Organizational cynicism as a moderator variable between ethical leadership and counterwork productive behaviors

Abstract

Ethical leadership (EL) aims to improve the positive behaviors of workers and achieve common goals between leaders and their subordinates by directing and nurturing from leaders to their subordinates, this is accomplished by establishing ethical standards in the workplace that clarify the relationship between them (Ng & Feldman, 2015; Hussain & Attiq, 2017; Qian & Jian, 2020). Therefore, this paper aimed to test the impact of ethical leadership on counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) and test organizational cynicism’s (OC) moderating role between them. We applied in the study a stratified random sample of faculty members working in Egypt’s Sohag University. The researchers relied on the survey and analyzed the results using simple regression, hierarchical regression moderated analysis and simple slope analysis. The paper’s findings show that EL has a negative effect on CWBs and that OC modifies the negative relationship between EL and CWBs. Consequently, when compared to those workers who realize a low level of cynicism, there is a weaker relationship in respect of workers who realize a higher level of cynicism. Our findings help university officials to improve the faculty members’ perceptions of EL. In detailing this study’s findings, we discuss several conclusions regarding EL, CWBs and OC.