Despite the general expectation that ethical leadership fosters employees' ethical behaviors, surprisingly little empirical effort has been made to verify this expected effect of ethical leadership. To address this research gap, we examine the role of ethical leadership in relation to a direct ethical outcome of employees: moral voice. Focusing on how and when ethical leadership motivates employees to speak up about ethical issues, we propose that moral efficacy serves as a psychological mechanism underlying the relationship, and that leaderfollower value congruence serves as a boundary condition for the effect of ethical leadership on moral efficacy. We tested the proposed relationships with matched reports from 154 Korean white-collar employees and their immediate supervisors, collected at two different points in time. The results revealed that ethical leadership was positively related to moral voice, and moral efficacy mediated the relationship. Importantly, as the relationship between ethical leadership and moral efficacy depended on leaderfollower value congruence, the mediated relationship was effective only under high leader-follower value congruence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Purpose
– The aim of this paper was to examine the incremental validity of positive psychological capital (PsyCap) in predicting several important employee outcomes while controlling for a full range of personality traits.
Design/methodology/approach
– Using a cross-sectional field study design, the authors collected data from 373 employees in South Korea.
Findings
– Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that employees' PsyCap is related to their perceived performance, turnover intention, work happiness, and subjective well-being, even after controlling for the Big Five personality traits.
Research limitations/implications
– By controlling for the Big Five traits, this study was able to evaluate the role of PsyCap more precisely. However, as the data were collected from the same source at one point in time, common method variance is a potential issue.
Practical implications
– The findings suggest that managers need to focus on developing employees' PsyCap, given its unique effect on the outcome variables.
Social implications
– By developing employees' PsyCap, organizations could turn work into a significant source of happiness and life satisfaction for their employees.
Originality/value
– This study identified the broad and unique effect of PsyCap on work and life outcomes beyond personality traits.
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