The Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Work Performance: Mediation Effect of the Perceived Clarity of the Ethics Code

This thesis is an explorative study of the route by which the ethical leadership of an immediate superior influences the work performance of organizational members. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between three important variables (e.g., ethical leadership, the perceived clarity of ethics code, and work performance) through an empirical analysis. This study individually surveyed team managers and members of 431 teams in a large manufacturing company in Korea. The response rate was about 50%, and we analyzed the answered questionnaires of 196 superiorsubordinate pairs (196 team leaders, 196 employees, total: 392 persons) who responded to the survey questions simultaneously. The unit of analysis in this study is the individual level. To reduce the problem of common method bias, the assessment data provided by the subordinate was used to analyze the ethical leadership of the superior, which was the independent variable. On the other hand, the assessment data provided by the superior was used to analyze the work performance of organizational members, the dependent variable. The responses of subordinates were used to analyze the perceived clarity of the ethics code, the mediator. Analysis results showed that the ethical leadership of the immediate superior positively affected the organizational members’ perceived clarity of the ethics code as established in the organization, which in turn served as a mediator for positively influencing work performance. To verify the mediation effect, this study used the method presented by MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, & Sheets (2002) along with the Sobel test and a bootstrapping method indirect effect test. Also, this study discussed the theoretical and practical implications of the results and presented its limitations as well as suggestions for future study.