," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 35-47, April.
    9. Ambrose, Maureen L. & Seabright, Mark A. & Schminke, Marshall, 2002. "Sabotage in the workplace: The role of organizational injustice," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 947-965, September.
    10. Ambrose, Maureen & Hess, Ronald L. & Ganesan, Shankar, 2007. "The relationship between justice and attitudes: An examination of justice effects on event and system-related attitudes," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 21-36, May.
    11. James Avey & Tara Wernsing & Michael Palanski, 2012. "Exploring the Process of Ethical Leadership: The Mediating Role of Employee Voice and Psychological Ownership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 21-34, April.
    12. Brown, Michael E. & Trevino, Linda K. & Harrison, David A., 2005. "Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 117-134, July.
    13. Rupp, Deborah E. & Cropanzano, Russell, 2002. "The mediating effects of social exchange relationships in predicting workplace outcomes from multifoci organizational justice," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 925-946, September.
    14. Dawn Eubanks & Andrew Brown & Sierk Ybema, 2012. "Leadership, Identity, and Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 1-3, April.
    15. Chen, Ching-Fu & Kao, Ya-Ling, 2012. "Moderating effects of work engagement and job tenure on burnout–performance among flight attendants," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 61-63.
    16. Sara De Gieter & Rein De Cooman & Joeri Hofmans & Roland Pepermans & Marc Jegers, 2012. "Pay-Level Satisfaction and Psychological Reward Satisfaction as Mediators of the Organizational Justice-Turnover Intention Relationship," International Studies of Management & Organization, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 50-67, January.
    17. Burney, Laurie L. & Henle, Christine A. & Widener, Sally K., 2009. "A path model examining the relations among strategic performance measurement system characteristics, organizational justice, and extra- and in-role performance," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 305-321, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gina Grandy & Martyna Sliwa, 2017. "Contemplative Leadership: The Possibilities for the Ethics of Leadership Theory and Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 423-440, July.
    2. Ozgur Demirtas & Sean T. Hannah & Kubilay Gok & Aykut Arslan & Nejat Capar, 2017. "The Moderated Influence of Ethical Leadership, Via Meaningful Work, on Followers’ Engagement, Organizational Identification, and Envy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 183-199, September.
    3. Wustari L. MANGUNDJAYA, 2017. "Charismatic Leadership And Work Ethics On Employee Engagement," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 11(1), pages 878-886, November.
    4. Bruce Baker & Don Lee, 2020. "Solidarity and Workplace Engagement: a Management Perspective on Cultivating Community," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 39-57, July.
    5. Alenka Slavec Gomezel & Rok Stritar, 2023. "Does it pay to be an ethical leader in entrepreneurship? An investigation of the relationships between entrepreneurs’ regulatory focus, ethical leadership, and small firm growth," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 155-173, January.
    6. Ahmed Taha Mitugn, 2021. "Challenges of practicing ethical leadership in Sudanese universities," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 21(1), pages 195-211, July.
    7. Wei Xuecheng & Qaisar Iqbal, 2022. "Ethical Leadership, Bricolage, and Eco-Innovation in the Chinese Manufacturing Industry: A Multi-Theory Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-15, June.
    8. Jie Feng & Yucheng Zhang & Xinmei Liu & Long Zhang & Xiao Han, 2018. "Just the Right Amount of Ethics Inspires Creativity: A Cross-Level Investigation of Ethical Leadership, Intrinsic Motivation, and Employee Creativity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 645-658, December.
    9. Harun Yildiz & Bora Yildiz, 2016. "The Effects of Ethical Leadership, Servant Leadership and Leader-Member Exchange on Compulsory Citizenship Behaviors," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(2), pages 19-33, February.
    10. Cenk Tufan & Mete Kaan Namal & Bulent Arpat & Yeliz Yesil & Ibrahim Sani Mert, 2023. "The Mediating Effect of Organizational Justice Perception on the Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Workplace Deviant Behaviors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Muhammad Asif & Muhammad Ali Hussain & Shazia Humayun & Muhammad Awais & Mingxing Li, 2023. "Investigating the Role of Ethical Leadership on Employee Innovativeness through Bottom-Up Job Redesigning: Self-Leadership as a Catalyst," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-12, April.
    12. Ahmed Mohammed Sayed Mostafa & Sam Farley & Monica Zaharie, 2021. "Examining the Boundaries of Ethical Leadership: The Harmful Effect of Co-worker Social Undermining on Disengagement and Employee Attitudes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 355-368, November.
    13. Kalra, Ashish & Briggs, Elten & Schrock, Wyatt, 2023. "Exploring the synergistic role of ethical leadership and sales control systems on salesperson social media use and sales performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    14. Shadi Mohammad Altahat & Tarik Atan, 2018. "Role of Healthy Work Environments in Sustainability of Goal Achievement; Ethical Leadership, Intention to Sabotage, and Psychological Capital in Jordanian Universities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-15, October.
    15. Clarissa Kirschbichler, 2022. "Ethical Leadership And Its Impact On Whistleblowing," Economy & Business Journal, International Scientific Publications, Bulgaria, vol. 16(1), pages 262-272.
    16. Muhammad Asif & Miao Qing & Jinsoo Hwang & Hao Shi, 2019. "Ethical Leadership, Affective Commitment, Work Engagement, and Creativity: Testing a Multiple Mediation Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-16, August.
    17. Jianji Zeng & Guangyi Xu, 2019. "Ethical Leadership and Young University Teachers’ Work Engagement: A Moderated Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-15, December.
    18. Ariail, Donald L. & Khayati, Amine & Shawver, Tara, 2021. "Perceptions by employed accounting students of ethical leadership and political skill: Evidence for including political skill in ethics pedagogy," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kim, Andrea & Moon, Jinhee & Shin, Jiseon, 2019. "Justice perceptions, perceived insider status, and gossip at work: A social exchange perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 30-42.
    2. Samuel Hunter, 2012. "(Un)Ethical Leadership and Identity: What Did We Learn and Where Do We Go from Here?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 79-87, April.
    3. Ambrose, Maureen L., 2002. "Contemporary justice research: A new look at familiar questions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 803-812, September.
    4. Sangeeta Sahu & Avinash D. Pathardikar, 2014. "Job Cognition and Justice Influencing Organizational Attachment," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(1), pages 21582440145, February.
    5. Mitchell Neubert & Dawn Carlson & K. Kacmar & James Roberts & Lawrence Chonko, 2009. "The Virtuous Influence of Ethical Leadership Behavior: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(2), pages 157-170, December.
    6. Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara & Mercedes Viera-Armas, 2019. "Does Ethical Leadership Motivate Followers to Participate in Delivering Compassion?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 195-210, January.
    7. Chase Thiel & Zhanna Bagdasarov & Lauren Harkrider & James Johnson & Michael Mumford, 2012. "Leader Ethical Decision-Making in Organizations: Strategies for Sensemaking," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 49-64, April.
    8. Edita Olaizola & Rafael Morales-Sánchez & Marcos Eguiguren Huerta, 2020. "Biomimetic Organisations: A Management Model that Learns from Nature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-22, March.
    9. Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara & Miguel Suárez-Acosta, 2014. "Employees’ Reactions to Peers’ Unfair Treatment by Supervisors: The Role of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(4), pages 537-549, July.
    10. Deanne Hartog & Frank Belschak, 2012. "Work Engagement and Machiavellianism in the Ethical Leadership Process," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 35-47, April.
    11. Dirk De Clercq & Dave Bouckenooghe & Usman Raja & Ganna Matsyborska, 2014. "Unpacking the Goal Congruence–Organizational Deviance Relationship: The Roles of Work Engagement and Emotional Intelligence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(4), pages 695-711, November.
    12. Thomas Tang & Hsi Liu, 2012. "Love of Money and Unethical Behavior Intention: Does an Authentic Supervisor’s Personal Integrity and Character (ASPIRE) Make a Difference?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 295-312, May.
    13. Elizabeth E. Umphress & John B. Bingham, 2011. "When Employees Do Bad Things for Good Reasons: Examining Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 621-640, June.
    14. Akanksha Bedi & Can M. Alpaslan & Sandy Green, 2016. "A Meta-analytic Review of Ethical Leadership Outcomes and Moderators," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 517-536, December.
    15. Colina Frisch & Markus Huppenbauer, 2014. "New Insights into Ethical Leadership: A Qualitative Investigation of the Experiences of Executive Ethical Leaders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 23-43, August.
    16. Le, Huy & Pan, Liyao, 2021. "Examining the empirical redundancy of organizational justice constructs," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 21-44.
    17. Muhammad Asif & Miao Qing & Jinsoo Hwang & Hao Shi, 2019. "Ethical Leadership, Affective Commitment, Work Engagement, and Creativity: Testing a Multiple Mediation Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-16, August.
    18. Hyewon Lee & Saemi An & Ga Young Lim & Young Woo Sohn, 2021. "Ethical Leadership and Followers’ Emotional Exhaustion: Exploring the Roles of Three Types of Emotional Labor toward Leaders in South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-13, October.
    19. Dan Chiaburu & Audrey Lim, 2008. "Manager Trustworthiness or Interactional Justice? Predicting Organizational Citizenship Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(3), pages 453-467, December.
    20. Herda, David N. & Lavelle, James J., 2011. "The effects of organizational fairness and commitment on the extent of benefits big four alumni provide their former firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 156-166, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:126:y:2015:i:2:p:273-284. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.