Increasing attention is being paid to how leaders influence followers' perceptions of the importance of ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) for organizational effectiveness. However, few researchers have conducted empirical investigations into the impact of leadership style on followers' attitudes toward CSR. In this study, participants comprised 313 employees of 5 large financial and banking service firms in Korea. Results indicated that ethical leadership was strongly associated with followers' rating of CSR. In addition, we examined how employees' perception of ethical work climate mediates and moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and followers' attitudes toward CSR. Our findings supported a positive link between ethical leadership and followers' attitudes toward CSR, with perception of an ethical work climate acting as a significant mediator and moderator in this relationship. Implications for leadership practice and CSR, and recommendations for future research directions are discussed.

The direct positive relationship between empowering leadership and subordinate empowerment is well established. However, leader–member exchange (LMX) research, which concerns a leader’s relationship-building with subordinates in a work unit, suggests that the direct leader empowering–subordinate empowerment association may be more complex than understood in the current literature. Accordingly, this study examined LMX theory-based mediation and moderation processes occurring between empowering leadership and subordinate empowerment. In a field study employing 132 administrative workers in 26 work groups, as expected, an individual subordinate’s perceived LMX mediated the positive effects of empowering leadership on the subordinate’s psychological empowerment. In addition, LMX differentiation cross-level moderated the linkage between empowering leadership and perceived LMX. Together, study findings suggest that subordinates’ perceived LMX in a dyadic relationship with a leader and in a work group needs to be carefully considered in empowering leadership processes.

We investigated how employees respond to Machiavellian supervisors exerting ethical leadership. Participants were 252 matched supervisor–employee dyads, and we administered measures of supervisor ethical leadership, employee voice, employee power distance orientation, and supervisor Machiavellianism. Results revealed that Machiavellian supervisors' ethical leader behaviors were perceived to be genuine by subordinate employees, and that ethical leadership promoted supervisors' extrarole voice behaviors. Further, the effects of Machiavellian supervisors' ethical leader behaviors on employee voice were intensified in the particular organizational context of higher, versus lower, employee power distance orientation. Given the major finding that ethical leader behaviors demonstrated by Machiavellian supervisors were effective whether or not they were genuine, ethical leadership training and development are suggested to help promote desirable employee work behaviors, including voice.

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Purpose – Performance of home health aides remains imperative in the medical community, but understanding the potential role of consideration leadership (CL) in improving performance of home health aides in the literature has gone undetected. This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The present study, using the 2007 National Home Health Aides Survey (n=3,308), aims to investigate the moderating role of consideration leadership (CL) in the relationship between injury and training among home health aides at the national level. Descriptive statistics and a hierarchical logistic regression analysis were performed. Findings – Not all consideration practices play a positive role in the relationship between training and injury. The authors found only employee-focused consideration leadership practices, when introduced together with training, may benefit home health aides in reducing injury. Research limitations/implications – To maximize training effectiveness, leaders may need to understand the importance of their own role in training transfer processes and attempt to demonstrate adequate influence behaviors such as consideration. Originality/value – This research is the first of its kind to explore the role of consideration leadership in the relationship with injury and training among home health aides.