Effect of Ethical Leadership and Interactional Justice on Employee Work Attitudes

Abstract

The purposes of the current study were to (a) examine the direct effects of ethical leadership on three employee work attitudes—affective organizational commitment (AC‐ORG), affective commitment to the supervisor (AC‐SUP), and job satisfaction and (b) explore the mediating roles of two types of interactional justice—interpersonal justice (IPJ) and informational justice (IFJ)—on the effects of ethical leadership and employee work attitudes. Data were collected from 862 participants and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. The results indicated that ethical leadership had strong and direct effects on employee work attitudes. Moreover, the effects of ethical leadership on AC‐SUP and on job satisfaction were found to be partially mediated by IFJ, while IPJ was found to have no mediating role. These research findings demonstrate the importance of ethical leadership and IFJ to employees, leaders, and organizations. The research contributes substantial knowledge to the leadership field because it confirms the importance of ethics to leadership effectiveness.