Abstract
The current study is intended to inspect the potential impact of ethical leadership practices (EL) of intermediate level administration (i.e., faculty deans, department heads) on lecturer job satisfaction (LJS) at a private higher education (HE) institution (UX) in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. A conceptual framework linking EL and LJS was developed grounded on the ethical leadership conceptualizations of Brown et al. (2005), Kalshoven et al. (2011), and Langlois et al. (2014). Accordingly, ethical leadership works as a multidimensional construct encompassing a set of five values or explicit behaviors, i.e., care, critique, integrity, fairness, and ethical guidance. Further, the constructs and effects of EL on LJS are primarily conceptualized in light of Social Exchange Theory and Social Learning Theory. Primary quantitative data was collected through an anonymously self-administered survey of all 378 lecturers permanently employed at eight faculties at UX’s main campus via a non-probability purposive sampling method. The totality of 256 valid questionnaires yielded a response rate of 68% for stepwise data analysis with inferential statistical methods (i.e., internal reliability test, factor scores, correlation, and multiple regression). The regression findings reveal that all five dimensions of EL significantly positively explained the variance in job satisfaction as perceived by UX lecturers (p < .001). These findings suggest both theoretical and practical implications. The present study expands our understanding on ethical leadership by verifying its predictive power on the job satisfaction levels as self-reported by HE lecturers. Therein lies a conclusion that well-established ethical conducts for HE administration may assist them in making key decisions with care, fairness, critique, integrity, and ethical guidance.
Highlights
Attention to ethical leadership has certainly grown as a preferred topic in the field of educational administration (Gardiner & Tenuto, 2015; Langlois et al, 2014)
Several items from the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire Short Form (MSQ) (Weiss et al, 1967) and Vitell and Davis’ (1990) instrument were adopted for lecturer job satisfaction appraisal
Cronbach's reliability, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), Pearson's correlation coefficient, and regression were subsequently subject to computation to verify the proposed hypotheses by assessing the predictive ability of the five constituting ethical leadership dimensions on lecturer job satisfaction
Summary
Attention to ethical leadership has certainly grown as a preferred topic in the field of educational administration (Gardiner & Tenuto, 2015; Langlois et al, 2014). Literature review discloses a higher level of organisational ethics has a potential to improve the leader-employee relationship and trust in leadership, progressively yielding an assortment of positive outcomes for the organizations and employees alike (Chughtai et al, 2015; Güçel et al, 2012; Eisenbeiss et al, 2014; Yozgat & Meşekıran, 2016) These rigorous findings extensively shed light on the literature regarding the predictive power of leadership ethics on an organization and confirm the significant role of ethical practices on employees’ organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and loyalty. Conceptual framework considering the preceding literature review and the research purpose and questions, a framework linking ethical leadership and lecturer job satisfaction was conceptualized by outsourcing from the work of Brown et al (2005), Kalshoven et al (2011), and Langlois et al (2014).
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