The role of ethical leadership on employee commitment to the organization: The mediating role of job satisfaction and job engagement

Abstract

Purpose. This research aims to investigates whether and how ethical leadership influences themediator variables (employees’ job satisfaction and job engagement) in the organization context. It alsoexamines how the mediators should influence employees’ organizational commitment. Study design. Allthe participants in the recent study are Indonesian workers who are active in the private sector, which invited them to fill out an online survey. This online survey was carried out using Google Forms. Various control and filter questions were anonymous, and random constructs were carried out to avoid bias and ensure the survey was valid. The initial empirical data were gathered from convenience sample involving 690 employees who work on financial sector. This study applied multi-item scales to all the constructs from prior studies for the concepts of ethical leadership, employee job satisfaction, job engagement, and employee commitment. A professional translator reviewed all the instruments. Subsequently, this study conducts a pilot test of the measurement items to ensure the final formal survey. Demographic parameters such as gender, age, education, and period of experience as employees were included in the questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses. Findings. The empirical results indicate that ethical leadership has significant and positive effects on employees’ job satisfaction and engagement. Furthermore, employees’ job satisfaction and job engagement havepartial mediators between ethical leadership and employees’ organizational commitment. Implications for practice. The result of this study can practitioners, regulators, and researchers an insight to observe the dynamic behavior to elaborate on the impact of ethical leadership in business and psychology. The managers need to build ethical standards in the workplace. As well as provide clear rules of the organization system, which possibly influence workers’ job satisfaction, engagement, and organizational commitment. The current study was limited to the private organization; there is a future need to study workers across the culture and region. The values of results. This study contributes to managers’ ethicalor unethical leadership behavior and ethical climate theory literature and, specifically, the decisionmaking process through developing and testing a model of employees’ organizational commitment. This study also provides new insights into the determinants of these variables and employees’ organizational commitment towards job satisfaction and engagement.