Can Ethical Leadership Increase Employees' Work Engagement and Job Satisfaction? Differences in Gender Context

Abstract

Leaders hold significant influence on employees and organizations. This study primarily focused to examine the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' work engagement and job satisfaction, and it aimed to examine the differences in ethical leadership-work engagement-job satisfaction relations by gender. Multiple-group analysis was used to investigate gender-based differences. The findings revealed a significant relationship between ethical leadership and both job satisfaction and work engagement. Ethical leadership and job satisfaction and work engagement positively related. The model predicted for the entire data set was also estimated for the male and female groups. While all pathways were statistically significant in the male group however the direct relationship between ethical leadership and job satisfaction was statistically insignificant in the female group. The results of the current study emphasize the importance of ethical leadership in shaping employee engagement and job satisfaction, while also revealing differences among female and male employees.