Employee Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: The Direct and Indirect Impact of Ethical Leadership

Abstract

Abstract Using 525 respondents from the banking and insurance sectors in Spain, supervisor ethical leadership (SEL), conceptualized to involve the practice of moral virtues, was examined for its relationship to employee job satisfaction, affective commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviour. Consistent with social exchange theory, SEL was directly and positively associated with both job satisfaction and affective commitment. The relationship between ethical leadership and employee organizational citizenship was best represented by a model where the effect was fully mediated by job satisfaction and affective commitment. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.