Exploring the process of ethical leadership on organisational commitment - The mediating role of career calling

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Asher

Study purpose centers on how career calling functions as a mediator between ethical leadership and organisational commitment. Data come from 943 employees randomly recruited from ten financial organisations in China who completed measures of ethical leadership, career calling, and organisational commitment. Mediation analysis using structural equation modelling and Preacher’s method links ethical leadership to higher career calling and stronger organisational commitment. Results show career calling partially mediates this relationship, informing HR leaders to model ethical leadership to build employees’ career calling and commitment.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Ethical leadership and organisational commitment

Career calling as a mediator

Journal of Psychology in Africa ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: [https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpia20](https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpia20) Exploring the process of ethical leadership on organisational commitment: The mediating role of career calling Leigang Zhang & Huaibin Jiang To cite this article: Leigang Zhang & Huaibin Jiang (2020) Exploring the process of ethical leadership on organisational commitment: The mediating role of career calling, Journal of Psychology in Africa, 30:3, 231-235, DOI: 10. 1080/14330237 .2020.1767924 To link to this article: [https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1767924](https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1767924) Published online: 04 Jul 2020. | Submit your article to this journal | | --- | | View related articles | | View Crossmark data | Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at [https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rpia20](https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rpia20) Journal of Psychology in Africa, 2020 Vol. 30, No. 3, 231–235, [https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1767924](https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1767924)[ ](https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1767924)© 2020 Africa Scholarship Development Enterprize Exploring the process of ethical leadership on organisational commitment: The mediating role of career calling Leigang Zhang1* and Huaibin Jiang2 1School of Teacher Education, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China 2School of Education, Fuqing Branch of Fujian Normal University, Fuqing, China *[Correspondence: zhangleigang@zju.edu.cn](Correspondence: zhangleigang@zju.edu.cn) This study aimed to examine the extent to which career calling mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and organisational commitment . The sample consisted of 943 employees randomly recruited from ten financial organisations in China (females = 39 . 87%; mean age = 34 .76 years, SD = 12 .69 years) . Employees completed measures of ethical leadership, career calling, and organisational commitment . Mediation analysis applying structural equation modelling and Preacher’s mediation analysis showed that ethical leadership was associated with higher career calling and organisational commitment . Moreover, career calling partially mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and organisational commitment . Human resource managers should display ethical leadership in order to promote employees’ sense of career calling and organisational commitment . Keywords: career calling, China, ethical leadership, finance sector, organisational commitment Introduction Leadership ethics and sense moral responsibility are vital to organisational long-term survival . Ethical leadership research is attracting increasing attention of both scholars and practitioners (Ahn et al . , 2018) . This might be explained by the fact that ethical leadership has a positive effect on work-related attitudes and behaviours, such as work engagement, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and organisational citizenship behaviour (Ahmad & Gao, 2018; Demirtas & Akdogan, 2014; Özden et al . , 2017; Yang & Wei, 2018) . The mechanisms by which ethical leadership results in employee organisation commitment could be through psychological attachment and loyalty, which are important predictors of low turnover intention and high job performance (Gatling et al . , 2016; Semedo et al . , 2016) . Also, ethical leadership could enhance employee organisational commitment and loyalty by strengthening employee identity with the organisational goals (Tseng & Wu, 2017) . Nonetheless, the mechanisms by which leadership qualities influence employee commitment are in need for further replication and extension studies . Career calling (Duffy & Sedlacek, 2007) is one possible mediator of the ethical leadership-employee organisational commitment relation . There is preliminary evidence to sugges

FAQs

What relationship does the study examine between ethical leadership and organisational commitment?

The study investigates how ethical leadership relates to organisational commitment and tests whether this link operates through career calling.

How is career calling measured and what role does it play?

Employees complete a career calling measure, and mediation analyses show career calling partially mediates the ethical leadership–organisational commitment relationship.

What methods are used to test mediation?

The study applies mediation analysis using structural equation modelling and Preacher’s mediation analysis.

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Asher