IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v18y2017i1d10.1007_s10902-016-9725-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Supervisors’ Ethical Leadership and Employee Job Satisfaction: A Social Cognitive Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Yidong Tu

    (Wuhan University)

  • Xinxin Lu

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Yue Yu

    (Wuhan University)

Abstract

Although several studies explored the relationship between supervisors’ ethical leadership and employee job satisfaction, little information is available on this relationship in the Chinese context. We propose that moral cognition is an essential process in the relationship between supervisor’s ethical leadership and employee subjective well-being. The present study, through the lens of the social cognitive theory, examined the relationship between supervisors’ ethical leadership and employee job satisfaction, as well as the employee moral-cognitive processes between them. Based on 371 employees in a Chinese enterprise, the present study employed structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized research model. The results confirmed that supervisors’ ethical leadership was positively related to employee moral awareness, moral identity and job satisfaction, respectively. Moreover, employee moral awareness and moral identity partially mediated the relationship between supervisors’ ethical leadership and employee job satisfaction. The theoretical and managerial implications were further discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Yidong Tu & Xinxin Lu & Yue Yu, 2017. "Supervisors’ Ethical Leadership and Employee Job Satisfaction: A Social Cognitive Perspective," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 229-245, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:18:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10902-016-9725-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-016-9725-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-016-9725-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-016-9725-1?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. Yanping Li & Jia Xu & Yidong Tu & Xinxin Lu, 2014. "Ethical Leadership and Subordinates’ Occupational Well-Being: A Multi-level Examination in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(3), pages 823-842, May.
    2. Yi Tu & Xin Lu, 2013. "Erratum to: How Ethical Leadership Influence Employees’ Innovative Work Behavior: A Perspective of Intrinsic Motivation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 457-457, August.
    3. Shao, Ruodan & Aquino, Karl & Freeman, Dan, 2008. "Beyond Moral Reasoning: A Review of Moral Identity Research and Its Implications for Business Ethics," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 513-540, October.
    4. Aamir Chughtai & Marann Byrne & Barbara Flood, 2015. "Linking Ethical Leadership to Employee Well-Being: The Role of Trust in Supervisor," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 653-663, May.
    5. Mei Shi & Xiaofei Yan & Xuqun You & Jinsheng Li, 2015. "Core Self-evaluations, Emotional Intelligence and Job Satisfaction in Chinese Soldiers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 221-229, October.
    6. 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.
    7. David Mayer & Maribeth Kuenzi & Rebecca Greenbaum, 2010. "Examining the Link Between Ethical Leadership and Employee Misconduct: The Mediating Role of Ethical Climate," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 95(1), pages 7-16, September.
    8. Daniel Palmer, 2009. "Business Leadership: Three Levels of Ethical Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 525-536, September.
    9. 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.
    10. Kwok Leung & Peter B Smith & Zhongming Wang & Haifa Sun, 1996. "Job Satisfaction in Joint Venture Hotels in China: An Organizational Justice Analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(4), pages 947-962, December.
    11. Kwok Leung & Peter B Smith & Zhongming Wang & Haifa Sun, 1996. "Job Satisfaction in Joint Venture Hotels in China: An Organizational Justice Analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(5), pages 947-962, December.
    12. Christian Resick & Gillian Martin & Mary Keating & Marcus Dickson & Ho Kwan & Chunyan Peng, 2011. "What Ethical Leadership Means to Me: Asian, American, and European Perspectives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(3), pages 435-457, July.
    13. Long-Zeng Wu & Ho Kwan & Frederick Yim & Randy Chiu & Xiaogang He, 2015. "CEO Ethical Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Moderated Mediation Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(4), pages 819-831, September.
    14. Mayer, David M. & Kuenzi, Maribeth & Greenbaum, Rebecca & Bardes, Mary & Salvador, Rommel (Bombie), 2009. "How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-13, January.
    15. 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.
    16. Bryant, Peter, 2009. "Self-regulation and moral awareness among entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 505-518, September.
    17. Mayer, David M. & Nurmohamed, Samir & Treviño, Linda Klebe & Shapiro, Debra L. & Schminke, Marshall, 2013. "Encouraging employees to report unethical conduct internally: It takes a village," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 89-103.
    18. Pablo Ruiz & Carmen Ruiz & Ricardo Martínez, 2011. "Improving the “Leader–Follower” Relationship: Top Manager or Supervisor? The Ethical Leadership Trickle-Down Effect on Follower Job Response," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 99(4), pages 587-608, 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. Hao Zhou & Xinyi Sheng & Yulin He & Xiaoye Qian, 2020. "Ethical Leadership as the Reliever of Frontline Service Employees’ Emotional Exhaustion: A Moderated Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Rita Paralta & Eduardo Simões & Ana Patrícia Duarte, 2023. "Subjective Well-Being in Organizations: Effects of Internal Ethical Context and Ethical Leadership," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Tran Quang Bao Phuc & Khalida Parveen & Duyen Thi Truc Tran & Dao Thi Anh Nguyen, 2021. "The linkage between ethical leadership and lecturer job satisfaction at a private higher education institution in Vietnam," Journal of Social Sciences Advancement, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 2(2), pages 39-50.
    4. Lianying Zhang & Xiaocan Li & Ziqing Liu, 2022. "Fostering Constructive Deviance by Leader Moral Humility: The Mediating Role of Employee Moral Identity and Moderating Role of Normative Conflict," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 731-746, October.
    5. Xiang Zhou & Samma Faiz Rasool & Jing Yang & Muhammad Zaheer Asghar, 2021. "Exploring the Relationship between Despotic Leadership and Job Satisfaction: The Role of Self Efficacy and Leader–Member Exchange," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-20, May.
    6. Laura Dal Corso & Alessandro De Carlo & Francesca Carluccio & Daiana Colledani & Alessandra Falco, 2020. "Employee burnout and positive dimensions of well-being: A latent workplace spirituality profile analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-17, November.
    7. Wei Su & Juhee Hahn, 2021. "Improving Millennial Employees’ OCB: A Multilevel Mediated and Moderated Model of Ethical Leadership," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-17, July.

    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. 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.
    2. Muel Kaptein, 2019. "The Moral Entrepreneur: A New Component of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 1135-1150, June.
    3. Angela J. Xu & Raymond Loi & Hang-yue Ngo, 2016. "Ethical Leadership Behavior and Employee Justice Perceptions: The Mediating Role of Trust in Organization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 493-504, March.
    4. Yidong Tu & Xinxin Lu, 2016. "Do Ethical Leaders Give Followers the Confidence to Go the Extra Mile? The Moderating Role of Intrinsic Motivation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 129-144, April.
    5. Q. Miao & A. Newman & J. Yu & L. Xu, 2013. "The Relationship Between Ethical Leadership and Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior: Linear or Curvilinear Effects?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(3), pages 641-653, September.
    6. Huaiyong Wang & Guangli Lu & Yongfang Liu, 2017. "Ethical Leadership and Loyalty to Supervisor in China: The Roles of Interactional Justice and Collectivistic Orientation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 529-543, December.
    7. Kubilay Gok & John J. Sumanth & William H. Bommer & Ozgur Demirtas & Aykut Arslan & Jared Eberhard & Ali Ihsan Ozdemir & Ahmet Yigit, 2017. "You May Not Reap What You Sow: How Employees’ Moral Awareness Minimizes Ethical Leadership’s Positive Impact on Workplace Deviance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(2), pages 257-277, December.
    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. Imran Shafique & Masood N. Kalyar & Bashir Ahmad, 2018. "The Nexus of Ethical Leadership, Job Performance, and Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 16(1), pages 71-87.
    10. Pedro Neves & Joana Story, 2015. "Ethical Leadership and Reputation: Combined Indirect Effects on Organizational Deviance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 165-176, March.
    11. K. Kacmar & Martha Andrews & Kenneth Harris & Bennett Tepper, 2013. "Ethical Leadership and Subordinate Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Organizational Politics and the Moderating Role of Political Skill," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 33-44, June.
    12. Vishag Badrinarayanan & Indu Ramachandran & Sreedhar Madhavaram, 2019. "Mirroring the Boss: Ethical Leadership, Emulation Intentions, and Salesperson Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 897-912, October.
    13. S. Hansen & Bradley Alge & Michael Brown & Christine Jackson & Benjamin Dunford, 2013. "Ethical Leadership: Assessing the Value of a Multifoci Social Exchange Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 435-449, July.
    14. Tran Quang Bao Phuc & Khalida Parveen & Duyen Thi Truc Tran & Dao Thi Anh Nguyen, 2021. "The linkage between ethical leadership and lecturer job satisfaction at a private higher education institution in Vietnam," Journal of Social Sciences Advancement, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 2(2), pages 39-50.
    15. Shenjiang Mo & Junqi Shi, 2017. "Linking Ethical Leadership to Employee Burnout, Workplace Deviance and Performance: Testing the Mediating Roles of Trust in Leader and Surface Acting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 293-303, August.
    16. Raiswa Saha & Shashi & Roberto Cerchione & Rajwinder Singh & Richa Dahiya, 2020. "Effect of ethical leadership and corporate social responsibility on firm performance: A systematic review," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 409-429, March.
    17. Magdaline Enow Mbi Tarkang Mary & Ali Ozturen, 2019. "Sustainable Ethical Leadership and Employee Outcomes in the Hotel Industry in Cameroon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-18, April.
    18. 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.
    19. Julena M. Bonner & Rebecca L. Greenbaum & David M. Mayer, 2016. "My Boss is Morally Disengaged: The Role of Ethical Leadership in Explaining the Interactive Effect of Supervisor and Employee Moral Disengagement on Employee Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(4), pages 731-742, September.
    20. Jarrod Haar & Maree Roche & David Brougham, 2019. "Indigenous Insights into Ethical Leadership: A Study of Māori Leaders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 621-640, December.

    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:spr:jhappi:v:18:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10902-016-9725-1. 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.