You are “insisting”, or you want to “withdraw”? Research on the negative effect of ethical leadership on leaders themselves

• Published in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) N.J.), 2023-10, Vol.42 (30), p.25968-25984
• Main Authors: Qi, He, Jingtao, Fu, Wenhao, Wu, Pervaiz, Sabeeh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Ethical aspects; Ethics; Leadership; Leadership styles; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Social Sciences
• ISSN: 1046-1310; 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03433-z

So far, ethical leadership has been proven to have a wide range of positive effects (resource acquisition spiral). Based on resource conservation theory and implicit leadership theory, this research instead focuses on the negative effect of ethical leadership on leaders themselves through leader emotional exhaustion under the condition of employee followership, therefore leader psychological withdrawal (resource loss spiral). In this time-lagged survey, a total of n = 238 leaders (male = 65.13%) were assessed over three measurement points with an interval of three months each. The results of the stuy are: (1) Ethical leadership links to growing leader emotional exhaustion; (2) Leader emotional exhaustion associates with intensified leader psychological withdrawal; (3) Leader emotional exhaustion mediates the relation between ethical leadership and leader psychological withdrawal; (4) Employee followership reversely moderates the effect of ethical leadership on leader emotional exhaustion; (5) Employee followership reversely moderates the effect of ethical leadership on leader psychological withdrawal through leader emotional exhaustion. Its indirect effect is non-significant under the condition of high employee followership. In summary, this research interpretates the mechanism and boundary condition for the negative effects of ethical leadership on leaders themselves.