Antecedents of duty orientation and follower work behavior: the interactive effects of perceived organizational support and ethical leadership

Nathan Eva, Alexander Newman, Qing Miao, Dan Wang, Brian Cooper

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

50 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Drawing on social exchange theory, the present study seeks to understand how ethical leaders channel followers’ responses to positive treatment from the organization into a dutiful mindset, resulting in in-role and extra-role performance. Specifically, it examines the influence of perceived organizational support on both followers’ job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors, and the mediating effects of duty orientation on such relationships. In addition, it examines whether the mediated effects are contingent on the ethical leadership exhibited by the team leader. Based on multi-source, multi-level data obtained from 233 employees in 60 teams from the Chinese public sector, we found that ethical leadership moderated the mediated relationship between perceived organizational support and follower work behaviors through duty orientation, such that this relationship was stronger in the presence of higher ethical leadership.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)627-639
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Business Ethics
Volume161
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2020

Keywords

  • Duty orientation
  • Ethical leadership
  • Job performance
  • Organizational citizenship behaviors
  • Perceived organizational support

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