Title: Ethical leadership and employee behaviours: an empirical study of mediating factors

Authors: Muhammet Sait Dinc; Muzaffer Aydemir

Addresses: Department of Management, International Burch University, Francuske revolucije bb. Ilidža 71210, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina ' Department of Management, Yildiz Technical University, Barbaros Street, 34349, İstanbul, Turkey

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of ethical leadership on employee behaviour through the mediating role of ethical climate and employee attitudes. This study proposes that ethical leadership has an influence on organisational citizenship behaviour, specifically through ethical climate, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The results based on a sample of 213 employees from four private universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina support the hypotheses. This study demonstrates that job satisfaction and organisational commitment, which are influenced by ethical leadership, are important mediating factors that affect employees' organisational citizenship behaviour. The ethical climate that is shaped by ethical leadership also has a mediating impact on employees' job satisfaction and organisational commitment, which in turn strengthen organisational citizenship behaviour at the private universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Keywords: ethical leadership; ethical climate; job satisfaction; organisational commitment; organisational citizenship behaviour; OCB; Bosnia and Herzegovina; ethics; employee behaviour; mediating factors; employee attitudes; private universities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBGE.2014.064738

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 2014 Vol.9 No.3, pp.293 - 312

Received: 03 Dec 2013
Accepted: 12 Jun 2014
Published online: 31 Mar 2015 *

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