The effect of ethical climate and ethical leadership on innovative and cooperative behavior

Abstract

Leadership has been suggested to be an important factor affecting work climate. A number of studies have shown that ethical leadership positively influences organizational climate and employee behaviors. However, there is a lack of studies examining the influence of organizational climate on leadership. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of ethical climate on ethical leadership and innovative and cooperative behavior. Furthermore, ethical leadership was proposed to be a moderator between the relationship of ethical climate and employees behaviors. This study examined the effect of ethical climate on innovative and cooperative behavior through potential mediating effects, ethical leadership. To test hypotheses, data were collected from 183 employees from small and middle-sized hospitals in Korea; the support was found for hypothesized model. SPSS 18.0 was used to analyze the research data. The paper demonstrates that ethical climate was positively related to innovative and cooperative behavior, and also positively related to ethical leadership. The moderating effect of ethical leadership between ethical climate and innovative behavior, however, was not significant. In addition, ethical leadership partially mediates in the relationship among ethical climate and innovative and cooperative behavior. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of ethical climate in medical organizations that provides positive behavior of employees. The study represents some contributions and managerial implications for organizations to improve innovative and cooperative behavior among employees.