Engaging Employees through Ethical Leadership

Abstract

This research explores how ethical behavior of leaders influence employee engagement by enhancing the moral intensity of the employees. It also explores the impact that transparency of policies that a leader applies and decisions that he takes can have on the organizational citizenship of the employees. Two conceptual models are used to explore the constructs in light of social learning and social exchange theory. Data from 205 faculty members, working in higher education sector of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, was collected through structured questionnaires. Results revealed a considerable positive relation exists among ethical leadership and the organizational citizenship behavior of employees in an organization when mediated by moral intensity. Subsequently, significance is analyzed in ethical leadership and moral intensity when transparency moderated the relationship. The study contributes to the understanding of how perception of faculty members regarding their leaders’ ethical behavior can have an effect on the implementation of policies. It also explains the role of transparency of the ethical conduct in enhancing faculty’s performance and leading to the benefit of higher education institutions.