Promoting employees' service outcomes in the public sector: The role of ethical leadership

Abstract

The dissertation aims to understand the mechanisms that promote employees’ service outcomes, including service adaptive behavior and service recovery performance. Since there is no error-free service, service failures can arise for a variety of reasons, such as resource limitations (e.g., facilities, people, etc.), rigid operating procedures, or work overload. This dissertation employs social cognitive theory and social learning theory to construct a research model that elucidates the mechanism of influence exerted by ethical leadership style on employee service outcomes in the context of public service setting. Furthermore, the study expands the scope of social cognitive theory upon the external environment to examine the dark side of ethical climate. This research investigates the processes that provide explanations for situations where the influence of a leader is inconsistent in the management practice. Two waves of data collection were conducted (2 months between each survey wave) with two groups of respondents: non-managerial employees and managerial employees. The initial sample size for the first wave (T1) was 431, and the T2 was 331. Partial least squares structural equation model was employed to test the research hypotheses. The research results confirmed the direct influence of ethical leadership style on employee service outcomes. In addition, the sequential mediating mechanisms, including (1) moral self-efficacy – thriving at work and (2) prosocial motivation – thriving at work, were identified in the study. The moderating effects of ethical self-interest climate were found in the study to negatively moderate the impact of ethical leadership style on prosocial motivation and the direct relationship of this leadership style on service behavior outcomes. Finally, the theoretical contributions and managerial implications were presented.