Ethical leadership, subordinates’ moral identity and self-control: Two- and three-way interaction effect on subordinates’ ethical behavior

Abstract

Ethical leadership has been shown to have a positive influence on employees’ moral behavior, but the strength of the relationship likely varies depending on several factors. We apply social learning theory and social cognitive theory to suggest that the association is stronger when the employees involved have high (versus low) moral identity and high (versus low) self-control. By testing the model using 375 supervisor-subordinate dyads at a large Iraqi organization, we demonstrated a separate strengthening role of subordinates’ self-control and moral identity in the positive effect of ethical leadership on their ethical behavior, and that ethical leadership had the strongest positive influence on the ethical conduct of employees with both high moral identity and high self-control. Our findings have important implications as they suggest that harnessing the full benefit of ethical leadership requires attention being paid to the characteristics of both leaders and subordinates.