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Ethical leadership and public healthcare organizational and employee outcomes: the role of psychological meaningfulness
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the theories of social learning, social exchange and social identity, this study aims to examine the impact of ethical leadership on organizational attractiveness and diversity-valuing behavior as well as the mediating role of psychological meaningfulness in the public healthcare sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Data in this study was collected from 545 nurses working in Palestinian hospitals. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results show positive effect of ethical leadership on organizational attractiveness and diversity-valuing behavior. The findings likewise support the mediating role of psychological meaningfulness on the focal relationships.
Originality/value
This study follows a more comprehensive and a multitheoretical approach and it uses a novel model in an underexamined setting, which is the nursing sector.
... AMO framework suggests that employee performance depends on important factors including their "ability, motivation, and opportunity" (Appelbaum, 2000;Jiang et al., 2012). That is, the ability-enhancing factor aims at improving employees' knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform better (Abualigah et al., 2024). Practices such as appropriate recruitment and training are likely to enhance employees' capabilities and improve their knowledge of work tasks, enabling them to recognize problems and thus increasing their ability to express their opinions (Mowbray et al., 2021). ...
... That is, HPWS provide employees with a clear understanding of their roles and expectations, allowing them to connect their efforts to the organization's overall objectives (Para-Gonz� alez et al., 2019). This heightened sense of purpose and understanding translates into greater psychological meaningfulness (Barbar et al., 2024). According to Kahn (1990), psychological meaningfulness refers to "a feeling that one is receiving a return on investments of one's self in currency of physical, cognitive, or emotional energy" (pp. ...
Purpose
Based on ability-motivation-opportunity, social exchange, and job demands-resources theories, this research aims to investigate how high-performance work systems (HPWS) are linked to voice behavior through sequential mediating effects of psychological meaningfulness and work engagement in a Middle Eastern context.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze data obtained from a sample of 538 nurses working in various hospitals located in Palestine.
Findings
The findings show a positive association between HPWS and voice behavior. In addition, the study findings support the sequential mediation of psychological meaningfulness and work engagement on the association between HPWS and voice behavior.
Originality/value
This study is one of the few examining the effect of HPWS on individual-level outcomes in the context of the Middle East. More specifically, our study is the first to test the association between HPWS and voice behavior, especially in this under-researched context. It is also the first to explore the influence of HPWS on voice behavior through sequential mediating pathways of psychological meaningfulness and work engagement.
Purpose
In response to the dynamic demands of the contemporary business landscape, this study critically examines the pivotal role of ethical leadership in shaping employee’s innovative behavior within organizations. Our research delves into the nuanced interplay between ethical leadership, psychological well-being and innovative work behavior. Drawing from the principles of social exchange theory, our study addresses a critical gap in the literature by exploring the mediating role of psychological well-being in the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' innovative work behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
In this quantitative research, data were collected from 384 employees and their direct supervisors in Pakistan’s IT sector using “Google Forms” through a convenience sampling method facilitated by the “LinkedIn” platform. Additionally, the study applied a two-stage structural equation modeling approach, first to assess the uni-dimensionality, and subsequently, to evaluate the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The research results unveiled a robust and positive impact of ethical leadership on innovative work behavior, operating through both direct and indirect pathways mediated by psychological well-being. Intriguingly, the moderating role of perceived organizational support adds depth to our understanding, revealing nuanced conditions under which ethical leadership influences employees' well-being and, subsequently, their innovative contributions.
Practical implications
Beyond theoretical contributions, our study provides practical insights for managers seeking to leverage employees' innovative work behavior for organizational success. By emphasizing ethical leadership as a catalyst, we advocate for its integration into HRM practices. However, recognizing the contextual nature of organizational support, our findings underscore the importance of adaptable leadership strategies to maximize positive outcomes.
Originality/value
Grounded in the principles of social exchange theory, this research marks a pioneering effort to shed light on the link between ethical leadership and innovative work behavior through the mediation of psychological well-being. Additionally, this study makes a valuable contribution to the current body of knowledge by investigating the contingent influence of perceived organizational support on the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' psychological well-being.
Purpose
Building on the theories of social learning and social information processing, this paper aims to examine the effect of green servant leadership (GSL) on green voice behavior among staff working in Qatari higher education. In this relationship, the climate for green initiative (CFGI) was used to act as a mediating mechanism.
Design/methodology/approach
Data in this study were collected from 275 staff working in Qatari higher education. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results suggest that GSL positively influences green voice behavior, whereas CFGI mediated this link.
Practical implications
The results can be beneficial to higher education pertaining to the importance of GSL in generating positive green behaviors such as green voice behavior. Furthermore, the results highlight the significant role CFGI plays in motivating such behaviors.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the link between GSL and green voice behavior in the higher education context. Furthermore, research on CFGI has received limited attention so far.
Research suggests that CSR is increasingly becoming an ambiguous signal of ethical information for external stakeholders. This is because a variety of firms – including those that are morally responsible and those that have been implicated in corporate scandals – routinely adopt CSR policies and invest in CSR initiatives. Not surprisingly, this trend has contributed to rising public skepticism of CSR. In the current research, we examine the unique role of CEO ethical leadership (i.e., relative to CSR) as an alternate source of substantive and rhetorical ethical signals for an important stakeholder group: job seekers. Integrating signaling theory (Spence, 1973) and the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), we argue that CEO ethical leadership substantively signals how fairly an organization treats its employees and its commitment to social and environmental responsibility. We further propose that ethical CEOs serve as a source of rhetorical signal that triggers moral elevation in job seekers. Using a policy capturing methodology in Study 1, we find that real job seekers place significantly greater weight on CEO ethical leadership in making job pursuit decisions compared to CSR. CEO ethical leadership also uniquely predicts job pursuit intentions relative to traditional factors such as salary, person-job fit, and person-organization fit. In a second, quasi-experimental study (Study 2), we find support for the hypothesized signaling mechanisms through which CEO ethical leadership influences job seekers. In a third, quasi-experimental study (Study 3), we find that job seekers with strong (versus weak) moral identities are more likely to weigh the nuanced ethical information signaled by CEO ethical leadership compared to CSR. We discuss the implications of proactively advertising CEO ethical leadership during the recruitment process.
Prior scholarly approaches to meaningful work have largely fallen into two camps. One focuses on identifying how work can contribute to a meaningful life. The other studies the antecedents and outcomes of workers experiencing their work as meaningful. Neither of these approaches, however, captures what people look for when they seek meaningful work—or so I argue. In this paper, I give a new, commitment-based account of meaningful work by focusing on the reasons people have to choose meaningful work over other options. I draw on philosopher Ruth Chang’s account of voluntarist reasons (reasons that arise from an act of the will) to argue that commitments can create distinctive reasons to pursue certain work. It is the presence of these distinctive reasons that makes work meaningful.
Green human resource management (GHRM) is an important organisational approach to promote the sustainable development of organisations. Although the literature regarding the effect of GHRM is growing, little is known about the mechanisms and boundary conditions that may facilitate the link between GHRM and green outcomes. Through a combined underpinning of ability-motivation-opportunity, job demands-resources, and social exchange theories, this study examines the relationship between GHRM and green creativity through green work engagement, with spiritual leadership moderating the GHRM-green work engagement relationship. Also, we explore the links between GHRM, spiritual leadership, green work engagement, and green creativity using a moderated mediation model. Using survey data of 271 front-line hotel employees in UAE, we use a partial least squares structural equation modelling to conduct our statistical analysis. The results show that GHRM positively influences green work engagement and green creativity, while green work engagement positively influences green creativity and mediates the GHRM-green creativity nexus. In addition, spiritual leadership amplifies the nexus between GHRM and green work engagement and the mediating effect of green work engagement in the nexus between GHRM and green creativity in the context of the hospitality sector in the UAE. Our study offers industry-specific practical implications and suggests agendas for further research.
Background
In the domain of health services, little research has focused on how organizational culture, specifically internal market-oriented cultures (IMOCs), are associated with organizational climate resources, support for autonomy (SA), and whether and how IMOCs and SA are either individually or in combination related to employee perceptions of the attractiveness of the organization and their level of innovative behavior. These knowledge gaps in previous research motivated this study.
Methods
A conceptual model was tested on a sample (N = 1008) of hospital employees. Partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS–SEM) was employed to test the conceptual models, using the SmartPLS 3 software. To test the mediator effect, a bootstrapping test was used to determine whether the direct and indirect effects were statistically significant, and when combining two tests, to determine the type of mediator effect.
Results
The results can be summarized as four key findings: i) organizational culture (referring to an IMOC) was positively and directly related to SA (β = 0.87) and organizational attractiveness (β = 0.45); ii) SA was positively and directly related to both organizational attractiveness (β = 0.22) and employee individual innovative behavior (β = 0.37); iii) The relationships between an IMOC, SA, and employee innovative behavior were all mediated through organizational attractiveness; and iv) SA mediated the relationship between the IMOC and organizational attractiveness as well as that between the IMOC and employee innovative behavior.
Conclusions
Organizational culture, IMOC, organizational climate resources, and SA were highly correlated and necessary drivers of employee perceptions of organizational attractiveness and their innovative behavior. Managers of hospitals should consider IMOC and SA as two organizational resources that are potentially manageable and controllable. Consequently, managers should actively invest in these resources. Such investments will lead to resource capitalization that will improve both employee perceptions of organizational attractiveness as well as their innovative behavior.
Although the impact of ethical leadership on different aspects of organizational and employee performance is evident, research on the impact of ethical leadership on sustainable performance is still limited. Considering the scant research in this area, this study investigates the impact of ethical leadership on sustainable business performance through the mediating roles of ethical climate and voluntary environmental behavior, and the moderating role of employees' biospheric values. The study data were collected from 327 mid-level managerial employees from a cross-sectional industry in Bangladesh. The empirical evidence revealed a significant influence of ethical leadership on employees' voluntary environmental behavior, which subsequently impacted the sustainable performance of business organizations. It further identified the moderating role of employees’ biospheric values and the mediating role of the ethical climate in the hypothesized relationship. The findings provide significant theoretical contributions and practical implications in the area of both ethical leadership and sustainable performance.
Organizations receive multiple benefits when their members act ethically. Of interest in this study is if the actors receive benefits as well, especially as individuals look to work to fulfill psychological and social needs in addition to economic ones. Specifically, we highlight a series of ongoing ethical practices embodied in professional moral courage and their relationship to actor’s work meaningfulness and life well-being. Drawing on self-determination theory and affective events theory, we explore how exercising professional moral courage in one’s work leads to positive work and life outcomes. Data from 106 administrative staff of non-profit organizations demonstrates the positive benefits of adopting ethical practices at work. Specifically, professional moral courage is found to be significantly related to both work meaningfulness and individual eudaimonic life well-being. Our findings note positive benefits for individuals who incorporate professional moral courage into their daily lives and provide support for organizations seeking to encourage it from their employees; benefits for organizations and employees go beyond just the gains from ethical behavior into other positive psychological processes. Implications for future work that considers both the psychological and normative approaches to meaningful work are discussed.
Despite public administration’s growing interest in personnel diversity and ethical leadership, little is known about the effectiveness of ethical leadership in managing diverse public workforces. Can ethical leadership moderate the relationships between demographic diversity and key organizational outcomes? To answer, we synthesize four theories about demographic diversity, ethical leadership, and inclusion: social categorization theory, social exchange theory, social learning theory, and optimal distinctiveness theory. These theories illuminate the interrelationships between diversity, ethical leadership, and two types of collective organizational outcomes: affective commitment climate and race-based employment discrimination. Using panel data from the US federal government, feasible generalized least squares models indicate that racial diversity is negatively related to affective commitment climate and positively related to race-based employment discrimination. The results also show that ethical leadership beneficially moderates the associations of racial diversity with the two organizational outcomes. These findings suggest that ethical leadership aids public managers and personnel in racially diverse public agencies.
Purpose
Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study aims to explore line managers' perceptions of diversity management, as well as their perceptions of their role and responsibilities in shaping and implementing diversity practices. The senior management's leadership support, as it is perceived by line managers, in assisting them to manage diversity successfully is also examined.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews with 51 line managers across different sectors in the UK were conducted to address the following three research questions. First, how do line managers perceive diversity management? Second, what are the actual roles and responsibilities of line managers in shaping diversity practices' implementation? Third, how do leadership interactions within the organisation influence line managers' perceptions of diversity practices?
Findings
Line managers present high levels of personal determination and commitment towards diversity supplemented by a consensus on the strategic role of leadership in relation to diversity management. In addition, poor levels of organisational support, leadership values and style are identified; all highly related to their ability to deliver results and, most importantly, to form effective relationships in the workplace.
Research limitations/implications
Data included line managers' views but not senior managers' perspectives, thus limiting the study in identifying the holistic impact of social exchanges in shaping effective relations. In addition, quantitative research could test and enhance the generalisability of existing findings.
Practical implications
Investing in social relationships can positively influence line managers' ability to deliver results. Action is required at the organisational level by senior management to support and recognise line managers' critical roles to enable them to apply and promote diversity management.
Originality/value
These findings address a theoretical gap relating to the evaluation of the critical role played by line managers in the delivery of diversity practices. The study further demonstrates how social exchange relationships can influence line managers' perceptions of diversity management, an unexplored area within the diversity literature.
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effects of ethical leadership on job satisfaction, affective commitment and burnout of health care employees, considering frustration tolerance and emotional stability as moderating variables.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire was used to survey health care professionals working in private and public Austrian health-care organizations (hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and sanatoriums). The questionnaire consisted of items from well-established scales. The collected data ( n = 458) was analyzed using correlation and regression analyzes.
Findings
Findings indicated that ethical leadership is significantly positively related to job satisfaction ( r = 0.485, p < 0.01) and affective commitment ( r = 0.461, p < 0.01) and is significantly negatively related to burnout ( r = −0.347, p < 0.01). The results also suggest that frustration tolerance (ß = 0.101, p < 0.1) and emotional stability (ß = 0.093, p < 0.1) moderate the relationship between ethical leadership and burnout. Furthermore, a moderation effect of emotional stability in the ethical leadership and affective commitment relation was indicated. No moderation effect was found for frustration tolerance or emotional stability for the relationship between ethical leadership and job satisfaction.
Practical implications
Ethical leadership emphasizes the socio-emotional dimension in a leader-employee relationship, which can easily be neglected in times of staff cuts and work overload. Leadership training should include the development of skills in how to visibly act as a moral person, as well as how to set clear ethical standards and communicate them to employees.
Originality/value
This study adds value to the limited evidence on the beneficial role of ethical leadership in health care settings. In addition, frustration tolerance and emotional stability have not before been investigated as moderators.
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between psychological capital and employee performance through the mediating role of job embeddedness. Psychological climate is used as moderator to intensify the link between psychological capital and job embeddedness. Using data from 350 nurses belonging to four public hospitals, partial least squares structural equation modeling was utilized to analyze the hypothesized model. Job embeddedness significantly mediates the link between psychological capital and employee performance. Psychological climate heightens the relationship between psychological capital and job embeddedness. The findings offer suggestions for researchers on the conservation of resources and concept of psychological capital, public hospitals, and practitioners on how to improve the performance of employees.
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the influence of supervisor's ethical leadership style on subordinates' green or pro-environmental work behavior in the presence of green human resource management (GHRM) as a mediator and environmental knowledge as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire-based was distributed to 427 supervisor–subordinate dyads working in various Pakistani organizations. Structural equation modeling was used to determine the mechanisms and boundary conditions in the relationship between supervisor's ethical leadership style and subordinates' green behavior.
Findings
Structural equation modeling supported a partial mediating role of GHRM in the influence of ethical leadership on green work behavior. Further, the findings revealed that employee's environmental knowledge can magnify the indirect impact of ethical leadership, via GHRM, on green behavior.
Research limitations/implications
Cross-sectional survey data are typically associated with common method bias. To counter this bias, we collected data from dual sources, namely, supervisors and their subordinates. The research findings have implications in deepening the understanding of the impact of ethical leadership in improving environmental performance of the organization.
Originality/value
This is the first study that utilizes multi-sourced data to examine the mediating role of GHRM and the moderating role of environmental knowledge in the relationship between ethical leadership and green behavior at work.
Purpose
With the growing demand for ethical standards in the prevailing business environment, ethical leadership has been under increasingly more focus. Based on the social exchange theory and social learning theory, this study scrutinized the impact of ethical leadership on the presentation of ethical conduct by employees through the ethical climate. Notably, this study scrutinised the moderating function of the person-organisation fit (P-O fit) in relation of ethical climate and the ethical conduct of employees.
Design/methodology/approach
To evaluate the research hypotheses, two-wave data were collected from 295 individuals who are currently employed in various Iraqi organizations (i.e. manufacturing, medical and insurance industries).
Findings
In line with the hypotheses, the outcomes from a sample of 295 workers working in different Iraqi entities exhibited a positive relation between the ethical behaviour of leaders and the ethical conduct of employees in the ethical climate. Moreover, it was observed that the P-O fit of employees moderated the relationship between ethical climate and the ethical conduct of employees such that the relationship was more robust for those with a high P-O fit in comparison to those with a low P-O fit.
Research limitations/implications
The primary limitation of this study is in the data, which was obtained from a single source. Although the study conducted two surveys and utilised a mediation and moderation variables model that was less likely to be influenced by common method bias (CMB) (Podsakoff et al. , 2012), one cannot completely rule out CMB. Apart from the potential effects of the CMB, the consistency of the empirical findings could have also been compromised since self-reported data were utilised in measuring ethical behaviour, which can be a very complex and sensitive issue. For this reason, the social desirability response bias cannot be ruled out completely. When possible, future studies must gather data from multiple sources. Furthermore, supervisors must evaluate the ethical behaviour of employees. Another limitation was that the findings of this study were based on a sample in a Middle Eastern cultural context such as in Iraq. Perhaps, the particular cultural features of this context, which encompassed, among other things, a strong adherence to religious values (Moaddel, 2010), could have influenced the findings of this study. It is true that the effects of differences (P–O fit) are highly likely to replicate across cultural contexts (Triandis et al. , 1988). However, it can be seen that further studies are needed to evaluate the context-sensitivity of these findings (Whetten, 2009) by analysing other cultures, where the importance of religiosity is on the decline (i.e. in Western countries, Ribberink et al. , 2018) or where the cultural features are very much different from those that apply to Iraq. Lastly, other external factors were not taken into account by this study as it tried to explain ethical behaviour. Ethics is a highly complex subject and is influenced by numerous variables at the organisational, individual and external environment levels. Thus, caution must be observed when making inferences from the present study which, to a certain degree, offered a simplified version of ethical behaviour by concentrating on a few variables such as the Arab culture's traditional ideology, which dominates even science (Abu Khalil, 1992). In addition, there are the political conflicts in the Middle Eastern cultural context such as what is happening in Iraq (Harff, 2018). Thus, it is important to include such aspects in future researches.
Practical implications
In terms of management, the findings send a clear signal to those in the upper echelon that, without ignoring the issue of ethics in organizations, employees are a critical aspect to be taken into account to encourage ethical behaviour at the workplace. This study has important practical implications. First, this study determined that ethical leadership (here, of the supervisors) positively influences the behaviour of subordinates (refers to the supervisors here); this in turn further improves the ethical behaviour of employees. It is vital that managers or supervisors are motivated to practice ethical leadership because they directly influence the employees. It has been suggested that top managers, especially chief executive officers, have the ability to shape the ethical climate, which also influences the ethical behaviour of employees further. This study offered several feasible ways that managers can apply to achieve that. In particular, top managers may utilise the ethical climate as a way of communicating the ethical values that they have to their subordinates, thereby serving as a motivation for the subordinates to adopt an ethical behaviour. It was also suggested by this study that ethical climate and the P–O fit may, to some degree, substitute each other as they influence the ethical behaviour of employees. Therefore, firms that were identified to have a low level of ethical standards, practices, and policies, at least from the employees' perspective, are better poised to conduct ethical issues in order to construct the ethical behaviour of their subordinates. More importantly, it is highly essential that the value congruence between an organization and its followers be considered.
Social implications
This study highlighted the notion of ethics and how it’s essential for society. Ethics refer to the norms, standards, and values that direct the behavior of an individual. Ethical behaviour is vital in society because we need to be treated with respect as human beings.
Originality/value
This study responds to recent calls for more research to identify factors which may strengthen or mitigate the influence ethical behavior in the workplace such as ethical leadership, ethical climate and Person–Organization.
Purpose
Drawing on the relational demography literature and a social identity perspective, several research propositions in which the authors postulate that demographic characteristics (e.g. gender and race) of senior leaders will influence the implementation and effectiveness of diversity management practices were presented. Specifically, the authors focus on the Chief Executive Officer/Chief Diversity Officer (CEO/CDO) dyad and explore independent and joint effects of CEO and CDO majority–minority group status on workplace diversity outcomes, outlining key identity-based and relational moderators (e.g. value threat, relational identity and leader–member exchange) of these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature on relational demography and leader–member exchange to develop propositions for future research was integrated.
Findings
This is a conceptual paper. There is no empirical data reported testing the propositions.
Research limitations/implications
The authors extended theory and research on relational demography by focusing on senior leaders in the organization and proposing that the influence of CEO and CDO demographic characteristics on the enactment of diversity practices may be contingent on key identity-based and relational processes.
Originality/value
The authors are not aware of any studies investigating how personal characteristics and relational processes relating to the CEO and CDO may influence the implementation and effectiveness of workplace diversity management practices. In a similar vein, the authors contribute to the research literatures on relational demography and social identity by extending the application of these theories to senior leaders in organizations and in relation to the work of CEOs and CDOs.
Recent literature suggests that ethical leadership helps to inhibit followers’ unethical behavior, largely built on the premise that followers view ethical leaders as ethical role models and socially learn from them, thereby engaging in more (less) (un)ethical conduct. This premise, however, has not been adequately tested, leaving insufficient understanding concerning the conditions under which this social learning process occurs. In this study, we revisit this premise, theorizing that not all followers will equally regard the same ethical leader as being a personal ethical role model, thereby bounding the leader’s effects in reducing followers’ unethical behavior. We integrate the role of follower self-concepts into social learning theory, hypothesizing that the extent followers emulate their ethical leaders is contingent on how they identify with ethics (i.e., moral identity) as well as the particular leader (i.e., leader identification). We test our hypotheses with three-wave survey data collected from 214 employees, finding that ethical leaders are viewed as being role models only amongst followers higher in moral identity and leader identification, and that followers’ perceptions that the leader is an ethical role model mediated the effect of ethical leadership on followers’ unethical behavior. Interestingly, results for the full-model tests show that ethical leadership evokes unethical behavior amongst followers lower in both moral identity and leader identification. These results suggest that ethical leadership is not a universally useful practice to decrease unethical behavior and that a more nuanced understanding of its contingent effects needs to be better understood.
Managers are expected to carry various leadership qualities in order to raise the human profiles (professionals) required by society. Leadership becomes even more important when it comes to education as it shapes our future. In educational institutions, especially transformational leadership (TL) and instructional leadership (IL) have a particular importance and play an active role in conveying a classical managerial approach. This as well influences the sustainability of the educational institutions. The managers with these two leadership qualities will contribute to a reduction in their employees’ perceptions of organizational silence (OS) and an increase in the perception of organizational attractiveness (OA). In this paper, we analyzed the effects of transformational and instructional leadership styles of the managers of high schools, which contain the aviation field of study, and their effects on organizational attractiveness and organizational silence. The universe of this study is 1537 teachers working in 21 public high schools in the 2017–2018 academic year in Turkey, and the sample is 749 teachers who responded to the survey. We used a relational model of quantitative research methods. In this study, the Transformational Leadership Scale and the Instructional Leadership Scale were used to determine the leadership styles of the managers according to the perceptions of the teachers, while the Organizational Attractiveness Scale and the Organizational Silence Scale were used to determine the perceived organizational attractiveness and organizational silence of the teachers. Within the scope of reliability analysis, all dimensions of the scales used were found to be reliable. SPSS 24.0 and LISREL 8.1 package programs were used in the analysis of the research data and the relations between the variables were examined by using the Structural Equation Model. As the main finding is the existence of correlation of the elements, specifically, it was found that transformational and instructional leadership have positive effect with same-direction on organizational attractiveness, positive effect with inverse-direction on organizational silence, as well as positive effect with inverse-direction between organizational silence and organizational attractiveness. These findings provide an additional layer of factors to be analyzed that might affect the sustainability of educational institutions. We propose further studies to be carried out on development of new correlation models between sustainability elements on one side, and organizational silence or organizational attractiveness on the other.
In this paper, we propose that untapped potential acts as a subjective temporal meaning‐making mechanism. Using a two‐wave survey design, we examine the relationship between job characteristics, untapped potential, and work meaningfulness in a heterogeneous sample of 542 employees. We found that employees’ perceived amount of untapped potential mediates the effects of skill variety, autonomy, and job feedback on work meaningfulness. This mediated relationship was moderated by the valence employees attributed to their untapped potential. Moreover, decreases in the perceived amount of untapped potential over time were related to increases in perceived work meaningfulness. Our research shows that work that allows employees to move beyond the here‐and‐now by providing opportunities to realize future work selves is experienced as particularly meaningful. We conclude that, if we wish to understand what makes work meaningful for employees in the present, we need to know how it aligns with their self‐perceptions in the future.
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The aim of this paper has been to further our knowledge on diversity management practices by applying an intersectionality lens to single category diversity networks. Diversity networks are in-company networks intending to inform and support employees with similar social identities. Their focus on single identity categories is exemplary of current diversity management practices. We shed light on the strategies of network members to deal with their multiple identities vis-a-vis their network membership (structural intersectionality) and on the processes that hamper collaboration and coalition building between diversity networks (political intersectionality). Our intersectional analysis shows how the single category structure of diversity networks marginalizes members with multiple disadvantaged identities and reveals how collaborations between diversity networks are hindered by processes of preserving privilege rather than interrogating it. We contribute to the literature on diversity management practices by highlighting how dynamic processes of privilege and disadvantage play a role in sustaining intersectional inequalities in organizations.
Moral forms of leadership such as ethical, authentic, and servant leadership have seen a surge of interest in the 21st century. The proliferation of morally-based leadership approaches has resulted in theoretical confusion and empirical overlap that mirror substantive concerns within the larger leadership domain. Our integrative review of this literature reveals connections with moral philosophy that provide a useful framework to better differentiate the specific moral content (i.e., deontology, virtue ethics, and consequentialism) that undergirds ethical, authentic, and servant leadership respectively. Taken together, this integrative review clarifies points of integration and differentiation among moral approaches to leadership and delineates avenues for future research that promise to build complementary rather than redundant knowledge regarding how moral approaches to leadership inform the broader leadership domain.
Drawing on social exchange theory, the present study seeks to understand how ethical leaders channel followers’ responses to positive treatment from the organization into a dutiful mindset, resulting in in-role and extra-role performance. Specifically, it examines the influence of perceived organizational support on both followers’ job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors, and the mediating effects of duty orientation on such relationships. In addition, it examines whether the mediated effects are contingent on the ethical leadership exhibited by the team leader. Based on multi-source, multi-level data obtained from 233 employees in 60 teams from the Chinese public sector, we found that ethical leadership moderated the mediated relationship between perceived organizational support and follower work behaviors through duty orientation, such that this relationship was stronger in the presence of higher ethical leadership.
Background
The development of ethical leadership approaches plays an important role in achieving better patient care. Although studies that analyze the impact of ethical leadership on ethical climate and job satisfaction have gained importance in recent years, there is no study on ethical leadership and its relation to ethical climate and job satisfaction in our country.
Objectives
This descriptive and cross-sectional study aimed to determine the effect of nurses’ ethical leadership and ethical climate perceptions on their job satisfaction.
Methods
The study sample is composed of 285 nurses who agreed to participate in this research and who work at the internal, surgical, and intensive care units of a university hospital and a training and research hospital in İzmir, Turkey. Data were collected using Ethical Leadership Scale, Hospital Ethical Climate Scale, and Minnesota Satisfaction Scale. While the independent sample t-test, analysis of variance, Mann–Whitney U test, and Kruskal–Wallis test were used to analyze the data, the correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the scales.
Ethical considerations
The study proposal was approved by the ethics committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylül University.
Findings
The nurses’ mean scores were 59.05 ± 14.78 for the ethical leadership, 92.62 ± 17 for the ethical climate, and 62.15 ± 13.46 for the job satisfaction. The correlation between the nurses’ ethical leadership and ethical climate mean scores was moderately positive and statistically significant (r = +0.625, p = 0.000), was weak but statistically significant between their ethical leadership and job satisfaction mean scores (r = +0.461, p = 0.000), and was moderately positive and statistically significant between their ethical climate and job satisfaction mean scores (r = +0.603, p = 0.000).
Conclusion
The nurses’ ethical leadership, ethical climate, and job satisfaction levels are moderate, and there is a positive relationship between them. The nurses’ perceptions of ethical leadership are influenced by their educational status, workplace, and length of service.
This paper used Social Exchange Theory (SET), Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) and Cooper’s (Safety Science, 36(2), 111–136, 2000) frameworks to operationalize a comprehensive model of safety culture, and tests whether one SET factor (supervisor-employee relationships) and one POB factor (psychological capital) predict accreditation and safety culture in a causal chain. Surveys from 1125 Italian doctors were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Supervisor-employee relationships and psychological capital accounted for two-fifths of the accreditation culture, and, in turn, explained more than half of the safety culture. Hence, effective workplace relationships between management and doctors provide a trusting foundation to develop safe practices for better healthcare.
While recent studies have increasingly suggested leadership as a major precursor to corporate social responsibility (CSR), empirical studies that examine the impact of various leader aspects such as style and ethics on CSR and unravel the mechanism through which leadership exerts its influence on CSR are scant. Ironically, paucity of research on this theme is more prevalent in the sphere of social enterprises where it is of utmost importance. With the aim of addressing these gaps, this research empirically examines the interaction between ethical leadership and CSR and, in addition, investigates organic organizational cultures (clan culture and adhocracy culture) as mediators in the above interaction. To this end, a model was developed and tested on the sample of 350 middle- and top-level managers associated with 28 Indian healthcare social enterprises, using Structural Equation Modeling Analysis, Bootstrapping and PROCESS. Results reveal that ethical leadership both directly and indirectly influences CSR practices. The indirect influence of ethical leadership involves nurturing clan and adhocracy cultures, which in turn influence CSR. These findings are significant for social enterprise leaders seeking to encourage their organizations’ socially responsible behavior.
Despite urgent calls for more research on the integration of business ethics and the meaning of work, to date, there have been few corresponding efforts, and we know surprisingly little about this relationship. In this study, we address this issue by examining when and for whom ethical leadership is more (or less) effective in promoting a sense of work meaningfulness among employees, and their subsequent work attitudes. Drawing on the contingency theories of leadership and work meaningfulness literature, we speculate that both employees’ core self-evaluation (CSE; as a dispositional characteristic) and perceived organizational support (POS; as a situational characteristic) moderate the relationship, but in different ways, and these associations carry over to employees’ subsequent work attitudes in terms of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention. We test our hypotheses with two-wave survey data collected from 377 employees. Results indicate that ethical leadership is effective in eliciting work meaningfulness and attitudes for employees higher in CSE or when POS is lower, and ineffective for those lower in CSE or when POS is higher. A supplementary analysis reveals a three-way interaction between ethical leadership, CSE and POS in predicting a sense of work meaningfulness and subsequent work attitudes. Our research cautions that ethical leadership is not a universally positive practice; it can be ineffective or even have a negative impact under some circumstances.
Background
Leadership style adopted by nursing managers is a key element in progress and development of nursing and quality of healthcare services received by the patients. In this regard, the role of ethical leadership is of utmost importance.
Objectives
The objective of the study was to elaborate on the ethical leadership and its role in professional progress and growth of nurses in the light of work condition in health providing institutes.
Methods
The study was carried out as a qualitative study following conventional content analysis method. In total, 14 nursing faculty members and nursing managers at different levels were selected through purposive sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were used for data gathering. The data were analyzed using latent content analysis and constant comparison analysis.
Ethical considerations
This study was conducted in accordance with ethical issues in research with human participants and national rules and regulations related to informed consent and confidentiality. The study was approved by the Committee of Ethics in Research at the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran, under the code: sbmu.rec.1393.695 on 15 February 2015.
Findings
Five subcategories were obtained based on the analysis, which constituted two main categories including “all-inclusive satisfaction” and “productivity.” Nursing leaders highlighted the point that their ethical behavior creates “inner satisfaction of the leader,” “employees’ job satisfaction,” and “patients’ satisfaction.” Improvement of productivity was another outcome of ethical behavior of the leaders. This kind of behavior resulted in “providing better services” and “inspiring ethical behavior in the employees.” It has great influence on progress and growth of the nursing profession.
Conclusion
By creating an ethical climate, ethical leadership leads to positive and effective outcomes—for the patients as well as for the nurses and the leaders—and professional progress and development of the nursing profession. Therefore, an ethical work environment that supports nurses’ progress and development can be developed by paying more attention to moralities in recruitment, teaching ethical values to the leaders, and using a systematic and objective approach to assess morality in the environment.
As a way of having strong relations with the stakeholders, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may become a strategy for the companies. But research on relationship between the perceived CSR of internal stakeholders (employees) and organizations are limited. This study examined a model of CSR on organizational identification (OI), via the mediating role of meaningful work (MFW). It also investigated the moderating role of ethical leadership (EL). Data were obtained from the employees of an Aviation company operating in Kayseri, Turkey. The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between CSR and OI. In addition, MFW partially mediated the relationship between CSR and OI. Furthermore, no evidence of the moderator role of EL on CSR and MFW relation was found.
This study compares three emerging forms of positive leadership that emphasize ethical and moral behavior (i.e., authentic leadership, ethical leadership, and servant leadership) with transformational leadership in their associations with a wide range of organizationally relevant measures. While scholars have noted conceptual overlap between transformational leadership and these newer leadership forms, there has been inadequate investigation of the empirical relationships with transformational leadership and the ability (or lack thereof) of these leadership forms to explain incremental variance beyond transformational leadership. In response, we conducted a series of meta-analyses to provide a comprehensive assessment of these emerging leadership forms’ relationships with variables evaluated in the extant literature. Second, we tested the relative performance of each of these leadership forms in explaining incremental variance, beyond transformational leadership, in nine outcomes. We also provide relative weights analyses to further evaluate the relative contributions of the emerging leadership forms versus transformational leadership. The high correlations between both authentic leadership and ethical leadership with transformational leadership coupled with their low amounts of incremental variance suggest that their utility is low unless they are being used to explore very specific outcomes. Servant leadership, however, showed more promise as a stand-alone leadership approach that is capable of helping leadership researchers and practitioners better explain a wide range of outcomes. Guidance regarding future research and the utility of these three ethical/moral values–based leadership forms is provided.
The purpose of this article is to review literature that is relevant to the social scientific study of ethics and leadership, as well as outline areas for future study. We first discuss ethical leadership and then draw from emerging research on "dark side" organizational behavior to widen the boundaries of the review to include unethical leadership. Next, three emerging trends within the organizational behavior literature are proposed for a leadership and ethics research agenda: 1) emotions, 2) fit/congruence, and 3) identity/identification. We believe each shows promise in extending current thinking. The review closes with discussion of important issues that are relevant to the advancement of research on leadership and ethics.
The construction of meaning at work impacts on individual, psychological and work related outcomes. The meaning of work, however, in the context of women leaders working in higher education institutions (HEIs) has not yet been comprehensively researched and understood in South Africa and internationally. This article explores the perspectives on meaning of work for women leaders working in HEIs in South Africa and internationally. With regard to meaning at work, limited research exists on HEIs in South Africa and internationally. This needs to be explored in-depth from emic female perspectives to contribute to both to the benefit of women in HEIs and to the transformation goals of organisations. Data from a qualitative research study within the phenomenological paradigm are presented. The research methods include the collection and analysis of 29 in-depth interviews with South African and international women leaders working in academic and administrative positions in HEIs. The findings show that women leaders in HEIs connect meaningfulness to five main categories namely, career, life values, spirituality, race and gender identity. HEIs need to focus more on the construction of meaningfulness at work for women leaders to cater for empowering working conditions.This article contributes to the dearth in literature on meaningfulness at work for women leaders within HEIs. It also provides conclusions and recommendations.
ABSTRACT
Our paper develops and tests a moderated mediation model of green human resource management (HRM). Time-lagged data gathered were utilized to assess climate for green initiative (GI) as a mediator of the impact of green HRM on green voice behavior (GVB) and test green servant leadership (SL) as a moderator of the indirect link of green HRM to GVB via climate for GI. Results from partial least squares structural equation modeling denote that climate for GI partly mediates the linkage between green HRM and GVB. Unexpectedly, green SL reduces the indirect positive relationship of green HRM to GVB via climate for GI. By gauging the aforesaid relationships, our paper augments the existing knowledge regarding the mediating mechanism relating green HRM to GVB. Our paper also augments the green management literature by treating green SL as a moderator.
KEYWORDS Climate for green initiative, green human resource management, green servant leadership, green voice behavior, hotel workers
Purpose
Drawing on signaling theory and the “signal transmission–interpretation–feedback” framework, this study explores the effects of perceived distributive justice and respect from managers on nurses' work meaningfulness and work effort in public hospitals in China and examines the moderating role of work self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach
We collected 341 paired questionnaires for nurses and managers from four public hospitals in China. The data were analyzed by structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis.
Findings
Distributive justice and managers' respect for employees are positively related to work meaningfulness. Additionally, work self-efficacy negatively moderates this relationship. Work meaningfulness is positively related to work effort and fully mediates the relationships between perceived distributive justice and respect from the manager and work effort.
Practical implications
This study provides useful insights for healthcare organizations to improve nurses' work meaningfulness from the perspectives of their material and emotional needs, according to their work self-efficacy characteristics, thus promoting their work effort. The findings offer important guidance for improving the effectiveness of grass-roots human resources to cope with unpredictable situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originality/value
This study focuses on the organization's environmental factors that affect the primary staff's work meaningfulness. Further, it analyzes the differences in signal interpretation among nurses with different work self-efficacy characteristics, thus providing new insights into work meaningfulness. Through manager–nurse pairing data, it reveals the important role of work meaningfulness in motivating work effort.
Purpose: Drawing on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this article develops a model of how work engagement mediates the relationship between supervisor support and affective commitment, with religiosity moderating the relationship between supervisor support and work engagement. We further test a moderated-mediation model exploring the relationships between supervisor support, religiosity, work engagement, and affective commitment within a unique institutional context where religious values and beliefs significantly influence and shape people management practices.
Design/methodology/approach: Using a survey-based approach, data were collected from 367 employees from the telecommunication sector in the context of Jordan.
Findings: Supervisor support was positively related to work engagement, which positively impacts affective commitment. Work engagement mediated the relationship between supervisor support and affective commitment. In addition, religiosity amplified the relationship between supervisor support and work engagement, and the mediating effect of work engagement on the relationship between supervisor support and affective commitment.
Originality: This study contributes to JD-R theory and pertinent literature by examining the moderating role of religiosity, an important yet neglected personal resource. This study is the first to examine the interaction effect between religiosity and supervisor support in predicting work engagement. It is also the first to examine a moderated mediation model exploring the relationships between supervisor support, religiosity, work engagement, and affective commitment.
Purpose
Adapting a positive business ethics framework, the purpose of this paper is to offer a new perspective to manage bullying at work. Specifically, this paper reports an empirical study which examines how the good work of servant leadership may lower employees’ exposure to workplace bullying, with compassion as a mediator and social cynicism beliefs (SCBs) as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were gathered from 337 essential health professionals working in various public and private health-care organisations in Pakistan. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research model.
Findings
This study found that perceived servant leadership helps in lessening employee exposure to workplace bullying by strengthening their compassion. However, SCBs moderate the mediating role of compassion in employees’ perceptions of the servant leadership–bullying relationship.
Research limitations/implications
This study has implications in developing models of leadership to build employees’ empathetic resources to combat workplace bullying. The authors found that servant leadership and workplace compassion, embodying positive, ethical and sustainable attributes, play a crucial role in managing bullying at work by promoting relational dignity.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the relationships between employee perceptions of servant leadership, workplace bullying and employee compassion while considering SCBs as a boundary condition.
Purpose
Building on conservation of resources theory and unfolding theory of turnover, this paper aims to propose a model of the effects of despotic leadership on employees’ job satisfaction and turnover intention in the hospitality industry. In this model, the authors theorize psychological distress to play an intervening role among the aforesaid linkages.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected in three-waves from 212 employees working in Palestinian restaurants. A covariance-based matrix in structural equation modeling was used to verify the proposed linkages in the study. A marker variable was used to control the common method bias.
Findings
The results showed that despotic leadership has a direct negative effect on job satisfaction and a positive indirect effect on turnover intentions. Besides, psychological distress showed to play significant mediating effects among the aforementioned relationships.
Practical implications
This study gives insights to the hospitality industry on how despotic leadership can be destructive and lead to negative consequences.
Originality/value
This study is unique, as it is the first study conducted on despotic leadership in a hospitality setting. The study responded to scholarly calls made to enrich the literature pertaining to despotic leadership and its outcomes.
Ethical leadership has attracted massive attention in the twenty-first century. Yet despite this vast literature, knowledge of ethical leadership suffers from two critical limitations: First, existing conceptualizations conflate ethical leader behaviors with followers' evaluations of leaders' characteristics, values, traits, and followers' cognitions. Second, we know little to nothing regarding the causes and consequences of ethical leadership behaviors as most of the evidence not only confounds concepts, but also precludes causal inferences due to design problems. Thus, we first present a review of the definitions of ethical leadership that alarmingly reveals a hodgepodge of follower evaluations of leader behaviors, traits, and values. We then address this concept confusion by drawing upon signaling theory in presenting a new conceptualization of ethical leadership behavior (ELB) defined as signaling behavior by the leader (individual) targeted at stakeholders (e.g., an individual follower, group of followers, or clients) comprising the enactment of prosocial values combined with expressions of moral emotions. As such, enacting prosocial values and expressing moral emotions are each necessary for ethical leadership. Next, we review the nomological network of ELB at the individual, dyad, and group levels. We conclude with a discussion of future research directions in testing new theoretical models, including a set of theoretical and methodological recommendations.
Researchers prescribe that the combined influence of personal characteristics and work conditions should be examined to provide a clearer understanding of predictors of performance. This study investigates the joint impact of salespeople's external work locus of control (WLOC) and a firm's ethical climate on job meaningfulness, job performance and turnover intentions. The study hypotheses were tested with a sample of 151 business-to-business salespeople from a sales organization based in the southeastern United States. The results of the study suggest that when salespeople perceive that their sales organization has a strong ethical climate, the negative impact of external WLOC is mitigated based on the salesperson's feelings of job meaningfulness, resulting in positive job performance and fewer turnover intentions. Implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are provided.
Purpose
The primary research question addressed through this paper is whether and how corporate social responsibility (CSR) can create business value for organizations as measured through employee attitudes and behaviours. Specifically, this study aims to examine the impact of CSR on employee engagement through its influence on psychological meaningfulness, safety and availability.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 187 business professionals working for a wide variety of organizations in India constituted the study sample. Regression analysis was used to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
CSR positively predicted employee engagement. Psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability fully mediated the relationship of CSR with employee engagement.
Practical implications
The study establishes CSR as an important talent management tool in the hands of management to cultivate an engaged workforce. The results provide corporate managers with the necessary evidence to justify their investment in CSR initiatives.
Originality/value
The study by establishing CSR as a determinant of employee engagement addresses the need for micro-level CSR research, and, hence, bridges the macro-micro gap in the CSR literature. In addition, the application of micro-level theories helped to establish the psychological processes defining CSR and employee engagement relationship. In doing so, the study empirically tests Khan’s theory of engagement and the underlying mechanisms of engagement.
This study responds to recent calls for research on how and why ethical leadership is related to employee outcomes. Drawing on self-concept–based theory and substitutes-for-leadership theory, the study examines both the mediating and moderating role of work meaningfulness on the relationship between ethical leadership and work engagement. Using a sample of Egyptian public hospital nurses, the results of structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that work meaningfulness partially mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and engagement. Furthermore, the results showed the positive relationship between ethical leadership and work engagement was stronger for employees who experienced lower rather than higher levels of meaningfulness. Thus, public sector organizations need to put emphasis on nurturing ethical leadership and stimulating employees’ sense of work meaningfulness. However, they need to be aware that, sometimes, they may not be able to get “double the benefits” when they invest in developing both.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the effects of ethical leadership on employee’s bullying and voice behavior, considering poor working conditions, organizational identification and workload as mediating variables.
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaire survey design was used to elicit responses of 564 nurses from hospitals located in various cities of Pakistan.
Findings
Analysis through structural equation modeling proved that ethical leadership has a positive and significant impact on both organizational identification and voice behavior, but a negative and significant impact on workload, poor working conditions and bullying at the workplace. Furthermore, organizational identification, poor working conditions and workload proved to be partial mediators.
Originality/value
The study adds value to the limited literature on ethical leadership, bullying and voice behavior in nursing. Additionally, organizational identification, workload and poor working conditions have not previously been examined as mediators.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how factors associated with a sense of community in the workplace are connected with organizational commitment and the quality of services among frontline managers and middle managers in social and health care services in Finland.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire designed specifically for this research was sent to 241 lower-level and middle-level managers in social and health care services in central Finland. A total of 136 managers completed the questionnaire (response rate 56 per cent). The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression analyses.
Findings
The study showed that feeling a sense of belonging, mutual trust and appreciation, and open interaction among colleagues were connected to organizational commitment for frontline managers and middle managers in social and health care services in Finland. Correspondingly, an open flow of information in the organization, job meaningfulness and appreciation received from managers’ superiors were connected to the quality of services.
Originality/value
This study provides information on the factors that influence social and health care managers’ organizational commitment and on items connected to their experience of the quality of services.
The statistical tests used in the analysis of structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error are examined. A drawback of the commonly applied chi square test, in addition to the known problems related to sample size and power, is that it may indicate an increasing correspondence between the hypothesized model and the observed data as both the measurement properties and the relationship between constructs decline. Further, and contrary to common assertion, the risk of making a Type II error can be substantial even when the sample size is large. Moreover, the present testing methods are unable to assess a model's explanatory power. To overcome these problems, the authors develop and apply a testing system based on measures of shared variance within the structural model, measurement model, and overall model.
Meaningful work has been defined as work that is personally enriching and that makes a positive contribution. There is increasing interest in how organizations can harness the meaningfulness of work to enhance productivity and performance. We explain how organizations seek to manage the meaningfulness employees experience through strategies focused on job design, leadership, HRM and culture. Employees can respond positively to employers' strategies aimed at raising their level of experienced meaningfulness when they are felt to be authentic. However, when meaningfulness is lacking, or employees perceive that the employer is seeking to manipulate their meaningfulness for performative intent, then the response of employees can be to engage in “existential labor” strategies with the potential for harmful consequences for individuals and organizations. We develop a Model of Existential Labor, drawing out a set of propositions for future research endeavors, and outline the implications for HRM practitioners.
