Ethical leadership, good governance and employee commitment - Testing a moderated mediation model in public universities of Ethiopia

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Ezra

Survey-based research using cross-sectional data from 186 academic staff across four Ethiopian public universities examines how ethical leadership shapes employee commitment. Ethical leadership shows a positive, significant influence on commitment, with perceived good governance practices acting as a mediator. The study finds no moderated mediation effect of university type (generation) on the governance–commitment linkage. The work extends prior higher-education ethics research by integrating good governance as a mediator in Ethiopia’s public-university context.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Ethics and ethical leadership foundations

Prior research linking ethical leadership to outcomes

Rationale for good governance as mediator

Received: 24 September 2020 Revised: 27 June 2021 Accepted: 2 August 2021 DOI: 10.1002/pa.2742 RES EARCH A RTICLE Ethical leadership, good governance and employee commitment: Testing a moderated mediation model in public universities of Ethiopia Ramakrishna Gollagari1 | Berhanu Belayneh Beyene2 | Santap Sanhari Mishra3 1College of Finance, Management and Development (CFMD), Ethiopian Civil Service University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2Institute of Leadership and Good Governance (ILG), Ethiopian Civil Service University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 3School of Governance and Public Affairs (SGPA), XIM University, Bhubaneswar, India Correspondence Ramakrishna Gollagari, College of Finance, Management and Development (CFMD), Ethiopian Civil Service University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Email: [profgrk@gmail.com](profgrk@gmail.com) This paper uses a survey design based on cross-sectional data from 186 academic staff of four public universities representing four generations of universities in Ethiopia. The study finds that ethical leadership has a positive and significant effect on employee commitment and such relationship is mediated by perceived good governance practices in the public universities. However, there is no moderated mediation effect of university type (generation) affecting the relationship of good governance and employee commitment. The study is quite novel in bringing good governance asa mediator into the relationship between ethical leadership and employee commitment in higher education institutions particularly in the public university context. KEYWOR DS employee commitment, ethical leadership, Ethiopia, good governance, public universities 1 | INTRODUCTION context of educational organizations, ethical leadership studies have its own relevance due to the fact that educational institutions play a Ethics is a moral principle that decides how a person consistently behaves, when not being watched by others. Since ancient times, ethics has caught the fascination of philosophers and the general public. Coming from an old Greek word “ethos,” it basically focuses on man's virtuous life (Bauman, 2018) . Every human being has certain virtues and it is expected to be reflected in their behavior. Verse 21 of chapter 3 of Bhagavad Gita (an ancient Hindu literature) tells whatsoever a highly placed person does; the same is done by others. It means people follow the examples set by their leaders. The modern “ethical leadership” has a direct source of this virtue ethics as advocated by Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle (Bauman, 2017; Sisonet al., 2012) and Bauman (2018) confirmed ethical leadership as synonymous with virtuous leader. Plato's idea of philosopher-king is a virtuous leader who is well-educated and trained. Based on the education system and socio-cultural context of each country, the degree of endorsement of ethical leadership aspects varies considerably (Martinet al., 2009) . Several research studies on ethical leadership have been conducted in the realm of both public sector (Asencio, 2019; Lu & Guy, 2014; Young et al., 2019) and private sector (Agha et al., 2017; Celik et al., 2015; Rizwan et al., 2017; Schwepker Jr., 2019) . But in the vital role for the development of ethical behaviors. During primary years, teachers lay the foundation of children's ethical premises. During this period students' learning on ethical behaviors merely depend upon simple instructions, stories or examples. But in higher educational institutions, adult students and also employees can refine their ethical behaviors from the examples set by their own educational leaders. It has been argued that most studies on ethical leadership of educational leaders have focused on lower educational institutions (Acar et al., 2012; Rizwan et al., 2017; Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2011) . However, the ethical dimensions of educational leaders in the context of higher institutions have been paid less attention, resulting in l

FAQs

What data and sampling approach does the study use?

The study uses a survey design with cross-sectional data from 186 academic staff across four Ethiopian public universities.

How does ethical leadership relate to employee commitment?

Ethical leadership has a positive and significant effect on employee commitment.

What role does good governance play in the relationship?

Perceived good governance practices mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and employee commitment.

Does university type (generation) moderate the mediation effect?

No moderated mediation effect of university type (generation) is found affecting the governance–commitment relationship.

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Ezra

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