A Dual-Path Model of Ethical Leadership’s Influence on Civil Servants’ Discretionary Work Behavior: Probing the Social Learning and Social Exchange Processes

• Published date: 01 June 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00910260231196225
• Author: Beijing Tan,Zijing Wang,Shusong Zhao,Jianqiao Liao
• Date: 01 June 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/00910260231196225

Public Personnel Management

2024, Vol. 53(2) 175 –202

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/00910260231196225

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Article

A Dual-Path Model of Ethical

Leadership’s Influence on

Civil Servants’ Discretionary

Work Behavior: Probing the

Social Learning and Social

Exchange Processes

Beijing Tan1, Zijing Wang1, Shusong Zhao2,

and Jianqiao Liao1

Abstract

The study of ethical leadership has emerged as an important topic for understanding the

effects of leadership in the public sector. Existing literature finds that ethical leadership

can significantly affect the desirable outcomes of subordinates, but most scholars only

research from a single theoretical perspective of social learning or social exchange. In

addition, the boundary conditions of the downward effects of ethical leadership have

not been fully studied, and there is still a lack of clear theoretical explanations for why

ethical leadership cannot effectively affect employee behaviors. This research examines

the mechanisms and boundary conditions of ethical leadership influencing civil servants’

discretionary work behaviors. A total of 256 civil servants have participated in this

study. Results revealed that ethical leadership can indirectly affect civil servants’ helping

behavior and extra effort behavior through moral efficacy, and can also indirectly affect

civil servants’ extra effort behavior through felt obligation. Social distance weakened

the relationship between ethical leadership and moral efficacy, while power distance

strengthened the relationship between ethical leadership and felt obligation. These

findings broaden ethical leadership research in the public sector by differentiating the

processes through which it affects civil servants’ discretionary work behaviors.

1Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

2Central South University, Changsha, China

Corresponding Author:

Zijing Wang, School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Luoyu Road 1037,

Wuhan 430074, China.

Email: tiewzj@163.com

1196225PPMXXX10.1177/00910260231196225Public Personnel ManagementTan et al.

research-article2023

176 Public Personnel Management 53(2)

Keywords

civil servants, ethical leadership, helping behavior, extra effort behavior

Introduction

Public administration scholars have increasingly emphasized the importance of ethical

leadership in the management of public-sector organizations (Hassan et al., 2014;

Moon & Jung, 2018; Potipiroon & Faerman, 2016). Ethical leadership refers to “the

demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and inter-

personal relationships and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-

way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making” (Brown et al., 2005, p.

120). Through the adoption of such values as honesty, integrity, fairness, and holding

employees accountable for ethical conduct (Brown et al., 2005; Den Hartog, 2015),

ethical leaders in the public sector have been shown to reduce unethical behavior (e.g.,

Bashir & Hassan, 2020; Belle & Cantarelli, 2019; Kim, 2021; Miao et al., 2013; Young

et al., 2019), and absenteeism (e.g., Hassan et al., 2014) while also enhancing organi-

zational commitment (e.g., Potipiroon & Ford, 2017; Qing et al., 2019), work engage-

ment (e.g., Lu & Guy, 2014; Mostafa & El-Motalib, 2020), and voice (e.g., Hassan,

2015; Hassan et al., 2014; Wright et al., 2016).

This research aims to examine the relationship between ethical leadership and

employees’ discretionary work behavior, which refers to those that go beyond for-

mal job descriptions and are not recognized by the formal reward system (Resick

et al., 2013). Two forms of discretionary work behaviors are the focus of this study,

namely, helping and extra effort. Helping refers to those interpersonal altruistic

behaviors intended to provide task-related support and assistance to coworkers

(Kalshoven et al., 2013; Van Dyne & LePine, 1998), whereas extra effort is centered

on “going above and beyond” at work, such as taking the initiative to solve prob-

lems, persevering in the face of adversity, and volunteering to complete extra tasks

(Eisenbeiss & van Knippenberg, 2015; Macey & Schneider, 2008). Discretionary

work behaviors are important especially for public management, considering the

advantages of improving efficiency and achieving greater organizational respon-

siveness (de Geus et al., 2020; Ingrams, 2020). These behaviors could serve to fill in

the gaps that conventional bureaucratic systems cannot cover due to limited resources

and cumbersome administrative procedures (Shim & Faerman, 2015).

Although a plethora of previous research has already examined the influence of

ethical leadership on employees’ discretionary work behaviors (for reviews, see

Bedi et al., 2016; Den Hartog, 2015), the psychological mechanisms underlying

this relationship remain unclear (Moore et al., 2019). Most previous studies suggest

that ethical leaders influence these outcomes through the social learning process

(e.g., Bai et al., 2017; Z. Wang et al., 2021), that is, followers will come to behave

similarly to their leader through imitation and observational learning. Other studies

suggest that ethical leaders influence these outcomes through social exchange by