Exploring the links between ethical leadership, customer orientation and employee outcomes in the context of retailing

Purpose – In the increasingly competitive retail environment, retailers’ ability to elevate frontline employees’ customer orientation (CO) can make the difference between the success and failure of their stores. However, the question of how to enhance employee CO is a tricky one. It has been stated that employee CO is a stable work value or disposition that is consistent over time, and therefore, difficult to manage. However, one factor that might be an important driver of employee CO is the retailers’ ethical leadership behaviour. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to focus on exploring the links between retailers’ ethical leadership, frontline employee CO and frontline employee job satisfaction, job-related stress and turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach – For the purpose of this study, the authors develop five hypotheses about the retailers’ ethical leadership, frontline employee CO and frontline employee job satisfaction, job-related stress and turnover intentions. Using structural equation modelling, the authors test the hypotheses using a sample of 208 respondents from the Finnish retail industry. Findings – As a first important contribution, the findings of the present study indicate that frontline employee perceptions of their retailer’s ethical leadership are strongly linked to employee CO. As a second contribution, our results suggest that employee CO is positively related to job satisfaction. As a third contribution, this study shows that frontline employee job satisfaction is negatively related to their turnover intentions. Originality/value – This study contributes to service management and retail marketing literature by broadening the current understanding of the links between the ethical leadership of retailers, frontline employee CO and frontline employee job satisfaction, job-related stress and turnover intentions.