Management Representativeness, Ethical Leadership, and Employee Job Satisfaction in the U.S. Federal Government

Abstract

As the proportion of women and racial minorities in managerial positions has increased in public organizations, considerable attention has been paid to how management representativeness shapes employee work attitudes and what leadership styles moderate these relationships. This study explores separate and joint effects of two types of management representativeness (gender and racial representation of management) and ethical leadership on employee job satisfaction using panel data from the U.S. federal government. The statistical results indicate that racial representation of management and ethical leadership have a positive influence on employee job satisfaction. Further analysis shows that ethical leadership significantly moderates the relationships between the two types of management representativeness and employee job satisfaction, such that gender and racial representations of management are more positively related to job satisfaction under high ethical leadership. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are addressed.