Mediating Role of Moral Identity in the Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Unethical Behavior of Employees: Evidence from the Oil and Gas Sector of Pakistan

Abstract

This study draws on social identity, social learning, and trait-activation theories to probe if moral identity mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and unethical behavior. It investigates how ethical leadership serves as a predictor of employees’ unethical behavior and moral identity as a mediator between ethical leadership and employees’ unethical behavior. Together, these variables influence the self-reported unethical behavior of employees. The findings of this study are based on a sample of 297 oil and gas sector employees in Pakistan. For this purpose, data was analyzed through SPSS and AMOS. Consistent with trait-activation and social learning theories, employees on seeing their leaders behaving ethically develop a positive sense of the moral identity and report fewer incidences of unethical behavior. Furthermore, the findings suggested thatmoral identity and ethical leadership behavior are vital for predicting organizational outcomes. Thus, the originality of this study lies in the fact that it analyzed the influence of moral identity as a mediating variable.

Impact of ethical leadership, HRM practices and ethical climate on organizational citizenship behaviors in Nigerian local governments

“…Looking at these two components of ethical leaders traits, behaviors and actions in organizations, it is argued here that when leaders abide by these traits and behaviors and act same in their relationship with subordinates, it makes employees to be more close to the leader(s), replicate them and become more affiliated to the organization and consequently generate more OCBs. Additionally, previous studies on ethical leadership and OCBs (Aloustani et al, 2020;Khan et al, 2017;Nemr and liu, 2021) found significant positive link between ethical leadership and OCBs. Moreover, SLT illustrates that ethical leaders are likely to influence their subordinates/followers in organization to engage in OCBs when they consider their leaders' behaviors as attractive and worthy of copying as role models.…”

“…, 2014), Iraqi (Al-Halbusi et al. , 2021b), Pakistan (Khan et al ., 2017), Turkey (Yeşiltaş and Tuna, 2018), Malaysia (Al-Halbusi et al. , 2021a), Iran (Aloustani et al.…”

“…(2011) asserted that studying the mediating mechanisms within which ethical leadership relates with followers' performance will provide some important practical benefits to managers. Relatedly, Khan et al. (2017) also called on the needs for more in-depth empirical investigations to uncover the mechanism behind ethical leadership and OCBs link.…”

“…As a recent concept, ethical leadership (compared with other leadership styles) has now been considered an important topic by many researchers (Kang, 2019;Newman et al, 2014). Nevertheless, studies on ethical leadership are mostly conducted in the USA (Asencio, 2019;Hassan et al, 2014), Iraqi (Al-Halbusi et al, 2021b, Pakistan (Khan et al, 2017), Turkey (Yes ¸iltas ¸and Tuna, 2018), Malaysia (Al-Halbusi et al, 2021a), Iran (Aloustani et al, 2020) and China (Walumbwa et al, 2011). But, there was few studies from Africa.…”

“…In this regard, Walumbwa et al (2011) asserted that studying the mediating mechanisms within which ethical leadership relates with followers' performance will provide some important practical benefits to managers. Relatedly, Khan et al (2017) also called on the needs for more in-depth empirical investigations to uncover the mechanism behind ethical leadership and OCBs link. Few studies on ethical leadership with dependent variables like ethical behavior (Al-Halbusi et al, 2021a, b) and service sabotage (Yes ¸iltas ¸and Tuna, 2018) consider ethical climate as potential mechanism.…”