The effects of ethical leadership and the two forms of interactional justice on employee work attitude outcomes

Abstract

The purposes of this study are: (a) to examine the direct effects of ethical leadership on employee work attitude outcomes, including affective organizational commitment, affective commitment to the supervisor and job satisfaction; and (b) to explore the mediating roles of two types of interactional justice—interpersonal justice and informational justice —on the effects of ethical leadership and employee work attitude outcomes. Data were collected from 862 participants and structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. The research findings indicate that ethical leadership had strong direct effects on all study employee work attitudes. Moreover, the effects of ethical leadership on affective commitment to the supervisor and job satisfaction were partially mediated by informational justice, whereas interpersonal justice had no mediating roles on those effects. These research findings demonstrate the importance of ethical leadership and informational justice in benefiting employees, leaders, and organizations.