Resumen de The impact of ethical leadership on employees' behavioural support for change during times of uncertainty: an empirical study on the Egyptian health sector
Mohamed Elmetwally Elsayed Metwally Ahmed
Abstract Ethical leaders are capable of illuminating the positive side of change uncertainty to their subordinates via various mechanisms. Firstly, they have a positive influence over their subordinate’s cognition and perceptions which enables them to change their psychological and behavioural reactions to change positively. Secondly, their cognitive influence stems from their altruism, fairness, concern for people, ethical guidance, integrity which motivates people to trust them during turbulent and uncertain times. This research studies the impact of ethical leadership (EL) on subordinates’ behavioural support for change (BSC) in health organizations, witnessing organizational changes and operating in uncertain external environments. It also examines the mediating effect of commitment to change and employees’ perceived uncertainty on the relationship between ethical leadership and behavioural support for change. A dyadic multi-source cross-sectional design was adapted following the double rating recommendation of Podsakoff (2003) on leaders and subordinates’ behaviour. Individual level dyadic data was obtained from 600 medical staff and their direct leaders (total N= 1100) on the same hierarchal level. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses. Results showed that ethical leadership has a direct positive impact on subordinates’ behavioural support for change. This positive impact is positively mediated by subordinates’ commitment to change and their perceived level of uncertainty. Future research using a longitudinal design is needed to test the ability of ethical leaders to transform their subordinates’ resistance to change into behavioural support for change and to test the likely best inferred causal dynamics. These findings suggest that ethical leaders can enhance their subordinates’ behavioural support for change during highly uncertain organizational changes. Organizations may, consequently, seek to increase the level of ethical leadership through new training, selection and change strategies that focus on the promotion of ethics. Furthermore, ethical leaders could also be capable of formulating more effective change strategies and of managing change resistance more effectively.
