How Upper/Middle Managers' Ethical Leadership Activates Employee Ethical Behavior? The Role of Organizational Justice Perceptions Among Employees.

Hussam Al Halbusi,Pablo Ruiz-Palomino,Santiago Gutiérrez-Broncano,Pedro Jimenez-Estevez

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.652471

Hussam Al Halbusi, Pablo Ruiz-Palomino + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.652471

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Abstract

Several studies have been conducted on ethical leadership and workplace ethical behavior but little is known about the role of organizational justice and each of its dimensions (procedural, distributive, interpersonal, informational) in this relationship. This study predicts that ethical leadership enhances organizational justice perceptions, including each of its specific dimensions, which in turn enhances employee ethical behavior. The results from two-wave survey data obtained from 270 employees in the Malaysian manufacturing industry confirm that ethical leadership has a positive impact on employee ethical behavior, and that organizational justice and each of its justice dimensions mediate this relationship, both individually and together. Importantly, interpersonal and informational dimensions show the strongest mediation effects. This paper highlights the actions and strategies that can help managers to effectively elevate the moral tone in their organizations. In particular, our findings show where managers must put more emphasis to foster an ethical workplace: on providing fair treatment (interpersonal justice) and honest information (informational justice).

Highlights

Numerous corporate scandals (e.g., Volkswagen, the London Interbank Offered Rate) have occurred in recent years, at causing great harm to society (Al Halbusi et al, 2019, 2020b; Babalola et al, 2019) and to organizations (Padilla et al, 2007)
The nature of the variables for this study enabled us to differentiate first- and secondorder constructs, captured in Mode A constructs, as recommended (Hair et al, 2017)
Partial Least Squares (PLS) is a powerful, robust statistical procedure that allows the inclusion of second-order constructs and does not require demanding assumptions about the distribution of the variables (Hair et al, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

Numerous corporate scandals (e.g., Volkswagen, the London Interbank Offered Rate) have occurred in recent years, at causing great harm to society (Al Halbusi et al, 2019, 2020b; Babalola et al, 2019) and to organizations (Padilla et al, 2007). There is growing interest in understanding the sources of influence of unethical behavior in organizations, raising the need to implement measures to produce more ethical and humane businesses. When people lack ethical behavior, people set out to fulfill their own self-interest above the interests of others (Padilla et al, 2007), which may pose serious problems for organizations (e.g., theft, sabotage, bullying, lying, moral harassment). How to favor ethical behavior is a pressing issue that needs to be studied (Treviño et al, 2014). Employee ethical behaviors refer to actions that contribute positively to corporate social and ethical performance and require strong guidance and clear value structures within the organization (Brown and Treviño, 2014).

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