Ethical Leadership
Ethical leadership is usually defined as a leadership style that involves role-modeling normatively appropriate conduct through individual behavior and interpersonal interactions and inducing such behavior in others through two-way communications, positive reinforcement, and good decision-making (Brown et al., 2005). In real-world applications, ethical leaders are examples in the sense that they consistently demonstrate values of integrity, fairness, transparency, and honesty (Rubab et al., 2023). Ethical leaders are not merely ethical themselves but also model standards and norms in firms, reward others for ethical behavior, and correct misconduct when it is broken (Zheng et al., 2024).
Literature is always aware of various dimensions that constitute ethical leadership, for instance, justice (treatment of human beings in a fair and objective way), integrity (consistency of speech and actions), people-orientation (demonstrating sincere concern for the welfare of employees), role clarification (ensuring clarity in role and responsibility), and ethical guidance (always articulating ethical norms and expectations) (Zhang et al., 2023). These dimensions combined constitute an ethical and caring organizational culture where employees understand what is expected as norms and can make ethical decisions.
Organizational Impact and Importance
Ethical leadership plays an important role in many organizational outcomes. Leaders who are ethical in their daily conduct are bound to achieve the respect and trust of their employees, enhancing their commitment and motivation towards the organization (Babalola et al., 2018). This leads to improvements in psychological safety, where employees feel that their leaders care for them, hence enhancing job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Park & Kim, 2024).
As affirmed by Yozgat and Meşekıran (2016), moral leadership positively affects job satisfaction, and trust in leadership is the main mediating factor. Moral leadership is also linked with the decrease in turnover intention and organizational commitment increase, as the employees are made to feel respected and valued (Tabiu, 2023). Ethical leaders also create a working environment that deters misconduct, reduces interpersonal conflict, and promotes a culture of cooperation and justice (Babalola et al., 2018).
In addition, ethical leaders request the employees to perform more than is officially required of them. Ethical leadership has been found to generate organizational citizenship behavior, discretionary, voluntary, unrewarded actions, yet they are essential to organizational performance (Montani & Desmarais, 2018). Subordinates respond to ethical treatment and fairness by exhibiting favorable extra-role behavior. For example, Zhang et al. (2023) confirmed that ethical leadership sustains organizational citizenship behavior in ostracized workplaces via reinforcement of a positive self-concept by employees.
In governmental institutions where accountability and trustworthiness take center stage, concurrent use of ethical leadership and supportive Human Resource Management practices has been found to contribute significantly to civic-behavioral activities of the employees (Rubab et al., 2023). Drawn from Social Exchange Theory, ethical leadership is defined to facilitate high-quality exchanges between leaders and followers that establish trust, loyalty, and cooperative behavior (Podsakoff et al., 2009).
Ethical leadership is the center of organizational and ethical organizational culture formation and sustenance. Its influence is from employee attitude to behavioral outcomes and total organizational performance metrics, like innovation and operational excellence (Albdareen et al., 2024). The evidence establishes the strategic significance of ethical leadership towards attaining long-term organizational excellence.
Organizational excellence
Organizational excellence is the consistent achievement of better results and performance that exceed or match stakeholders’ expectations (Ibrahim, 2020). Excellence was, according to the American Society for Quality, defined as repeated delivery of improved results better than expectations in a way not creating inefficiencies or flaws (American Society for Quality, 2022). The European Foundation for Quality Management (Bukvič, 2023) has also given the excellence definition as a sustained attempt to build and maintain organizational systems and standards to engage and empower employees to deliver high-quality products and services that meet business goals.
Organizational excellence basically refers to gradually enhancing the processes that generate stakeholder value and confer long-term strategic goals on internal systems. Ibrahim (2020) illustrates that organizational excellence refers to achieving greater levels of performance through the utilization of employees’ creativity and innovation to satisfy stakeholders’ needs and achieve competitive differentiation.
Dimensions of organizational excellence
Several internationally acclaimed models have been developed to define and quantify organizational excellence in the long term. Some of these models are the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award model and the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model, both of which offer methodical approaches to measuring performance and organizational improvement in performance (Bukvič, 2023).
The Baldrige criteria adopt major criteria such as leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, measurement and analysis, workforce involvement, process management, and business results (American Society for Quality, 2022). The European Foundation for Quality Management model also specifies five enablers—leadership, people, strategy, partnerships & resources, and processes—and four areas of results, which include customer, people, society, and business results. The expectation here is that effective leadership and management practices (enablers) are contributing towards sustainable and measurable organizational results.
Organizations that aim for excellence adopt continuous improvement approaches based on Total Quality Management principles. These include using the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, internal self-assessment, and benchmarking of performance to identify gaps and drive innovation (Ibrahim, 2020; American Society for Quality, 2022). Excellence-focused organizations define measurable targets, use performance indicators, and offer chances for employees to participate in continuous improvement initiatives (Rubab et al., 2023).
Leadership is a key source of excellence. Shared vision leadership, behaviors that drive excellence, and recognition of employees’ contributions through excellent leadership create environments that enable high performance. Ethical and inclusive-value leadership approaches have been demonstrated empirically to enhance organizational excellence. For example, Park and Kim (2024) highlighted in their study that servant leadership with employees as its object of concern had a positive impact on organizational excellence, particularly in settings where the culture of this leadership type permeated.
These findings confirm that ethical and human-oriented leadership is one of the four excellence pillars. Aligning with the European Foundation for Quality Management model, it is the foundation upon which all other organizational enablers are placed (European Foundation for Quality Management, 2021). Organizational excellence also requires that leadership, culture, strategy, processes, and people be aligned to the collective purpose of delivering better results to all stakeholders.
Organizational citizenship behavior
Organizational Citizenship Behavior is a term used to describe voluntary and discretionary employee action that is not formally acknowledged by way of reward systems but is very valuable to organizational performance (Organ, 1988). Some examples of these types of behaviors include helping others, taking the initiative, and fostering a favorable organizational atmosphere. Podsakoff et al. (2009) have defined organizational citizenship behavior as a set of individual behaviors that, when performed together, positively affect the organization’s performance and function.
The five factors traditionally used in defining organizational citizenship behavior are altruism, courtesy, sportsmanship, conscientiousness, and civic virtue. Altruism involves helping other individuals; courtesy involves the effort to avoid annoying others; sportsmanship involves tolerance and good sportsmanship; conscientiousness involves going beyond the level of required work activities; and civic virtue involves being active in the governance and life of the organization (Organ, 1988).
Earlier research separates organizational citizenship behavior into two large categories: Organizational citizenship behavior towards persons, i.e., assisting or mentoring co-workers, and Organizational citizenship behavior towards the organization, e.g., facilitating company goals and protecting firm property (Borman & Motowidlo, 1997).
Antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior
There are numerous determinants of the probability of an employee displaying organizational citizenship behavior. These include the individual-level properties of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and job satisfaction, as well as perceptions of organizational justice and commitment (Podsakoff et al., 2009). Context and organizational features are also at play, such as a positive culture, open Human Resources policies, and ethical climate.
Among all the identified antecedents, leadership style is a highly important antecedent. Ethical, transformational, and servant leader styles have all been associated with higher levels of organizational citizenship behavior. Such leaders construct cultures of fairness, trust, and mutual commitment (Neubert & Roberts, 2013).
Ethical leadership, on the other hand, encourages organizational citizenship behavior through the promotion of psychological safety, displaying persistent ethicality, as well as rewarding ethicality (Tabiu, 2023). Employees of ethical leaders feel empowered, valued, and committed, and this forces them to demonstrate behaviors that go beyond their official role expectations (Rubab et al., 2023).
Consequences of organizational citizenship behavior
Organizational citizenship behavior has very significant effects on organizational performance. Among these are enhanced job performance, enhanced teamwork, reduced conflict, and overall enhanced morale (Organ et al., 1988; Das & Rajini, 2024). Moreover, organizations that have organizational citizenship behavior are also likely to have reduced turnover and absenteeism since the employees are engaged more and part of the organizational values (Podsakoff et al., 2009).
Customer-facing results also rise when organizational citizenship behavior is prevalent since workers tend to provide high-quality service and construct organizational image (Park & Kim, 2024). Within health organizations, the relevance of organizational citizenship behavior is extremely high. Proper teamwork, coordination, and effective resolution of problems have a direct effect on patient outcomes and hospital performance (Baird et al., 2017).
Enwereuzor et al. (2020) discovered that higher levels of organizational citizenship behavior among hospital nurses correlate with greater coordination, patient satisfaction, and overall effectiveness of functioning. Although organizational citizenship behavior would be beneficial, research also warns against excessive discretionary effort in that too much organizational citizenship behavior can contribute to burnout if not channeled correctly (Bolino et al., 2013). Organizations thus must balance promoting organizational citizenship behavior against support structures to ensure staff well-being.
Interplay of ethical leadership, organizational citizenship behavior, and organizational excellence
Much research shows that ethical leadership triggers organizational citizenship behavior, and this leads to organizational excellence. In the case of ethical leaders and winning the confidence of the people, employees will be more likely to go the extra mile. This action results in increased efficiency, innovation, and quality of service (Podsakoff et al., 2009). In Nigerian public sector organizations, Tabiu (2023) found that ethical leadership had a critical influence on several aspects of organizational citizenship behavior, especially when noting the integration of HR policies. Zhang et al. (2023) found that ethical leadership moderated the negative effects of workplace ostracism to induce high levels of organizational citizenship behavior. Organizational citizenship behavior produces excellence by enhancing cooperation, flexibility, and service innovation. For instance, Das and Rajini (2024) confirmed that organizational citizenship behavior positively affected employee health and work performance, while Baird et al. (2017) suggested its strong effect on patient care quality and hospital performance.
Empirical literature further recognizes the significant effect of ethical leadership in the avoidance of unethical corporate actions in the guise of earnings management. For instance, Almasarwah et al. (2025) emphasized that ethical leadership encourages openness and accountability, therefore reducing fraudulent financial reporting practices in industries globally. Their cross-national experiment with managers of 21 firms revealed a significant negative correlation between ethical leadership and earnings manipulation, further affirming the strategic benefits of ethical behavior in ensuring organizational integrity and excellence. In addition to the role of leadership in shaping discretionary behavior, Khademian (2016) demonstrated that both task- and relation-oriented leadership directly and significantly influence professional ethical conduct in business industries. Employing structural equation modeling of a cement production industry, the study validated that supportiveness and structuring of tasks into clear goals facilitate ethical action by employees. These findings further support the view that ethical leadership is both value-driven and behaviorally focused, influencing workers’ compliance with ethical concepts in different workplaces.
Moreover, empirical evidence presented by Abuzaid et al. (2024) further supports this contention by linking ethical leadership with more organizational citizenship behavior, especially in innovation-focused sectors. Through the addition of job satisfaction and leader empathy, they demonstrated that employees under the helm of ethical leadership exhibit greater levels of employee engagement and discretionary actions such as civic virtue and altruism, which play a core role in achieving sustainable organizational performance. These results validate the main hypothesis of the present study that organizational citizenship behavior is an active mediator behavior through which excellence is affected by ethical leadership.
In addition, current research has also extended the influence of ethical leadership to new horizons of performance beyond the traditional measures. Almasarwah et al. (2025) paid attention to its strategic significance in finance management, demonstrating how ethical leadership can prevent earnings management behaviors, hence guaranteeing transparency and accountability in organizations. Similarly, Li (2024) directed attention to the moderating role of leader empathy in stimulating the linkage among ethical leadership, internal job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior in emerging industries. These works underscore the shifting place of ethical leadership as a deep construct that supports interpersonal employee outcomes and macro-governance objectives. They also provide evidence for the argument that empathy and emotional intelligence are central to advancing the positive effects of ethical leadership.
Mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior
Empirical evidence supports organizational citizenship behavior as a mediator of the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational excellence. Ishak and Williams (2020) found partial mediation for the stated relationship, signifying organizational citizenship behavior is a significant but not sole mechanism through which ethical leadership impacts performance. Zehir et al. (2011) demonstrated full mediation, highlighting the influence of employee behavior in bringing the values of leadership to performance outcomes. Khokhar and Zia-ur-Rehman (2017) also supported the concept of two paths—direct and indirect—between ethical leadership and excellence.
Conceptual model and hypotheses
Drawing on social exchange theory, this study offers a conceptual framework under which ethical leadership has a positive direct and indirect effect on organizational excellence via organizational citizenship behavior.
Research Hypotheses
H1: Organizational citizenship behavior mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational excellence, such that ethical leadership increases organizational citizenship behavior, which in turn enhances organizational excellence.
H1.1: Ethical leadership has a positive direct effect on organizational excellence.
H1.2: Ethical leadership has a positive effect on employees’ organizational citizenship behavior.
This study focuses on employees at King Abdullah Hospital in Bisha, Saudi Arabia, providing a context-specific examination of these relationships in the healthcare sector. By testing these hypotheses, the study aims to advance theoretical understanding and provide practical insights for healthcare leaders seeking to enhance organizational excellence through ethical leadership.
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