THE EFFECT OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEES’ WORK ETHICS. THE MEDIATING ROLE OF INTERPERSONAL JUSTICE

Abstract

The primary goal of this research is to explore ethical leadership and its role in organizations, as well as its contributions to the overall success of the organization. Ethical leadership creates an organizational culture of trust, justice and honesty, ensures the participation of managers and employees, encourages ethical behaviour and thus acts as a catalyst to achieve sustainable corporate success goals. The ethical behaviours exhibited by leaders are reciprocated by employees and they imitate these behaviours. The mutual display of ethical behaviours leads to the development of a sense of mutual justice. This article sheds light on the relationship among ethical leadership and work ethics of organization’s members by examining the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence. In addition, the contributions of ınterpersonal justice in this relationship are presented. The study was conducted in Ankara Organized Industrial Zone (OSTIM). After the analysis with 232 valid data, it was concluded that ethical leadership positively impacts employees’ work ethics and ınterpersonal justice serves as a mediator in this relationship. After the findings are presented, the findings' implications are analysed in the conclusion section.