Work

Sustainable Influence of Ethical Leadership on Work Performance: Empirical Study of Multinational Enterprise in South Korea

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: This study empirically examines the route by which managers’ sustainable ethical leadership influences employees’ work performance. The study examines the relationships of four variables: ethical leadership, perceived salience of an ethics code, work performance, and leader–follower distance, operationalized as the frequency of leader–follower interaction. Data were obtained from a large multinational enterprise in South Korea and the questionnaires responses of 196 leader–follower pairs (196 team leaders, 196 employees) were analyzed. The results found that the managers’ ethical leadership positively influenced the employees’ perceived salience of the ethics code of the organization, which, in turn, positively mediated the relationship of ethical leadership to work performance. Furthermore, a conditional indirect effect was found in which the frequency of leader–follower interaction positively moderated the indirect effect of ethical leadership on work performance via perceived salience of the ethics code; specifically, the strength of the indirect effect increased as the frequency of leader–follower interaction increased. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are offered and limitations with suggestions for future study are discussed.

Source: Sustainability

DOI: 10.3390/su11113101

Author: Seung-Wan Kang

Institution: Gachon University

Language: English

Topic: Employee Performance and Leadership

Subfield: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,722