Linking Ethical Leadership with Employee Work Outcomes: The Moderating Role of Conscientiousness

Abstract

The style of leadership followed by the organizations tends to be its key to success and failure. Good and effective leaders tend to have a positive impact on the overall environment of the workplace and teamwork. However, bad leadership not only affect the workplace environment but also results in poor performances of employees, their well-being and increases absenteeism and reduces employee voice and freedom to speak. Leadership is a contested term with multiple meanings and diverse practical applications. A leader is specifically that person of the organization who directs, motivates and influences others to enhance the performances (Ojokuku, Odetayo, and Sajuyigbe, 2012; Western, 2019). A leader is responsible for inspiring its subordinates towards effective performances in order to attain goals and corporate objectives (Mo, Ling, & Xie, 2017). Leadership is said to be that process of the organization, which aims to influence others for strong commitment towards the organization by realizing their potential in order to add value within organizational productivity, share their vision, integrity, and passion (Jeremy, Melinde & Ciller, 2012). Leaders are known for their moral responsibilities, authorities, and activities. Their status is associated with such attributes that represent goodness and virtue, and their specific ability to encourage followers to perform good deeds (Fehr, Yam and Dang 2015). The ethical Ethical leadership continues to receive considerable attention due to its influence on various job outcomes, therefore this study was conducted to examine the effect of ethical leadership on job outcomes (employee wellbeing and worker's voice) and to demonstrate that how good faith direct the relationship between ethical leadership and job outcomes. This study was conducted in the Non-Government organizations in Peshawar. Information was gathered from 180 workers working in 6 diverse NGO's in Peshawar. Information was gathered through an organized questionnaire and convenience sampling technique was used. The results of this study showed that ethical leadership was positively related to employee well-being and employee voice. The findings of the study show that there is a strong relationship between ethical leadership, employee voice, employee well-being. The main contribution of this study was to find the significant moderating effect of conscientiousness on both dependent variables. The future implication shows that organizations can identify those aspects through which employee work outcome can be improved. The use of ethical leadership strategies can allow managers to build a positive attitude in employees which results in employee well-being.

Ethical Leadership at Work and Workplace Well-Being of Employees in a Coal Power Plant

“…This result confirms several studies that proved ethical leadership at work and workplace well-being are significantly correlated [28]; [29]; [30]. Furthermore, the elements of ethical leadership at work such as people-orientation, fairness, powersharing, concerns for sustainability, ethical guidance, role clarification, and integrity are also the imperatives of workplace well-being.…”

The relationship between ethical leadership, conscientiousness, and moral courage from nurses’ perspective

“…Also, when the leader is focused on promoting the norms and values of the organization, employees tend to be more involved. This motivates employees to take responsibility for their own duties and increase their engagement in achieving their career goals [70]. Nurses' conscientiousness guides them in making ethical decisions based on ethical professional codes and guidelines [71,72]; ethics-based leadership skills play a major role in this regard [47,70,[73][74][75].…”

Effect of Ethical Leadership and Employee Voice on Happiness at the Workplace

“…As the level of ethical leadership perceived by employees increases that of employee voice also increases. Previous studies have also indicated that ethical leadership has a positive effect on employee voice (Adnan et al, 2019;Avey et al, 2012;Çetin-Kılıç & Eser, 2022). Leaders who listen to employees' suggestions, exchange ideas with them, make fair decisions, and behave ethically help them to express negativities, problems, and ideas about the organization and work.…”