I value ethics, do you? An employee-oriented perspective on ethical leadership and organizational change

Purpose In the current dynamic world, organizations required rapid changes to meet the increasing demands of their customers. On the other hand, the practice side claims that the majority of the organizational change attempts fail due to resistance from the employee side. Based on the behavioral theory of leadership, the authors examined the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational change with moderated mediation effect of behavioral resistance to change and commitment to change on the stated relationship. Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained from 333 employees, selected at random, in three waves (i.e. pre-change, during change and post-change) using survey methods from services sector organizations operating in Pakistan. Findings The authors found that ethical leadership was positively linked to organizational change and this relation was partially mediated by the commitment to change. Further, behavioral resistance to change weakened the relationship between ethical leadership and commitment to change. Practical implications The current study illuminates the importance of ethical leaders in the organizational change process, and empirical findings also gave an important direction to build change commitment in employees to reach positive results. Further, change leaders should use ethical practices in the workplace during organizational change initiatives to deal with behavioral resistance to change. Originality/value This study links ethical leadership with organizational change using the behavioral theory of leadership, an unexplored area in the existing literature that gives a new insight to academia and practice side officials to successfully implement any organizational change initiative.