Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the simultaneous effect of ethical leadership (EL) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employees’ turnover intention and examine the mediating mechanism in these relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a field study of 851 employees across a variety of industries. This study applied partial least squares structural equation modelling for hypothesis testing.FindingsThe results show that employees’ perceptions of CSR as well as EL are both uniquely and negatively related to turnover intention. The authors also found that employees’ job satisfaction but not commitment, mediates these relationships.Research limitations/implicationsThis study answers the recent call (Schminke and Sheridan, 2017) for ethics researchers to put competing explanations to the test to determine their relative importance. Research limitations have been discussed in the paper.Social implicationsThrough providing empirical support for the positive impact of CSR and EL on employee-related outcomes and creating a decent and empowering work environment, this study provides further support for CSR and EL. As CSR and EL require accountability, responsible management and addressing societal well-being of stakeholders, this study can contribute to the United Nations sustainable development goals.Originality/valuePrevious research has found that both employees’ perceptions of supervisory EL and CSR are negatively related to employees’ turnover intentions. Yet, researchers know little about their relative importance because these relationships have not been adequately examined simultaneously.
Highlights
Ethical leadership (EL) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been linked to a variety of meaningful outcomes for individuals and organisations (Glavas, 2016a; Ng and Feldman, 2015)
Our study differs from the work of Lin and Liu (2017) in that our j j PAGE 190 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNAL VOL. 17 NO. 2 2021 mediating mechanisms, job satisfaction and commitment, have been more widely studied and supported by previous research than the mediators used in their research
We focused on the relative influence of CSR and EL on employee turnover intention (TI) both directly and through the mediating mechanisms of employee commitment and satisfaction
Summary
Ethical leadership (EL) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been linked to a variety of meaningful outcomes for individuals and organisations (Glavas, 2016a; Ng and Feldman, 2015). Previous research has found that CSR (Du et al, 2011; Carnahan et al, 2017; Stewart et al, 2011) and EL (Demirtas and Akdogan, 2015; Palanski et al, 2014) are associated with lower employee turnover, so this might seem like a settled question. These studies have not adequately examined both influences. Azadeh Shafaei and Pi-Shen Seet both are based at the School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia
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