Ethical Leadership and Employee Discretionary Behavior: A Social Learning Perspective

Abstract

Abstract:

Drawing upon social learning theory, we propose a cross-level mediation model to uncover the relationship between ethical leadership and employee discretionary behaviors through the mediation of moral efficacy and moral courage. We hypothesize that ethical leadership is positively related to employee organizational citizenship behavior and negatively related to workplace deviant behavior. We further hypothesize that employees' moral efficacy and moral courage mediate the cross-level relationship between ethical leadership and employee organizational citizenship behavior and employee workplace deviant behavior. To test these hypotheses, we collect data from 500 employees and their supervisors of 130 teams in high-tech manufacturing enterprise, and the findings support our hypotheses. The cross-level mediation model proposed in this study helps researchers find the underlying mechanism between ethical leadership and employee discretionary behaviors. We hope that this study can practically promote employees' organizational citizenship behavior, mean-while prevent employees from workplace deviant behavior.

Key words: ethical leadership, moral efficacy, moral courage, organizational citizenship behavior, workplace deviant behavior

Fan Heng, Zhou Zucheng. Ethical Leadership and Employee Discretionary Behavior: A Social Learning Perspective[J]. , 2018, 30(9): 164-173.

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