Title: Ethical leadership and organisational commitment: some insights from Kuwait

Authors: Dina Youssef; Halil Zaim; Shqipe Gerguri-Rashiti; Mohaned Hassanin

Addresses: College of Business Administration, American University of the Middle East, Kuwait ' College of Business, Alfred University, USA ' Business and Management Department, Universum College, Kosovo ' College of Business Administration, American University of the Middle East, Kuwait

Abstract: Leadership is one of the essential indicators that determine the organisational commitment of employees. This paper aims at examining the impact of ethical leadership on organisational commitment in the Kuwaiti organisations. A conceptual model of ethical leadership and its impact on organisational commitment is proposed. It is hypothesised that wisdom, justice, and temperance as indicators of ethical leadership are positively associated with organisational commitment. An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to employees and managers working in different organisations in the service sector in Kuwait. Two hundred fifty-five useful questionnaires were analysed. Results show that there is a significant positive relationship between the three dimensions of ethical leadership (i.e., wisdom, justice, and temperance) and organisational commitment. Hence, ethical leadership should be applied and practiced by leaders in Kuwaiti organisations to foster the organisational commitment, thus improving its performance. Based on the paper findings, the implications of the study are presented.

Keywords: leadership; ethical leadership; organisational commitment; affective commitment; continuance commitment; normative commitment; wisdom; justice; temperance; service sector; Kuwait.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2025.146218

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2025 Vol.40 No.2, pp.151 - 168

Received: 30 Sep 2021
Accepted: 22 Dec 2021
Published online: 13 May 2025 *

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