Ethical Leadership

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Journal of Business Ethics ISSN 0167-4544 J Bus EthicsDOI 10.1007/s10551-014-2196-6

The Effect of Ethical Leadership Behavioron Ethical Climate, Turnover Intention,and Affective Commitment

Ozgur Demirtas & A. Asuman Akdogan

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The Effect of Ethical Leadership Behavior on Ethical Climate,Turnover Intention, and Affective Commitment

Ozgur Demirtas • A. Asuman Akdogan

Received: 30 December 2013 / Accepted: 20 April 2014

� Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract This study examines a mediated model of eth-

ical leadership on ethical climate, turnover intention, and

affective commitment. It is suggested that managers are

role models in their organizations. Specifically, through

ethical leadership behavior, managers can influence per-

ceptions of ethical climate, which in turn will positively

influence organizational members’ turnover intention, and

affective commitment. The results indicate that ethical

leadership has both direct and indirect effect on affective

commitment and turnover intention. The indirect effect of

ethical leadership involves shaping perceptions of ethical

climate, which in turn, engenders greater affective orga-

nizational commitment and less turnover intention.

Keywords Ethical leadership behavior � Ethical climate �Affective commitment � Turnover intention � Role model

Over the years, several attempts have been made in the

ethics literature to explain and understand ethical decision-

making and ethical behavior (Berkman and Arslan 2009;

Callan 1992; Dubinsky and Ingram 1984; Dubinsky and

Levy 1985; Drucker 1981; Harris 1990; Simpson 1982;

Mathison 1988; Nyaw and Ng 1994; Ozgener 2009). In

accordance with this global trend, a vast amount of

research has explored the relationship between organiza-

tional ethics and its outcomes. A majority of corporate

ethics researches have focused on ethical leadership, and

ethical climate as a critical antecedent of organizational

outcomes.

Today, the corporate social responsibility is more

essential, and the corporate image becomes crucial

according to the transparent management viewpoint.

Therefore, the managers’ values are so important in influ-

encing the working environment. The role of managers and

their ethical behavior play a critical role in providing a

moral framework for organizational members (Grojean

et al. 2004; Mendonca 2001) and in building the collective

character of the organization (Moore 2005; Wright and

Goodstein 2007). So, ethical leaders are fundamental fac-

tors in shaping the moral framework for an organization.

Ethical leadership refers to the display of behaviors

consistent with appropriate norms, which are visible

through leader’s actions and relationships (Brown et al.

2005). Scholars have mostly discussed ethical leadership

with theoretical and conceptual terms. Brown et al. (2005)

carried out field investigations to test and validate the

construct of ethical leadership within organizations. Some

researches focusing on ethical leadership have demon-

strated its positive effects on prosocial behaviors (Mayer

et al. 2010; Piccolo et al. 2010; Walumbwa and Schau-

broeck 2009).

However, the majority of the studies on ethical leader-

ship have not been done in industries such as manufac-

turing, logistics, or in other major parts of the countries.

These studies generally used university students as

subjects.

Ethical leadership is the demonstration of normatively

appropriate conduct through personal actions and inter-

personal relationships, and it emphasizes the promotion of

such conduct to followers through two-way communica-

tion, reinforcement, and decision-making (Brown et al.

2005; Neubert et al. 2009). Besides, ethical leadership

O. Demirtas (&)

Turkish Air Force, Kayseri, Turkey

e-mail: [email protected]

A. A. Akdogan

Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey

e-mail: [email protected]

123

J Bus Ethics

DOI 10.1007/s10551-014-2196-6

Author's personal copy

behavior promotes organizational members’ attitudes to

everyday work and their attachments to the organization

(i.e. affective organizational commitment) (Brown and

Trevino 2006; Schminke et al. 2005).

The relationship between leadership styles and its out-

comes have been studied by many scholars in the organi-

zational behavior field. However, there are limited

researches on ethical leadership styles and behavioral

outcomes in Turkey. As a role model in an organization,

the ethical leadership behavior is an essential issue in

aviation industry, because commitment and work engage-

ment are so important in aviation industry. Thus, it can be

said that leaders’ ethical judgments influence their

followers.

This study focused on ethical leadership behavior to

fulfill these needs, especially for Turkish literature. In

that regard, the purpose in this study is to examine the

effect of ethical leadership behavior on perceptions of

ethical climate and, in turn, on the turnover intention and

affective commitment of organizational members (see

Fig. 1). The article is organized as four main sections.

First, a review of the literature on ethical leadership,

ethical climate, affective commitment, and turnover

intention is presented, and then the hypotheses were

developed. Second, the research methodology is given.

Afterwards, the field study analyses were given com-

paratively with the results in the literature. Finally, the

results of the study, strengths and weakness, research

implications, and future research recommendations are

mentioned.

Theoretical Frameworks and Hypotheses

Social learning theory suggests that individuals learn by

focusing their attentions on role models and learn appro-

priate behavior through witnessing what is rewarded and

what is punished or which actions attract attention and

which do not (Bandura 1986). Leadership involves influ-

ence to others (Yukl 2002). Managers exhibiting ethical

leadership influence organizational members through per-

sonal actions and interpersonal relations (Brown et al.

2005). Employees can learn what behavior is expected,

rewarded, and punished through role modeling. Leaders are

important sources for such modeling because of their role.

Previous researches have also demonstrated that role

models in an organization influence prosocial behaviors

(Bryan and Test 1967; Mayer et al. 2010; Piccolo et al.

2010). In the following sections, ethical leadership

behavior and its effects on perceptions of ethical climate,

affective organizational commitment, and turnover inten-

tion are defined.

Ethical Leadership

Leader’s behaviors are very important in order to have

efficient work conditions and organizational culture. In this

era, the new leadership style highlights the importance of

virtue and morality. Many scholars mainly emphasize

truthfulness and honesty in the leadership style (Brown

et al. 2005). According to Brown and Trevino (2006),

ethical scandals in work environment (i.e., in nonprofit

organizations, sports, and religious institutions) point out

the importance of ethical issues and leadership behaviors

that have ethical content (Waddock 2004).

Ethical leadership is defined as the demonstration of

normatively conduct behavior through personal actions and

interpersonal relationships (Brown et al. 2005). It empha-

sizes the promotion of such conduct to followers through

two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-

making (Neubert et al. 2009). In the literature, ethical

leadership is mostly emphasized on integrity and honesty

(Eubanks et al. 2012; Kuntz et al. 2013), and ethical leaders

were seen as fair, and principled decision-makers. The

researchers characterized these characteristics as the moral

aspect of ethical leadership.

In today’s changing conditions, if organizations aim to

have a sustainable growth, strategic superiority, and cor-

porate image, then they have to establish a culture that

supports and encourages the ethical behaviors. While

establishing the ethical working condition as a role model,

leaders’ behaviors influence the other behaviors in the

organizations, and their behaviors become the most

important factor in this process. In this context, ethical

leadership can be defined as the demonstration of norma-

tively appropriate conduct through personal actions and

interpersonal relationships (Brown et al. 2005).

A number of studies on ethical content examined the

leadership style and their ethical behaviors (Alzola 2008;

Kahai et al. 2003; Neubert et al. 2009; Trevino 1986).

Researchers emphasized that the ethical climate of the

work context is generally shaped by organizational man-

agers (Schein 1985; Schminke et al. 2005; Trevino et al.

2000). Furthermore, ethical leadership behavior reduces

people’s anxiety about the uncertainty of the jobs or

behaviors in the organizations by being considerate, open,

Ethical Leadership Ethical Climate

Turnover Intention

Affective Commitment

Fig. 1 Model of the study

O. Demirtas, A. A. Akdogan

123


trustworthy, and honest, and by stressing the importance of

adherence to high ethical principles (Trevino et al. 2003).

In today’s world, organizations implement some sys-

tems that indicate the ethical codes, corporate ethics,

standardized procedures, and ethics training programs.

However, it is a fact that ethical principles need action

rather than words. Therefore, the managers’ attitudes

toward the jobs are more important than the established

systems. At all levels in the organizations, managers have a

primary role in shaping ethical climate. Constituting this

climate, managers exemplify what is appropriate through

their behavior (Dickson et al. 2001). By modeling appro-

priate behavior, managers provide justice and trust (Brown

et al. 2005; Brown and Trevino 2006).

The integration of social-cognitive theories and virtue

theory essentially point out the potential of managers, who

model ethical leadership behavior and create relational

attachments in order to exert moral authority that contrib-

utes to an environment conducive, and the flourishing of

organizational members (Neubert et al. 2009). In the fol-

lowing section, it is argued that this influence occurs by

means of creating and perpetuating an ethical climate.

Mediator: Ethical Climate

A work climate can be defined as the perceptions of psy-

chologically meaningful moral attitudes in a work envi-

ronment (Schneider 1975). There are various kinds of work

climates. One of them is ethical work climate that can be

defined as the predominant perceptions about the proce-

dures and practices of the organization that has ethical

content or the prevailing perceptions of typical organiza-

tional practices and procedures that have ethical content

(Victor and Cullen 1988). Ethical behavior of the leader is

a necessary condition to establish an ethical organization,

but this is not sufficient. The managers who engage in

ethical leadership behavior must also act as virtuous agents

in promoting an ethical climate (Flynn 2008).

The socio-cultural environment, organizational form,

and organization-specific history are identified as deter-

minants of the ethical climates. Victor and Cullen (1988)

composed a chart showing possible ethical climates based

on philosophical, sociological, and psychological theory.

The chart has two axes representing how the ethical sys-

tems are derived from and to whom they are applied. This

matrix forms nine theoretical dimensions of ethical climate

typology. The typology served as the basis for the creation

of the Ethical Climate Questionnaire.

As a result of a series of survey studies, Victor and

Cullen (1988) approved the existence of five out of nine

climate types (Cullen et al. 1993) which emphasized caring

(Friendship and Team Interest), law and code (Laws and

Professional Codes), rules (Company Rules and

Procedures), instrumental (Self-Interest and Company

Profit), and independence (Personal Morality) climate

types. This ethical climate typology and questionnaire were

used later in different studies (Cullen et al. 2003; Mayer

et al. 2009; Neubaum et al. 2004; Webber 2007; Wimbush

et al. 1997).

When behaviors in an organization are perceived to be

ethical, these perceptions influence ethical decision-making

and the behaviors of organizational members as well as

their attitudes toward individual jobs (Brown and Trevino

2006). The collective effect of multiple organizational

members’ ethical perceptions creates a work environment

characterized by shared ethical work norms (Davidovitz

et al. 2007; Dickson et al. 2001). An ethical climate affects

individuals’ attitudes toward their jobs and the organization

(Cullen et al. 2003). The influence of ethical leadership

extends to influence organizational members’ turnover

intention and organizational commitment through an ethi-

cal climate (Brown et al. 2005). From this point, it is

hypothesized as

Hypothesis 1 Ethical leadership will positively related to

the perceptions of ethical climate

Affective Commitment

Many scholars have defined the concept of organizational

commitment in different ways. Porter et al. (1974) defined

organizational commitment as a belief and acceptance of

organizational goals and values, the willingness to exert

effort toward organizational goals, accomplishments, and a

strong desire to maintain organizational membership.

Basically, it is individual’s affective binding with his/her

organization as a consequence of accepting organizational

values, and the willingness to keep working within the

organization. Meyer and Allen (1984, 1991) mentioned

three types of commitment, including commitment from

necessity (continuous commitment), commitment from

obligation (normative commitment), and the affective

organizational commitment which is studied extensively

and the most relevant form compared to the organizational

identification (Gautam et al. 2004). Meyer and Allen

(1991) defined affective commitment as an emotional

attachment, identification, and involvement in the organi-

zation. Affective commitment refers to the feelings of

belonging and the sense of attachment to the organization.

It has been related to the personal characteristics, leader-

ship behaviors, and the organizational structures (Hart-

mann 2000).

All of the definitions concerning affective organizational

commitment emphasize the employee’s bond with the

organization, captured by the characteristics such as

acceptance of organizational goals, values, and a strong

Effect of Ethical Leadership Behavior

123


desire to associate with the organization (Perry 2004).

According to the studies, there are some variables related

to the affective commitment, the structure, and the envi-

ronment of the organization. The characteristics of the job,

interesting work, job security, opportunities for advance-

ment, development, organizational support, supervisory

support, fair treatment (distributional justice, formal pro-

cedural justice, and interactional justice), participatory

management, openness to new ideas, change, satisfaction

with salary, the employee’s job experience, mismatch in

working hours (negatively correlated), and downsizing are

some of these variables. (Lee and Corbett 2006; VanEm-

merik and Sanders 2005; Yew 2005). As the affective

commitment is more important than the other commitment

types, affective commitment and its relations with the

ethical leadership and ethical climate are discussed in this

study. Therefore, the hypothesis is established as

Hypothesis 2 Ethical climate will mediate the relation-

ship between ethical leadership and affective commitment.

Turnover Intention

Employee turnover is defined as the cessation of mem-

bership in an organization by an individual who received

monetary compensation from the organization (Mobley

1982). The causes of employee turnover in the organiza-

tions are generally because of the external factors (i.e.

availability of jobs and unemployment levels), organiza-

tional factors (i.e., leadership style, work environment, and

reward system), and individual factors (i.e., dissatisfaction

of the work and another person’s performance) (Mobley

1982; Vandenberg and Nelson 1999).

Many studies have been conducted to understand turn-

over intention of the employees, reasons behind the turn-

over, and its consequences. Mobley (1977) pioneered a

comprehensive explanation of the psychological process

underlying withdrawal. According to his formulation of the

withdrawal decision process, individuals first evaluate their

existing jobs, and experience satisfaction or dissatisfaction

based on their jobs. If dissatisfaction is experienced, then it

leads to thoughts about quitting. There are number of

possible mediating steps between dissatisfaction and actual

quitting. First, one of the consequences of dissatisfaction is

the thoughts about leaving. These thoughts, in turn, stim-

ulate consideration of the expected utility of a job research

and the costs of quitting. The next step would be the

behavioral intent to search for an alternative. The intention

to search is followed by an actual research. If alternatives

are available, then an evaluation process of the alternatives

is initiated. The evaluation process of the alternatives is

followed by a comparison of the present job with the

alternatives. If the comparison favors the alternatives, then

it will inspire a behavioral intention for quitting the job

which is followed by actual withdrawal.

Aviation needs high education standards, employee’s

caution, and especially work experience which explains the

long-term working. Since less turnover is important for

aviation industry, ethical leadership behavior and ethical

climate perception become more important. So, the ethical

leadership–turnover intention relationship and the mediat-

ing effect of the ethical climate are hypothesized as

follows;

Hypothesis 3 Ethical climate will mediate the relation-

ship between ethical leadership and turnover intention

Methodology

In this study, several precautions are taken to minimize

common method biases (Podsakoff et al. 2012). For

example, the data collection procedure was designed, and

our independent and dependent variables were collected in

different times (in May, and July 2013) in order to mini-

mize the common method variance. Detailed information

was also given to ensure the confidentiality of our

respondents and to decrease social desirability. Finally, in

order to decrease the evaluation apprehension, it was

stressed that there were no correct or incorrect answers for

the given items in the survey. In this study, a 5-point Likert

scale in which 1 = ‘‘strongly disagree’’ and 5 = ‘‘strongly

agree’’ was conducted. Items are averaged within the scales

to create composite measures for each variable. Items were

coded in a way that high scores equate to high levels of the

construct of interest.

Sample

The participants who are working as middle-level manag-

ers, engineers, chiefs of the maintenance shops, and blue-

collar members are chosen from three aviation mainte-

nance centers. 500 employees were chosen randomly from

these facilities in which 2.000 (N) member are still work-

ing. From the missing or incorrect coding, 447 (n) ques-

tionnaires are taken to the survey. This sample size is

sufficient according to the Kish’s (1980) methodology. The

final sample consists of 68 % male and 32 % female par-

ticipants. The average of their age is 40.32 years, and they

spent average 7.4 years in their current job. All participants

have a direct contact with their leaders and they work in a

full-time job in aviation industry. Also, the sample is dis-

tributed according to theirs department. 41 % of the sample

is in the manufacturing; 22 % is in the quality manage-

ment; 19 % is in the technical (R&D); 10 % is in the

programming; and 8 % in the budgeting department.


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Measures

Brown et al. (2005) developed and validated the 10-item

ethical leadership scale, which is used in this study. An

example item is ‘‘My supervisor listens to what employees

have to say.’’ The Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.93.

The ethical climate scale which was developed by

Victor and Cullen (1988) is used in this survey. The scale

consists of 10 items. An example item is ‘‘The most effi-

cient way is always the right way in this company.’’ The

Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.88.

Affective organizational commitment scale which was

developed by Meyer and Allen (1991) is used. The scale

consists of 8 items. An example item is ‘‘I would be very

happy to continue my career in this organization’’. The

Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.85.

For the last variable, turnover intention scale which was

developed by Rosin and Korabik (1991) is used. The scale

consists of 4 items. An example item is ‘‘I am thinking of

changing my job’’. The Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was 0.91.

Results

Initial Analysis

To evaluate the distribution of the sample, Durbin-Watson

(skewness and kurtosis) values are observed in Table 1.

Tabachnick and Fidell (2001) stated that the values of the

skewness and kurtosis must be between -2 and ?2 for a

normal distribution. As seen from the table, the sample in

this survey has a normal distribution. From the given values,

members perceive the organizational climate and act ethi-

cally, and they are committed to their organizations. Con-

sequently, they do not think of leaving their organizations.

Hypotheses Testing

The correlations between and descriptive statistics for the

variables in the study is shown in Table 2. As expected,

ethical leadership is significantly correlated with the ethical

climate, affective commitment, and turnover intention.

Hypothesis 1

To test the hypotheses, we first entered the mediator (eth-

ical climate) variable on the independent variable (ethical

leadership). As shown in Table 3, the beta weight for

ethical leadership was significant and in the direction pre-

dicted. Thus, with Hypothesis 1, the positive relationship

between ethical leadership and ethical climate was sup-

ported, and the first requirement for mediation was

satisfied.

Hypothesis 2

Baron and Kenny’s (1986) procedure for assessing the

mediating role of the affective commitment is used. First,

the independent variable should be significantly related to

the mediator variable. Second, the independent variable

should be related to the dependent variable. Third, the

mediating variable should be related to the dependent

variable and the independent variable included in the

equation. If the first three conditions hold, then at least

partial mediation is present. If the independent variable has

a non-significant beta weight in the third step, then com-

plete mediation is present (MacKinnon et al. 2002).

Table 1 Descriptive statistics for dependent and independent

variables

Scale Mean SD Skewness Kurtosis

Ethical leadership 3.29 .81 -.41 -.44

Ethical climate 3.26 .48 -.727 1.97

Affective commitment 3.27 1.16 -.28 -.85

Turnover intention 2.94 1.02 .03 -.78

Table 2 Mean, standard deviations, and correlations

Variable Mean SD 1 2 3

1. Ethical leadership 3.29 .81 –

2. Ethical climate 3.26 .48 .51** –

3. Affective

commitment

3.27 1.16 .63** .37** –

4. Turnover

intention

2.94 1.02 -.43** -.30** -.38**

** p \ 0.05

Table 3 Regression analyses for mediation

Variables Dependent variable: ethical climate

(EC)

Model 2

(b)

EL–EC

Model 1

(b)

EL–AC

Model 3

(b)

EL/AC–EC

Ethical leadership (EL) .507* .634* .385*

Affective commitment

(AC)

.177**

Adjusted R2 .253 .536 .256

F change 151.012* 779.078* 76.190*

Durbin–Watson 1.746 1.757 1.754

Standardized betas are shown

* p \ 0.01

** p \ 0.05


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Hypothesis 2 asserts the mediating effect of ethical

climate on the ethical leadership and affective commitment

relationship. First, ethical leadership and ethical climate

were entered in step 1. The results from this step demon-

strated the significance of dependent variable. In step 2, the

ethical leadership and affective commitment relationship

was searched. The beta weight was also significant in this

step. Thus, second requirement of the mediation was sat-

isfied. In order to test the third step of mediation, we

regressed the dependent variables on the mediating vari-

able with the independent variable included in the equa-

tion. The results, shown in Table 3, indicate that the ethical

climate partially mediated the relationship of between

ethical leadership and affective commitment, as the beta

for ethical leadership decreased after adding ethical climate

but it remained significant. Thus, it can be said that

Hypothesis 2 was supported.

Hypothesis 3

Similarly, Hypothesis 3 searched the mediating effect of

ethical climate between ethical leadership and turnover

intention.

The results, shown in Table 4, indicate that ethical cli-

mate partially mediated the relationship between ethical

leadership and turnover intention, as the beta for ethical

leadership decreased after adding ethical climate but it

remained significant.

Sobel Test

Finally, to support our mediational hypotheses, Sobel tests

were used to assess the significance of the indirect effects

(MacKinnon 2008; Sobel 1982). These tests involve cal-

culating the magnitude of the unstandardized indirect effect

(a and b), and its accompanying standard error (sa and sb).

The ratio of the indirect effect over its standard error,

referred to the Sobel statistic, is then compared to a

z-distribution to determine the statistical significance of the

indirect effect. Supporting hypotheses 2 and 3, the Sobel

test results indicated that the indirect effects of ethical

leadership on affective commitment for ethical climate

(z = (a*b)/sab = -6.75 for 95 % confidence level) and

ethical leadership on turnover intention for ethical climate

(z = 2.27 for 95 % confidence level) were in the antici-

pated direction and statistically significant.

To evaluate the confidence levels, we tested the upper

and the lower confidence levels (MacKinnon and Luecken

2011). For hypothesis 2, these values were UCL = -.076

and LCL = -.139. For hypothesis 3, they were

UCL = .216 and LCL = .016. The results were not

included zero value. So, our model was in the confidence

levels (MacKinnon and Luecken 2011).

From the above results, we can say that ethical leader-

ship is positively related to ethical climate. Mediation

analyses show that ethical climate partially mediates the

relationship between ethical leadership and affective

commitment. In addition, it was found that ethical climate

also partially mediates the relationship between ethical

leadership and turnover intention. Therefore, our hypoth-

eses were supported parallel to the literature findings.

Conclusion

Managers are important sources for organizational success

and unethical behavior. This study examined a mediating

model about the effect of managers’ ethical leadership

behavior on organizational members. In this study, it is

argued that as role models in their organizations, and by

modeling ethical leadership behavior and engendering

relational attachments, managers achieve moral authority

that has a virtuous influence on organizational members.

Furthermore, it is argued that the influence of ethical

leadership behavior spreads through the work context and

the process of social contagion in order to shape the ethical

climate, which, in turn, contributes to organizational

members’ commitments to their organizations and less

turnover intention as a whole. In other words, if managers

act in an honest and trustworthy way, these behaviors then

create a virtuous cycle in which ethical leadership behavior

perpetuates an ethical work climate that allows flourishing.

The results are similar with those which assert that

managers displaying ethical leadership behavior play a

critical role in shaping perceptions of ethical climate

(Brown and Trevino 2006; Dickson et al. 2001; Schminke

et al. 2005; Trevino et al. 2003; Trevino et al. 2000).

Besides, in this study, these existing researches are exten-

ded by demonstrating the diverse samples of people. It is

concluded that the ethical leadership behavior is related to

the perceptions of ethical climate, and the ethical climate

Table 4 Regression analyses for mediation

Variables Dependent variable: turnover intention (TI)

Model 1 (b)

EL–EC

Model 2 (b)

EL–TI

Model 3 (b)

EL/EC–TI

Ethical leadership (EL) .507* -.428* -.467**

Ethical climate (EC) -.218*

Adjusted R2 .253 .183 .189

F change 151.012* 99.532 53.139

Durbin–Watson 1.746 1.940 1.914

Standardized betas are shown

* p \ 0.01

** p \ 0.05


123


mediates the influence of the manager who performs ethi-

cal leadership on individual’s outcomes. The results also

affirm that the prominence of ethical leadership behavior

among many factors may influence the attitudes and

attachments of organizational members, (Brown and Tre-

vino 2006) and contribute to individual flourishing (Wright

and Goodstein 2007).

This study emphasizes that organizations would benefit

from their employees who perceive high ethical working

environment. Such perceptions can be enhanced via diverse

management techniques, practices such as maintaining

open channels of communications and interactions. Results

of this study also point to the need for additional research

that examines the role of potential mediators of relations

between ethical leadership and employee outcomes (e.g.,

organizational identification, engagement, task, and con-

textual performance). It may follow a variety of interesting

directions. As a predictor, ethical leadership is gaining

more importance in the organizational behavior field. So, it

may help the organizations to arrange and establish an

ethical framework in their environment working. In addi-

tion, managers should include communication and inter-

action in their managerial values in order to lessen negative

perceptions that can arise from individual predispositions.

Managers may develop and raise extra communication

systems to have better working conditions for their

followers.

Manager’s ethical values and their fair and honest

behaviors are important factors to shape the organizational

climate (Schein 1985; Trevino et al. 1998). Therefore,

organizations should pay attention to select and promote

their managers in order to establish an ethical climate. This

perception is highly important for aviation industry since

human factor is the most important issue in all processes

for the aviation. The aviation industry needs highly edu-

cated and committed members for sustainable strategic

superiority. This study is important to contribute to the

business ethics literature. Another contribution of the

present study is that, it is the first study which searched the

direct and indirect effects of ethical leadership on indi-

vidual behavior outcomes in the aviation industry in

Turkey.

Our study also has other several strengths. First, a large

number of employees from aviation industry are involved.

Second, the survey is conducted face to face to reduce the

mistakes of questionnaire and the mistakes of variables

collected in different times. Finally, this study is an

important contribution to the business ethics literature by

showing the direct and indirect effects of ethical leader-

ship. Although our sample incorporated a wide variety of

organizations and job positions, the sample was not

demographically diverse. The data in this study are gath-

ered from the aviation industry in Turkey. Thus, the results

cannot be generalized compared to the other industries or

cultures. So, future researchers should consider the weak-

nesses outlined above, and they could extend the given

results by including additional outcome variables such as

political, counterproductive, or deviant behaviors. Future

research could also use a multi-level approach to theorize

and analyze the effects of ethical leadership. In this study,

we were interested in the individual level effects of ethical

leadership on perceptions of climate and individual out-

comes. Future research could gather data from work groups

so that the data could be aggregated to assess the impact of

ethical leadership on group level climate and behavioral

variables.

In conclusion, this study examined the ways in which

managers perform ethical leadership behavior contribute to

individual’s flourishing. It is a fact that ethical leadership

behavior influence affective commitment and turnover

intention directly and indirectly through shaping ethical

climate.

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Ethical Leadership