Exploring the Effects of Ethical Leadership on Creativity

This study examines the effects of ethical leadership on followers’ creativity. While there have been a few studies which have found positive effects of leaders’ ethical behaviors on followers’ innovative behavior and creativity, our understanding of how leaders’ ethical behaviors impact creative output is lacking. This study aims to expand the scope of extant studies in ethical leadership by introducing self-efficacy as a mediator of the relationship between ethical leadership and followers’ creativity. Moreover, this study examined the moderating effects of perceived justice and learning goal orientation in explaining the effects of ethical leadership on followers’self-efficacy and creativity. The results of this study show that ethical leadership is positively associated with followers’ creativity. It was also found that ethical leadership is positively related to followers’ self-efficacy, which in turn mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and followers’ creativity. Furthermore, it was found that perceived overall justice moderated the effects of ethical leadership on self-efficacy and there is 3-way interaction effectsof ethical leadership, perceived overall justice and learning-goal orientation in explaining followers’self-efficacy and creativity.