TY - JOUR
T1 - When and for Whom Ethical Leadership is More Effective in Eliciting Work Meaningfulness and Positive Attitudes
T2 - The Moderating Roles of Core Self-Evaluation and Perceived Organizational Support
AU - Wang, Zhen
AU - Xu, Haoying
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
PY - 2019/6/10
Y1 - 2019/6/10
N2 - Despite urgent calls for more research on the integration of business ethics and the meaning of work, to date, there have been few corresponding efforts, and we know surprisingly little about this relationship. In this study, we address this issue by examining when and for whom ethical leadership is more (or less) effective in promoting a sense of work meaningfulness among employees, and their subsequent work attitudes. Drawing on the contingency theories of leadership and work meaningfulness literature, we speculate that both employees’ core self-evaluation (CSE; as a dispositional characteristic) and perceived organizational support (POS; as a situational characteristic) moderate the relationship, but in different ways, and these associations carry over to employees’ subsequent work attitudes in terms of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention. We test our hypotheses with two-wave survey data collected from 377 employees. Results indicate that ethical leadership is effective in eliciting work meaningfulness and attitudes for employees higher in CSE or when POS is lower, and ineffective for those lower in CSE or when POS is higher. A supplementary analysis reveals a three-way interaction between ethical leadership, CSE and POS in predicting a sense of work meaningfulness and subsequent work attitudes. Our research cautions that ethical leadership is not a universally positive practice; it can be ineffective or even have a negative impact under some circumstances.
AB - Despite urgent calls for more research on the integration of business ethics and the meaning of work, to date, there have been few corresponding efforts, and we know surprisingly little about this relationship. In this study, we address this issue by examining when and for whom ethical leadership is more (or less) effective in promoting a sense of work meaningfulness among employees, and their subsequent work attitudes. Drawing on the contingency theories of leadership and work meaningfulness literature, we speculate that both employees’ core self-evaluation (CSE; as a dispositional characteristic) and perceived organizational support (POS; as a situational characteristic) moderate the relationship, but in different ways, and these associations carry over to employees’ subsequent work attitudes in terms of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention. We test our hypotheses with two-wave survey data collected from 377 employees. Results indicate that ethical leadership is effective in eliciting work meaningfulness and attitudes for employees higher in CSE or when POS is lower, and ineffective for those lower in CSE or when POS is higher. A supplementary analysis reveals a three-way interaction between ethical leadership, CSE and POS in predicting a sense of work meaningfulness and subsequent work attitudes. Our research cautions that ethical leadership is not a universally positive practice; it can be ineffective or even have a negative impact under some circumstances.
KW - Core self-evaluation
KW - Ethical leadership
KW - Perceived organizational support
KW - Work attitudes
KW - Work meaningfulness
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U2 - 10.1007/s10551-017-3563-x
DO - 10.1007/s10551-017-3563-x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85019150039
SN - 0167-4544
VL - 156
SP - 919
EP - 940
JO - Journal of Business Ethics
JF - Journal of Business Ethics
IS - 4
ER -