Drawing on the social learning theory, the current research proposes that employees learn specific ethical behavior by observing others (leader and peers), thus influencing their job embeddedness. This study examined the mediating and moderating contextual variables in the relationship between ethical leadership and job embeddedness using a sample of 343 employees from 40 different companies. Results revealed that ethical leadership is related to job embeddedness and that perceived supervisor support mediated the influence of ethical leadership on job embeddedness. Also, peer unethical behavior moderated the indirect ethical leadership–job embeddedness relationship at the group level of analysis. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed. Specifically, this study proposes that there is a need to select middle managers that are focused on people’s needs and to train and motivate supervisors to support and stimulate their subordinates.
AllenD. G.ShanockL. R. (2013). Perceived organizational support and embeddedness as key mechanisms connecting socialization tactics to commitment and turnover among new employees. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34, 350-369.
2.
AvolioB. J.GardnerW. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 16, 315-338.
3.
BanduraA. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
4.
BarlingJ.ChristieA. M.HoptionC. (2010). Leadership. In ZedeckS. (Ed.), APA handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 183-240). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
5.
BaronR. M.KennyD. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
6.
BassB. M. (1998). Transformational leadership: Industrial, military and educational impact. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
7.
BauerD. J.PreacherK. J.GilK. M. (2006). Conceptualizing and testing random indirect effects and moderated mediation in multilevel models: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 11, 142-163.
8.
BlieseP. D. (2000). Within-group agreement, non-independence, and reliability: Implications for data aggregation and analysis. In KleinK. J.KozlowskiS. W. (Eds.), Multilevel theory, research, and methods in organizations (pp. 349-381). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
9.
BouckenoogheD.ZafarA.RajaU. (2015). How ethical leadership shapes employees’ job performance: The mediating roles of goal congruence and psychological capital. Journal of Business Ethics, 129, 251-264.
10.
BrislinR. W. (1980). Translation and content analysis of oral and written materials. In TriandisH. C.BerryJ. W. (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology (pp. 389-444). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
11.
BrownM. E.MitchellM. S. (2010). Ethical and unethical leadership: Exploring new avenues for future research. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20, 583-616.
12.
BrownM. E.TreviñoL. K. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. Leadership Quarterly, 17, 595-616.
13.
BrownM. E.TreviñoL. K.HarrisonD. A. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97, 117-134.
14.
ChughtaiA.ByrneM.FloodB. (2015). Linking ethical leadership to employee well-being: The role of trust in supervisor. Journal of Business Ethics, 128, 653-663.
15.
CollinsB. J.BurrusC. J.MeyerR. D. (2014). Gender differences in the impact of leadership styles on subordinate embeddedness and job satisfaction. Leadership Quarterly, 25, 660-671.
16.
CrossleyC. D.BennettR. J.JexS. M.BurnfieldJ. L. (2007). Development of a global measure of job embeddedness and integration into a traditional model of voluntary turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1031-1042.
17.
DysvikA.KuvaasB.BuchR. (2014). Perceived training intensity and work effort: The moderating role of perceived supervisor support. European Journal of Work & Organizational Psychology, 23, 1-10.
18.
EffelsbergD.SolgaM. (2015). Transformational leaders’ in-group versus out-group orientation: Testing the link between leaders’ organizational identification, their willingness to engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior, and follower-perceived transformational leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 126, 581-590.
19.
EisenbeißS. A.GiessnerS. R. (2012). The emergence and maintenance of ethical leadership in organizations: A question of embeddedness?Journal of Personnel Psychology, 11, 7-19.
20.
EisenbergerR.CummingsJ.ArmeliS.LynchP. (1997). Perceived organizational support, discretionary treatment, and job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 812-820.
21.
EisenbergerR.StinglhamberF.VandenbergheC.SucharskiI. L.RhoadesL. (2002). Perceived supervisor support: Contributions to perceived organizational support and employee retention. Journal of Applied Physiology, 87, 565-573.
HairJ.BlackW. C.BabinB. J.AndersonR. E. (2010). Multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
24.
HalbeslebenJ. B.WheelerA. R. (2008). The relative roles of engagement and embeddedness in predicting job performance and intention to leave. Work & Stress, 22, 242-256.
25.
HansenS.AlgeB.BrownM.JacksonC.DunfordB. (2013). Ethical leadership: Assessing the value of a multifoci social exchange perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 115, 435-449.
26.
HarrisK. J.WheelerA. R.KacmarK. M. (2011). The mediating role of organizational job embeddedness in the LMX-outcomes relationships. Leadership Quarterly, 22, 271-281.
27.
HeckR. H.ThomasS. L.TabataL. N. (2010). Multilevel and longitudinal modeling with IBM SPSS. New York, NY: Routledge.
28.
HenselerJ.RingleC. M.SinkovicsR. R. (2009). The use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing. Advances in International Marketing, 20, 277-320.
29.
HofstedeG.HofstedeG. J.MinkovM. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
30.
HouseR. J.AdityaR. N. (1997). The social scientific study of leadership: Quo vadis?Journal of Management, 23, 409-473.
31.
IzraeliD. (1988). Ethical beliefs and behavior among managers: A cross-cultural perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 7, 263-271.
32.
JamesL. R.DemareeR. G.WolfG. (1993). rwg: An assessment of within group interrater agreement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 306-309.
33.
JordanA. E. (2001). College student cheating: The role of motivation, perceived norms, attitudes, and knowledge of institutional policy. Ethics and Behavior, 11, 233-247.
34.
KalshovenK.van DijkH.BoonC. (2016).Why and when does ethical leadership evoke unethical follower behavior?Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31, 500-515.
35.
KaratepeO. M. (2014). The importance of supervisor support for effective hotel employees: An empirical investigation in Cameroon. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 55, 388-397.
36.
MaderaJ. M.SmithD. B. (2009). The effects of leader negative emotions on evaluations of leadership in a crisis situation: The role of anger and sadness. Leadership Quarterly, 20, 103-114.
37.
MayerD. M.KuenziM.GreenbaumR.BardesM.SalvadorR. (2009). How does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108, 1-13.
38.
McCabeD. L.ButterfieldK. D.TreviñoL. K. (2006). Academic dishonesty in graduate business programs: Prevalence, causes, and proposed action. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 294-305.
39.
MitchellT. R.HoltomB. C.LeeT. W.SablynskiC. J.ErezM. (2001). Why people stay: Using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 1102-1121.
40.
MullerD.JuddC. M.YzerbytV. Y. (2005). When moderation is mediated and mediation is moderated. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 852-863.
41.
Nahum-ShaniI.HendersonM. M.LimS.VinokurA. D. (2014). Supervisor support: Does supervisor support buffer or exacerbate the adverse effects of supervisor undermining?Journal of Applied Psychology, 99, 484-503.
42.
NgT. H.FeldmanD. C. (2011). Locus of control and organizational embeddedness. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 84, 173-190.
43.
O’FallonM.ButterfieldK. (2012). The influence of unethical peer behavior on observers’ unethical behavior: A social cognitive perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 109, 117-131.
44.
OldhamG. R.CummingsA. (1996). Employee creativity: Personal and contextual factors at work. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 607-634.
45.
PodsakoffP. M.MacKenzieS. B.LeeJ.-Y.PodsakoffN. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 879-903.
46.
PreacherK. J.HayesA. F. (2008). Contemporary approaches to assessing mediation in communication research. In HayesA. F.SlaterM. D.SnyderL. B. (Eds.), The SAGE sourcebook of advanced data analysis methods for communication research (pp. 13-54). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
47.
PreacherK. J.RuckerD. D.HayesA. F. (2007). Assessing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42, 185-227.
48.
PufferS. M. (1987). Prosocial behavior, noncompliant behavior, and work performance among commission sales people. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72, 625-621.
49.
PurcellJ.KinnieN.SwartJ.RaytonB.HutchinsonS. (2009). People management and performance. London, England: Routledge.
50.
ResickC. J.HangesP. J.DicksonM. W.MitchelsonJ. K. (2006). A cross-cultural examination of the endorsement of ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 63, 345-359.
51.
RhoadesL.EisenbergerR. (2006). When supervisors feel supported: Relationships with subordinates’ perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 689-695.
52.
RobinsonS. L.BennettR. J. (1995). A typology of deviant workplace behaviors: A multidimensional scaling study. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 555-572.
53.
RuizP.RuizC.MartinezR. (2011). Improving the “leader–follower” relationship: Top manager or supervisor? The ethical leadership trickle-down effect on follower job response. Journal of Business Ethics, 99, 587-608.
54.
SchaubroeckJ. M.HannahS. T.AvolioB. J.KozlowskiS. W.LordR. G.TreviñoL. K.. . . PengA. C. (2012). Embedding ethical leadership within and across organizational levels. Academy of Management Journal, 55, 1053-1078.
55.
ShanockL. R.EisenbergerR. (2006). When supervisors feel supported: Relationships with subordinates’ perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, and performance. Journal of Applied Physiology, 91, 689-695.
56.
SkarlickiD.LathamG. (1997). Leadership training in organizational justice to increase citizenship behavior within a labor union: A replication. Personnel Psychology, 50, 617-633.
57.
TremblayM.GibsonM. (2016). The role of humor in the relationship between transactional leadership behavior, perceived supervisor support, and citizenship behavior. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 23, 39-54.
58.
TreviñoL. K.BrownM.HartmanL. P. (2003). A qualitative investigation of perceived executive ethical leadership: Perceptions from inside and outside the executive suite. Human Relations, 56, 5-37.
59.
TreviñoL. K.HartmanL. P.BrownM. (2000). Moral person and moral manager: How executive develop a reputation for ethical leadership. California Management Review, 42, 128-142.
60.
TreviñoL. K.VictorB. (1992). Peer reporting of unethical behavior: A social context perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 35, 38-64.
61.
VardiY. (2001). The effects of organizational and ethical climates on misconduct at work. Journal of Business Ethics, 29, 325-337.
62.
VardiY.WienerY. (1996). Misbehavior in organizations: A motivational framework. Organization Science, 7, 151-165.
63.
WalumbwaF. O.AvolioB. J.GardnerW. L.WernsingT. S.PetersonS. J. (2008). Authentic leadership: Development and analysis of a multidimensional theory-based measure. Journal of Management, 34, 89-126.
64.
WheelerA. R.HarrisK. J.SablynskiC. J. (2012). How do employees invest abundant resources? The mediating role of work effort in the job-embeddedness/job-performance relationship. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42, E244-E266.
65.
WillsT. A. (1991). Social support and interpersonal relationships. In ClarkM. S. (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology: Prosocial behavior (Vol. 12, pp. 265-289). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
ZhangX.WalumbwaF. O.AryeeS.ChenZ. (2013). Ethical leadership, employee citizenship and work withdrawal behaviors: Examining mediating and moderating processes. Leadership Quarterly, 24, 284-297.
68.
Zoghbi-Manrique-de-LaraP.Suárez-AcostaM. (2014). Employees’ reactions to peers’ unfair treatment by supervisors: The role of ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 122, 537-549.
