Asian J Bus Ethics https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-017-0084-8

Ethics lead the way despite organizational politics Ufuk Başar 1

& Ünsal

Sığrı 2 & H. Nejat Basım 3

Received: 28 December 2016 / Accepted: 25 October 2017 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017

Abstract The aim of this study was to find out whether ethical leadership has an impact on employees’ organizational identification and the perceptions of organizational politics moderate this process. To this end, to ensure triangulation on findings, two separate researches were made. First, a cross-sectional survey was conducted on 137 employees who worked at the head office of a private bank in Istanbul using self-report questionnaires. Second, 2 years later, a time-lagged survey was conducted on 119 employees who worked at the same organization. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed on the collected data from studies 1 and 2. Findings of both studies indicated that ethical leadership resulted in organizational identification slightly more weakly in employees who perceived organizational politics. Drawing on findings, new researches investigating impacts of organizational politics on managerial processes in other organizations may be conducted in the future. Moreover, organizational leaders, who realized the adverse consequences of organizational politics, may take precautions against such tactics. Finally, findings may be noteworthy, because this research is believed to be the first to investigate empirically the moderating role of organizational politics in the association between ethical leadership and employees’ organizational identification. Keywords Ethical leadership . Organizational identification . Perceptions of organizational politics . Moderation effect

* Ufuk Başar [email protected] Ünsal Sığrı [email protected] H. Nejat Basım [email protected]

1

Institute of Social Sciences, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey

2

Faculty of Health Sciences, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey

3

Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey

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Introduction Ethics refers to the sum of moral principles that form a basis for individuals’ behaviors, which indicates what is right, true, and fair and what is wrong, false, and unfair (Filizoz 2011). Therefore, ethics can shed light on both the management and employees of organizations, in terms of the provision of healthy workplaces, by indicating an accurate way of acts, attitudes, and discourses. Therefore, ethics can lead the way. Within a context where organizational crises such as Enron, World.com, Adelphia, Tyco, and Volkswagen frequently arise from the lack of morals in the managerial processes (Trevino et al. 2003; Zaman 2015), employees are in need of guidance in order to work effectively and properly. Herein, ethical leadership stands out as a proper way of management. Because ethical leaders manage, act, discourse, and live according to ethical values, they become role models for employees, through these means (Brown et al. 2005). Actually, this is one of the crucial factors that employees often seek, but cannot find. Therefore, employees, who work under the guidance of ethical leaders, become more eager to identify themselves with their organization, due to their leaders’ moral character and way of conduct, despite several unfavorable determinants such as politics in workplaces. In this research, we investigated the perceived level of organizational politics engaged in by employees. Regardless of way of conduct, organizational politics is an inevitable, contextual phenomenon. The importance of understanding the role of unfavorable determinants lies behind their negative influences on several organizational processes such as leadership practices (Jordan et al. 2013). Therefore, if the role of the perceived organizational politics in the association between ethical leadership and organizational identification is uncovered, the human resource processes and management strategies of the organizations can be determined more accurately, for future practices. In this research, we investigated whether ethical leadership has an impact on employees’ organizational identification and perceived organizational politics moderates this association. In this way, to what extent the impact of ethical leadership on organizational identification changes due to employees’ perceptions of organizational politics was analyzed. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to investigate the moderating role of organizational politics in the association between ethical leadership and organizational identification in Turkish context. Throughout the article, first of all, ethical leadership and organizational identification are explained. Later on, the moderating role of the perceptions of organizational politics in the association between ethical leadership and organizational identification is examined. After that, the research design and methodology are explicated. Finally, findings are discussed and implications are emphasized.

Ethical leadership Ethical leaders are those who conduct their affairs ethically, fairly, and pay attention to moral values and are distinguished from ordinary managers, by the character of being receptive, open, honest, and people oriented. Ethical leaders set ethical standards, according to which all the organizational processes have to be implemented by employees (Trevino et al. 2003). Howell and Avolio (1992) emphasized the importance

Ethics lead the way despite organizational politics

of the moral standards that ethical leaders follow when deciding what is wrong or right, even under circumstances of being contrary to the popular expectations of the majority. Meanwhile, Trevino et al. (2000) underscored two features of ethical leaders. According to them, ethical leaders are moral people, who live in conformity with ethical values throughout their lives. At the same time, they are moral managers, who lead, act, decide, discourse, take a stand according to ethical norms, and become a role model to their followers, whereby employees are inspired to exhibit performances, which are over and beyond expectations. In this context, Brown et al. (2005) defined ethical leadership by drawing on Bandura’s (1977, 1986) social learning theory. The social learning theory implies that anything can be learned, through direct observation of behaviors and their consequences. Therefore, owing to their positions in organizational hierarchy, leaders can teach anything to their followers, by acting as role models to them. In this manner, followers can learn what behaviors would be rewarded, expected, and punished naturally. By engaging in fair, just, and caring behaviors toward followers, and creating a fair working culture, ethical leaders become the source of ethical conduct and emulation spontaneously (Bandura 1986). Therefore, ethical leadership is defined as Bthe demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers, through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making^ (Brown et al. 2005, p. 120). That is, ethical leaders are perceived by their followers as honest, caring, and principled role models, who practice what they preach, make balanced decisions, and manage fairly. Ethical leaders communicate ethical values, set ethical standards, and utilize punishment and reward mechanisms to their followers, in order for their followers to internalize those standards as well (Brown and Trevino 2006a).

Organizational identification Although there is an abundance of researches carried out on organizational identification, it continues to attract the attention of researchers due to its unique characteristic, which explains the strong and unusual tie, between employees and the organization (Edwards 2005). Over time, several researchers such as Foote (1951), Kelman (1958), Brown (1969), March and Simon (1958), Patchen (1970), Lee (1969), and Cheney (1983) have contributed to the conceptualization of organizational identification with their new findings and ideas. After all, Asforth and Mael (1989) developed a wellaccepted definition and explanation of organizational identification, by adapting the social identity theory in the organizational context. According to the social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1979, 1986), individuals are in search of an affiliation, with which they can identify themselves, due to their natures. Social groups of daily life such as cities where individuals live, individuals’ gender, sport clubs, and the nationalities which individuals are part of affect individuals, and they create self-categorizations. These self-categorizations can later on help them in answering the question of BWho am I?.^ In this way, the social identities of each individual are developed. For example, when asked, a good many of people can identify themselves by saying I’m an Englishman, I’m a fan of Besiktas football club, or I’m a New Yorker. With regard to this approach, members of organizations, leaders,

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managers, department chiefs, and each employee, tend to perceive their organizations as part of their identities and, therefore, form organizational identities. For example, if an organization’s brand is decried next to one of its employees, this employee may feel offended and take this decrial as though on one’s self, because this employee may acknowledge the denigration as if it was said to him/her, due to organizational identification. In this context, this fact can be explained as an aspect of social identity theory. That is, employees form organizational identities, which answer the question of Who am I? as well (Asforth and Mael 1989). Therefore, due to its beneficial outcomes to the management of organizations, organizational identification can be counted among the invaluable attitudes of employees, because employees who strongly identify themselves with the organization can confront a lot of troubles such as economic crises, lack of sufficient resources, temporarily low wages, organizational turmoil, managerial ambiguities, unjust processes, and lack of proper implementation of leadership by spending much effort above and beyond expectations, enduring, helping colleagues who are in need of help, and sacrificing their interest for the sake of their organization’s well-being, in order for their organization to overcome troubles (Van Knippenberg and Van Schie 2000; Miller et al. 2000).

Ethical leadership and organizational identification Leaders in general highly influence followers’ identification with the organization (Dick et al. 2007). Ellemers et al. (2004) explain how the perception of leaders as a part of the group strengthens employees’ identification with the organization. Herein, among usual managers, ethical leaders can be distinguished easily, by their charming, charismatic, dependable, and moral character and the honest, fair, disciplined, and inspiring way of treating their followers and taking decisions, through which the employees’ identification with the organization may be fostered. Since organizational identification refers to the emotional and psychological tie between employees and the organization above and beyond organizational commitment, in a way that employees internalize organizational values and characteristics by integrating them with their selfconcept and feel as Bone^ with the organization (Asforth and Mael 1989; Kreiner and Ashforth 2004; Basar and Sigri 2015), ethical leaders may be the principal inspirers of employees’ identification with the organization, through winning their hearts and minds, because distinguishing characteristics of ethical leaders may cause employees to trust and perceive justice toward the managerial practices. Besides, ethical practices may convince the employees to believe in the mission, vision, and values of the organization. Drawing on Brown et al. (2005)’s definition of ethical leadership, which was constructed on Bandura’s (1977, 1986) social learning theory, we can explain the association between ethical leadership and employees’ organizational identification. According to social learning theory, individuals can learn anything through direct observation of behaviors and their consequences. Due to their position in the organizational hierarchy, leaders can act as role models for followers. Hence, the process of social learning can occur spontaneously through the emulation of leaders’ behaviors and manners. Followers come to realize what behaviors are expected or should be avoided through a reward and punishment mechanism (Bandura 1986). They perceive leaders as credible and legitimate to the extent that they behave altruistically, conduct

Ethics lead the way despite organizational politics

themselves fairly, and live ethically. Ethical leaders enhance their credibility by practicing what they preach. They become a source of emulation by attracting their followers’ attention by engaging in honest, just, ethical, and considerate actions. Ethical leaders constitute a model of normatively appropriate conduct because they lead and interact with followers honestly, trustworthily, fairly, and considerately. In addition, ethical leaders talk to their followers about ethics in the workplace, make them aware of it, and foster ethical behaviors. Moreover, they set ethical standards, reward those who follow them, and punish those who do not. In this way, they facilitate the social learning process. Finally, ethical leaders take into consideration the ethical repercussions of their decisions. Therefore, they pay strict attention to making fair and balanced decisions (Trevino et al. 2003; Brown et al. 2005; Brown and Trevino 2006a). Thus, ethical leaders create an ethical working culture inevitably, in which employees may tend to identify with the organizations due to the attractiveness and high value of moral standards, as well as a just management. Likewise, in his comprehensive research, Polat (2009) explained a good number of antecedents of organizational identification, which may be consequences of working in an ethical environment. Antecedents, such as job satisfaction, organizational trust, values, organizational justice perception, organizational commitment, and communication, stimulate employees to identify with the organization. In addition to social learning theory (Bandura 1977, 1986), social exchange theory (Blau 1964) also helps explain the consequences of ethical leadership (Brown et al. 2005; Brown and Trevino 2006b; Walumbwa and Schaubroeck 2009; Mayer et al. 2009). According to social exchange theory, individuals anticipate the exchange of both material and non-material goods while they behave in the accepted manner. Nonmaterial goods come in the form of social prestige, respect, or approval. Individuals who give a lot to others expect the same in return. Further, individuals who receive a lot from others feel pressured to reciprocate. This is an influence process between the giver and the receiver, which causes behavioral changes depending on the profit size. What is given represents the cost, and what is received in return represents the reward. The profit equals the reward minus the cost. If the reward is greater than the cost, the exchange is profitable. Individuals try to maximize their profits (Homans 1958). Due to reciprocity principle in social exchange theory (Blau 1964), when individuals perceive fair and good treatment from the other party, they feel pressured to reciprocate with positive behaviors. Drawing on this logic, researchers propose and find that employees reciprocate with extra role and prosocial behaviors, such as commitment, identification, loyalty, and organizational citizenship, and do not tend to engage in counter productive work behaviors, such as work neglect, absenteeism, or tardiness in exchange for ethical conduct of their leaders (Brown and Mitchell 2010). Empirical findings and theoretical propositions also provide support for these arguments in such a way that ethical leadership results in a good number of desired employee behaviors and attitudes, such as organizational commitment, trust in leaders (Zhu et al. 2004), organizational citizenship behaviors (Mayer et al. 2009), voice behavior (Walumbwa and Schaubroeck 2009), prosocial behaviors, satisfaction, motivation to work (Brown and Trevino 2006a), and intrinsic motivation (Piccolo et al. 2010). Moreover, Walumbwa et al. (2011) discovered a positive impact of ethical leadership on organizational identification, and the mediating role of organizational identification, between ethical leadership and job performance. Similarly, Qi and Ming-Xia (2014) confirmed the positive impact

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of ethical leadership on organizational identification and discovered the mediating role of organizational identification between ethical leadership and employee voice behavior. In this context, it is reasonable to treat ethical leadership as one of the antecedents of employees’ organizational identification. Therefore, in line with this approach, we hypothesize that Hypothesis 1: Ethical leadership has positive impact on employees’ organizational identification.

Perceptions of organizational politics as a moderator Organizational politics refers to the consciously use of several influence tactics, in order to obtain specific goals not determined by the management of an organization or to obtain organizationally determined goals, through informal influence means (Mayes and Allen 1977, p. 675). That is, organizational politics explain certain behaviors of employees, which are directed toward specific, personal, or group interests. Some of the prominent means of influence in terms of organizational politics are attacking or blaming others, the use of information, impression management and image building, building support for ideas, praising others and ingratiation, setting power coalitions and getting strong allies, associating with influential people, creating obligations, and reciprocity (Allen et al. 1979). Therefore, organizational politics are perceived as self-serving behaviors by employees, which are often times at the expense of others and even sometimes, contrary to the interests of the organization’s management. On the other hand, some employees may gain favor by engaging in political behaviors, such as extra pay, promotion, or rewards (Vigado-Gadot 2007). Nevertheless, employees in general perceive politics in the workplace as an immoral and unethical behavior, because undeserved gains earned through political behaviors damage the fairness of managerial practices, equity, and justice perceptions. By means of politics, employees may achieve some self-interests, advantages, and benefits. Therefore, organizational politics is frequently associated with the manipulative, defamatory, subversive, and illegitimate ways of achieving one’s objectives. That is why the importance of organizational politics lies in its potential detrimental effects on the outcomes of work. Organizational politics occurs generally in decision-making, promotion, and rewarding processes. Furthermore, politics in the workplace damages effectiveness and performance, both on individual and organizational levels (Vigoda 2001). Therefore, employees perceive politics in the workplace negatively. In this context, employees may tend to behave politically, when there is a certain amount of ambiguity in the workplace, due to lack of leadership processes. Similarly, when employees perceive politics among colleagues, they react to it, either by quitting their job and leaving the organization, ignoring the political behavior and immersing themselves in their work, or by becoming a part of the political games (Ferris and Kacmar 1992). Likewise, according to Ferris et al. (1989) and Kacmar et al. (1999), if employees perceive politics in the workplace and they cannot deal with it or manage it, they comprehend and categorize organizational politics as a threat to their well-being, tranquility, and dignity, which cause specific negative outcomes such as low performance, morale and productivity, ineffectiveness, and resignations. The findings of Parker et al. (1995) support this way

Ethics lead the way despite organizational politics

of thinking when they discovered that employees’ perceptions of organizational politics reduced their perceptions of innovation in the working environment. Cropanzano et al. (1997) explained why employees’ perceptions of organizational politics strengthened their feelings about psychological withdrawal and turnover intentions. Moreover, Kacmar et al. (1999), Huang et al. (2003), Miller et al. (2008), Chang et al. (2009), Daskin and Tezer (2012), Atinga et al. (2014), and Basar and Basim (2016) also discovered a significant positive relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and intention to quit, which helps in explaining why employees perceive organizational politics negatively. So far, we have understood that employees in general perceive politics in their workplace as a threat to their overall status and disfavor it, although some employees can gain favor by engaging in it. However, ethical leaders may prevent politics engaged in by employees in the workplace to some extent, by imposing and praising ethical values and virtues such as honesty, reliability, diligence, perseverance, and assistance, through role modeling. Yet, even ethical leaders cannot prevent the political behaviors of employees completely, because people always want and tend to earn more. In this regards, social exchange theory (Bandura 1977, 1986) may help construct a framework for explaining associations between ethical leadership and organizational politics. As will be remembered, due to reciprocity principle in social exchange theory (Blau 1964), when employees perceive fair and good treatment from their leader, they feel pressured to reciprocate with extra role and prosocial behaviors, such as commitment, identification, loyalty, and organizational citizenship, and do not tend to engage in counter productive work behaviors, such as work neglect, organizational politics, absenteeism, or tardiness in exchange for ethical conduct of their leaders (Brown and Mitchell 2010). Employees mainly perceive politics as a threat to their well-being, because some employees who engage in political games can gain some benefits unfairly and deter others from competition and disqualify them depending on their power in the organization (Van Knippenberg and Van Schie 2000; Miller et al. 2000). In this regard, because ethical leaders give prominence to moral values and fairness, successes and some benefits gained through political games by some employees may not be welcomed by them. Therefore, ethical leaders may disfavor employees who engage in organizational politics due to the reciprocity principle of social exchange theory (Bandura 1977, 1986), such that ethical leaders would expect fair competition among their followers in exchange for their ethical stance. Thus, a negative association between organizational politics and ethical leadership may be anticipated. Likewise, the findings of Kacmar et al. (2011) indicated negative relationships between ethical leadership and the perceptions of organizational politics, along with the moderating effect of organizational politics, between ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors. Vigado-Gadot (2007) found a negative impact of transformational leadership, which covered ethical aspects, on the perceptions of organizational politics. Kacmar et al. (2013) also discovered a strong negative impact of ethical leadership on employees’ perceptions of organizational politics. In the light of those findings, the existence of negative associations between organizational politics and ethical leadership may be inferred. When employees perceive politics in their workplace, their beliefs about the organization’s values and organization’s mission may reduce, because even if employees who strongly identify themselves with the organization try to struggle with

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organizational politics by voicing, helping, whistle blowing, or working faithfully, in the absence of leaders who believe in ethical virtues, moral values, set ethical standards, and praise employees who follow them, the strength of their organizational identification may reduce also. Unfortunately, despite our comprehensive searches in academic databases, we could not find any empirical study that was conducted on the relationships between the perceptions of organizational politics and organizational identification, which would guide our argument here. However, we discovered some empirical findings on the relationship between the perceptions of organizational politics and organizational commitment, which helped to give a general idea about the relationship between the perceptions of organizational politics and organizational identification, depending on the proximity of both constructs, namely, organizational identification and organizational commitment. In this manner, Miller et al. (2008) found significant negative relationships between the perceptions of organizational politics and organizational commitment, as a result of their meta-analysis. Similarly, the findings of Chang et al.’s (2009) meta-analysis indicate significant negative relationships between effective organizational commitment and the perceptions of organizational politics. In addition, Indartono and Chen (2011) found significant negative relationships between organizational commitment and the perceptions of organizational politics. Findings of Kimura’s (2013) research also indicate similar results, which are significant relationships between organizational commitment and perceptions of organizational politics. Likewise, Shrestha and Mishra (2015) found negative significant relationships between organizational commitment and the perceptions of organizational politics. In this context, the existence of negative relationships between organizational identification and perceptions of organizational politics may be inferred. Therefore, in light of the aforementioned research findings about organizational politics, together with our arguments and depending on employees’ negative reactions to politics in workplace, we hypothesize that Hypothesis 2: Perceptions of organizational politics moderate the association between ethical leadership and organizational identification in a way that weakens it.

Method Research design and process In this research, to ensure triangulation, two separate studies were conducted. Research model applied in both study 1 and study 2 is shown in Fig. 1. Each arrow represents the hypotheses and their directions between variables. The position of the perceived organizational politics between ethical leadership and organizational identification indicates its moderating role. In study 1, a cross-sectional research design was used and associations among the research variables were analyzed. In study 2, to eliminate shortcomings of crosssectional design regarding prediction, a time-lagged design was used. A longitudinal design would have fitted to the research model. However, due to the time constraints, a time-lagged design was preferred. Moreover, because both studies (studies 1 and 2)

Ethics lead the way despite organizational politics

Fig. 1 Research model

were conducted in the same organization with a substantial time interval, shortcomings of cross-sectional research design of study 1 might have been eliminated to a minimum degree by comparing findings of both studies. In this way, a longitudinal perspective might have been provided. Below, methodology of each study was explained in detail.

Study 1 Participants In study 1, the convenience sampling technique was used. The universe consisted of 341 employees, who worked at the head office of a private bank in Istanbul, Turkey. Employees reported to the director of the head office. A total of 137 employees constituted the sample. The sample size was determined at 95% confidence level and 5% confidence interval. In terms of demographics, 53 (38.7%) of the respondents were males and 84 (61.3%) of them were females, and 96 (70.1%) of the total respondents were married and 41 (29.9%) of them were single. A high school degree was held by 3 (2.2%); a graduate degree was held by 126 (92%), and a postgraduate degree was held by 8 (5.8%) respondents. Ages of the respondents varied from 24 to 58 years, with an average of 35.94 years (SD = 7.42), and their tenure of office varied from 1 to 27 years, with an average of 9.66 years (SD = 5.91). Data collection instruments Ethical leadership was measured, using the scale developed by Brown et al. (2005), and adapted to Turkish by Tuna et al. (2012). The five-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) consisted of nine items and measured ethical leadership within one dimension. An example of a sample item: BMy director makes fair and balanced decisions.^ Reliability of the scale was assessed, using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of α = 0.95. Validity of the scale was tested using the confirmatory factor analysis (Δχ2 = 26.695, p = 0.085, df = 18, Δχ2/df = 1.483, GFI = 0.963, IFI = 0.994, CFI = 0.994, RMSEA = 0.06), which verified its one-factor structure. Factor loadings of items changed from 0.68 to 0.92. Organizational identification was measured using the scale developed by Mael and Ashforth (1992), and adapted to Turkish, by Tüzün (2006). The five-point Likert-type

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scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) consisted of six items and measured organizational identification within one dimension. An example of a sample item: BWhat others think about my workplace is very important to me.^ Reliability of the scale was assessed, using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of α = 0.94. Validity of the scale was tested using the confirmatory factor analysis (Δχ2 = 3.746, p = 0.587, df = 5, Δχ2/ df = 0.749, GFI = 0.991, IFI = 0.99, CFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.01), which verified its one-factor structure. Factor loadings of items varied from 0.85 to 0.91. Perceptions of organizational politics were measured using the scale developed by Hochwarter et al. (2003), and adapted to Turkish by Akdogan and Demirtas (2014). The five-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) consisted of six items and measured organizational identification within one dimension. An example of a sample item: BThere is a lot of self-serving behavior going on in this workplace.^ Reliability of the scale was assessed, using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of α = 0.74. Validity of the scale was tested, using the confirmatory factor analysis (Δχ2 = 7.574, p = 0.476, df = 8, Δχ2/df = 0.947, GFI = 0.982, IFI = 0.99, CFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.01), which verified its one-factor structure. Factor loadings of items varied from 0.70 to 0.75. Procedure Prior to the beginning of this survey, an appointment was set with the director of the bank’s head office. Then, a meeting was carried out with director on September 7, 2015. During the meeting, the coverage and the purpose of the research were explained to the bank director, and all permissions needed were taken. A week later, a total of 300 questionnaires were manually delivered to the employees, by the first author. Employees participated voluntarily. The questionnaires were collected on the same day. A total of 153 questionnaires were returned back. Among them, 16 questionnaires were eliminated, due to mistakes done by the respondents. Subsequently, data were entered into the SPSS software, and the reliability and validity analyses of each scale were done. After measuring correlations among each variable, each hypothesis was tested through hierarchical regression analyses. Findings of study 1 Descriptive statistics and correlations between research variables are presented in Table 1 below. Results indicated significant relationships between all the research variables, namely, ethical leadership, organizational identification, and perceptions of organizational politics. These results enabled us to conduct moderation analysis in the following step. The hypotheses were tested using the moderation analysis, and the results are presented in Table 2. The moderation analysis was conducted according to Aiken and West’s (1991) technique. According to this technique if the independent variables are quantitative, scores of each independent variable must be centered, before producing the interaction term. The scores are centered to reduce the correlation between the interaction term and the independent variables: ethical leadership and perceptions of organizational politics. In this way, the impact of the each independent variable on dependent variable is distinguishable from the interaction. In this research, we centered

Ethics lead the way despite organizational politics Table 1 Means, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients for study 1 Variables

M

SD

1

2

3

1. Ethical leadership

4.02

0.83

1

2. Organizational identification

4.07

0.88

(0.78**)

1

3. Perceptions of organizational politics

2.38

0.76

(− 0.47**)

(− 0.43**)

1

The values in parenthesis show correlation coefficients **

p < 0.01

the scores through the SPSS software. After computing the centered scores, compute procedure was used to form the interaction term, by multiplying centered scores as such EL × POP. Later on, ethical leadership and perceptions of organizational politics were entered into the regression analysis in the first step. Then, the interaction term (EL × POP) was entered into the analysis together with ethical leadership and perceptions of organizational politics in the second step, as presented in Table 2. Findings indicated a considerable positive impact of ethical leadership on organizational identification (β = 0.747, p < 0.001). Therefore, hypothesis 1 is supported. However, in the second step, when the interaction term (EL × POP) was entered into the analysis, it was discovered that the impact of ethical leadership on organizational identification decreased significantly (β = 0.592, p < 0.001), which was an indication of the moderating role of the perceptions of organizational politics. Therefore, hypothesis 2 is supported also. A significant impact of interaction term on organizational identification (β = 0.225, p < 0.01) stands for the moderating role of perceptions of organizational politics as well. How moderation happened can be seen in Fig. 2. That is, when the impact of the interaction term is low, employees tend to identify themselves with the organization more than when the impact of interaction term is high, which can be inferred as a consequence of the perceptions of organizational politics. In other words, employees who did not perceive organizational politics perceive more ethical leadership. Thus, they identify themselves with the organization more strongly. Table 2 Moderation analysis for study 1 Organizational identification β Step 1

Step 2

Ethical leadership (EL)

0.747***

0.592***

Perceptions of organizational politics (POP)

− 0.074

− 0.118 0.225**

EL × POP 107.477***

81.241***

Adjusted R

0.610

0.647

ΔR2

–

0.037

F 2

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001

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Study 2 Participants The universe consisted of 332 employees, who worked at the head office of the same bank as in study 1. The decrease in universe size in comparison to study 1 occurred due to the changes in the total number of employees who work at the head office in 2 years. Sampling technique of study 2 is the same as study 1. However, this time a total of 119 employees constituted the sample. The sample size was determined at 95% confidence level and 5% confidence interval. In terms of demographics, 61 (51.3%) of the respondents were males and 58 (48.7%) of them were females, and 71 (59.7%) of the total respondents were married and 48 (40.3%) of them were single. A graduate degree was held by 100 (84%), and a postgraduate degree was held by 19 (16%) respondents. Ages of the respondents varied from 24 to 48 years, with an average of 34.64 years (SD = 4.45), and their tenure of office varied from 1 to 28 years, with an average of 8.59 years (SD = 4.88). Procedure Prior to the beginning of study 2, an appointment was set with the director of the bank’s head office who was the same person as study 1. Then, a meeting was carried out with the director on April 4, 2017. During the meeting, the coverage and the purpose of the research were explained to the bank director again, and all permissions needed were

Fig. 2 Study 1 moderation effect

Ethics lead the way despite organizational politics

taken. As distinct from study 1, to improve validity of findings and ensure triangulation, a time-lagged research design was applied in study 2. Thus, time lags were determined as 1 week between each phase. Participants were allowed for 2 days to complete surveys at each phase. Same data collection instruments as study 1 were used in study 2 too. Reliability of the ethical leadership scale was assessed, using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of α = 0.95. Validity of the scale was tested using the confirmatory factor analysis (Δχ2 = 18.945, p = 0.460, df = 19, Δχ2/df = 0.997, GFI = 0.967, IFI = 0.998, CFI = 0.998, RMSEA = 0.001), which verified its one-factor structure. Factor loadings of items changed from 0.69 to 0.90. Reliability of the organizational identification scale was assessed, using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of α = 0.91. Validity of the scale was tested using the confirmatory factor analysis (Δχ2 = 9.768, p = 0.135, df = 6, Δχ2/df = 1.628, GFI = 0.974, IFI = 0.993, CFI = 0.992, RMSEA = 0.073), which verified its one-factor structure. Factor loadings of items varied from 0.80 to 0.92. Reliability of the perceptions of organizational politics scale was assessed, using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of α = 0.94. Validity of the scale was tested, using the confirmatory factor analysis (Δχ2 = 1.087, p = 0.982, df = 6, Δχ2/df = 0.181, GFI = 0.997, IFI = 0.999, CFI = 0.999, RMSEA = 0.001), which verified its onefactor structure. Factor loadings of items varied from 0.87 to 0.90. Questionnaires consisting only ethical leadership scale were delivered to all employees through managerial network of the organization electronically at time 1, on April 7, 2017. However, a total of 257 employees responded. At time 2, on April 14, 2017, questionnaires consisting only organizational identification scale were delivered electronically to the employees who responded at time 1. This time, a total of 196 employees responded. Finally, at time 3, on April 21, 2017, questionnaires consisting of only perceptions of organizational politics scale were delivered to the employees who responded at time 2 and a total of 141 of them returned back. Responses returned from those 141 employees were taken into consideration. However, 22 questionnaires were eliminated, due to some mistakes done by the respondents. Finally, a total of 119 questionnaires consisting each of three scales, namely, ethical leadership, organizational identification, and perceptions of organizational politics, from employees who responded at each phase were entered into the further analyses. Employees participated voluntarily at each phase. Subsequently, data were entered into the SPSS software, and the reliability and validity analyses of each scale were done. After measuring correlations among each variable, hypotheses were tested through hierarchical regression analyses. Findings of study 2 Descriptive statistics and correlations between research variables are presented in Table 3 below. Results indicated significant relationships between all the research variables, namely, ethical leadership, organizational identification, and perceptions of organizational politics. These results enabled us to conduct moderation analysis in the following step. The hypotheses were tested using the moderation analysis, and the results are presented in Table 4. The moderation analysis was conducted according to Aiken and West’s (1991) technique as same as study 1.

U. Başar et al. Table 3 Means, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients for study 2 Variables

M

SD

1

2

3

1. Ethical leadership

3.86

0.79

1

2. Organizational identification

3.81

0.82

(0.75**)

1

3. Perceptions of organizational politics

2.22

0.86

(− 0.66**)

(− 0.60**)

1

The values in parenthesis show correlation coefficients **p < 0.01

Findings cohered with study 1. That is, a positive impact of ethical leadership on organizational identification (β = 0.645, p < 0.001) was found again, and when the interaction term (EL × POP) was entered into the analysis, it was discovered that the impact of ethical leadership on organizational identification weakened significantly (β = 0.445, p < 0.001). This indicated the moderating role of the perceptions of organizational politics. Therefore, hypotheses 1 and 2 are supported once again. Moreover, significant impact of interaction term on organizational identification (β = 0.281, p < 0.01) confirmed the moderating role of perceptions of organizational politics. Figure 3 shows how moderation occurred. That is, when employees perceive low level of organizational politics, they tend to identify themselves with the organization more than when they perceive high level of organizational politics. Additionally, employees, who did not perceive organizational politics or perceive low level of organizational politics, perceive ethical leadership at a greater extent. Thus, they identify themselves with the organization more strongly.

Discussion Findings of both studies indicated that in this organization, the participants perceived that their director conducts ethically (M = 4.02, SD = 0.83 for study 1 and M = 3.86, SD = 0.79 for study 2), and they were considerably identified with the organization (M = 4.07, SD = 0.88 for study 1 and M = 3.81, SD = 0.82 for study 2). In addition, Table 4 Moderation analysis for study 2 Organizational identification β Step 1

Step 2

Ethical leadership (EL)

0.645***

0.445***

Perceptions of organizational politics (POP)

− 0.17

− 0.197*

*

0.281***

EL × POP ***

84.078

67.277***

Adjusted R

0.585

0.628

ΔR2

–

0.043

F 2

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001

Ethics lead the way despite organizational politics

Fig. 3 Study 2 moderation effect

they slightly perceived politics in their workplace (M = 2.38, SD = 0.76 for study 1 and M = 2.22, SD = 0.86 for study 2), because the ascending mean values represent the strength of each variable. Besides, the positive and strong relationship between ethical leadership and organizational identification, as well as the negative and moderate associations between the perceptions of organizational politics, organizational identification, and ethical leadership, supported the rationale behind the development of hypotheses and allowed us to conduct moderation analyses. Findings of the moderation analyses indicated considerable positive impact of ethical leadership on organizational identification. This finding coheres with Walumbwa et al. (2011) and Qi and Ming-Xia’s (2014) findings. That is, the more leaders conduct affairs ethically, the more employees tend to identify themselves with the organization. It can be inferred that employees considerably heed to their manager’s behaviors, discourses, and normatively ethical conduct. Moreover, employees most likely perceive their leaders as a role model in every sense. Therefore, inevitably, ethical leaders become the center of morality by managing fairly, treating employees attentively, taking decisions reasonably, rewarding justly, setting ethical standards, and disfavoring the ones who engage in unethical behaviors. That is why, in the course of time, employees trust their leaders. This way, employees may be proud of being a part of the organization and feel special. Therefore, employees’ ties with the organization get stronger day by day, and they tend to identify themselves more with the organization. Likewise, remarkable coherence between findings of two studies supports this argument. At the same time, those findings account for Ellemers et al.’s (2004) ideas about the influence of leadership on organizational identification, empirically.

U. Başar et al.

Moreover, findings can be interpreted as an exposition of the power of normative values, which incite employees to form their identities, by internalizing organizational characteristics and values. However, when the interaction term (EL × POP) was entered into the analyses in the second step of both studies, the impact of ethical leadership on organizational identification decreased considerably. In this circumstance, a significant decline in the effect size of ethical leadership on organizational identification indicated the moderating role of the perceptions of organizational politics. To the best of our knowledge, this is a new finding. This can be interpreted as when employees slightly perceive politics in their workplace, they tend to identify with the organization more than when they strongly perceive politics in their workplace, because as argued before, politics in the workplace are generally perceived by employees as a threat to their well-being. In other words, political behaviors and discourses in the workplace harm the ethical climate. On the other hand, employees who did not perceive organizational politics or who perceive low level of organizational politics and who do not tend to engage in political games may believe in their leader and his/her values more faithfully. In this way, they may establish stronger ties with the organization and identify more strongly. However, politics in the workplace cannot be prevented completely due to the individual desires of employees. That is, although employees believe in their ethical leaders and perceive managerial practices as fair and moral, the existence of political behaviors or discourses may cause discontent. Even if the ethical leaders disfavor unethical behaviors and discourses, they cannot completely prevent politics in the workplace, because people have endless desires waiting to be satisfied. In this context, engaging in politics may be an easy way of fulfilling those desires and eliminating other competitors. Therefore, the importance of finding the moderating effect of the perceptions of organizational politics on the impact of ethical leadership on employees’ organizational identification can be evaluated by its important outcomes. Politics in workplaces might be a phenomenon, which cannot be eliminated, but may be controlled, because according to our findings, employees who work under the command of ethical leaders strongly identify themselves with the organization, despite organizational politics. However, organizational politics engaged in by some employees weakens the ethical leaders’ impact on the organizational identification, considerably. That is why, organizational politics may affect other positive employee behaviors or attitudes negatively too, as it happened in this research, such as job satisfaction, organizational trust, organizational justice perceptions, organizational citizenship behaviors, voice behavior, or employee loyalty, even if organization is managed by the ethical leaders. In this context, we believe that the discovery of the moderating effect of the perceptions of organizational politics on ethical leadership’s positive impact on organizational identification may have opened a window for new researches. Moreover, the unexplored consequences of the perceptions of organizational politics in managerial practices may have generated a gap in the field of management. This gap can be identified by unexpected resignations, negligence, or the counterproductive behaviors of employees, due to politics in the workplace. To the best of our knowledge, the moderating role of the perceptions of organizational politics in the association between ethical leadership and organizational identification is a new finding, which draws on studies, such as Kacmar et al. (2013), Miao et al. (2013), Hassan et al. (2014), and Bedi et al. (2015). Therefore, we believe that adding this finding to the literature on

Ethics lead the way despite organizational politics

organizational studies may fill this gap to some extent and inspire researchers to conduct new surveys. That is, our findings may open new avenues for researchers, by emphasizing that employees in general perceive organizational politics negatively. Besides, leadership theories may be interpreted in terms of the moderating effect of organizational politics engaged in by employees on leadership practices. In other words, the moral aspect of leadership and its beneficial outcomes for organizations can be emphasized. For example, the associations between other leadership types and the perceptions of organizational politics can be analyzed in the future. We assume that the relationship between toxic leadership and the perceptions of organizational politics would be different from the relationship between paternalistic leadership and the perceptions of organizational politics. Furthermore, the moderating role of the perceptions of organizational politics may vary among the impacts of different leadership types on employees’ attitudes and behaviors, such that the moderating role of the perceptions of organizational politics in the association between toxic leadership and psychological contract breach may be different from the association between ethical leadership and job satisfaction. After all, researchers may test the hypotheses of this study with different participants other than bank employees. Moreover, they can conduct the same survey in different cultures. In this way, the results can be compared, and our arguments can be tested. Besides, the mediating or moderating role of the perceptions of organizational politics among or over other variables may be explored in the future. For instance, the moderating role of the perceptions of organizational politics in the association between employees’ organizational justice perceptions and organizational identification or the mediating role of the perceptions of organizational politics between psychological contract breach and the intention to quit can be analyzed. Thus, new research models can be developed. Furthermore, the managerial staff of organizations can take precautions against politics in workplaces, due to its negative impacts on employees’ attitudes and behaviors, by giving attention to the findings of this study. That is, managers can try to create a working atmosphere, in which employees strongly identify themselves with the organization, through implementing the principles of ethical leadership, because according to our findings, ethical leadership positively impacts organizational identification. In other words, if managers of organizations lead ethically, they can stimulate employees to identify with the organization and prevent politics in organizations, to some extent. Therefore, managers should internalize and carry out the aforementioned principles of ethical leadership throughout their private and professional lives. By this means, they may encourage employees not to engage in politics, because when employees, who engaged in politics, are disfavored by the managers, ethical standards would be in the eye and employees would tend to work more ethically. In the course of time, as employees work ethically and are rewarded fairly due to their moral aptitudes and admirable works, their ties with the organization would get stronger and they would feel one with the organization through internalizing values and characteristics of the organization with their self-concepts. If managers have employees who strongly identify with the organization a good many of obstacles and crises can be overcome more easily, because such employees can confront problems without complaints and strive for the well-being of the organization.

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However, despite its contributions, this research has several limitations as well. First, we used only questionnaires as a means of data collection. However, we could have used other data collection techniques in addition to the questionnaires, in order for participants to express their opinions, more comprehensively. That is, if we had conducted interviews too, participants would have shared their sincere feelings about politics in the workplace, which would have enhanced our findings. Second, we collected data from only one organization. However, we could have collected data from another organization also and compared the results of each data analysis. In this way, we could have generalized our findings and increased their validity. Yet, the lack of opportunities due to constraints, such as time and fund, forced us to collect data only from one organization. Nevertheless, we believe that conducting a second survey on the same organization according to a time-lagged design would improve the validity of the research and triangulate the findings of the first study. By this means, shortcomings of cross-sectional design, according to which the first study was conducted, might have been eliminated to a greater extent. Finally, we conducted our research on a relatively small universe. A larger universe and sample sizes would have been more advantageous, in terms of increasing the generalization of the findings.

Conclusion The aim of this research was to find out whether ethical leadership had a positive impact on employees’ organizational identification, along with the moderating effect of the perceptions of organizational politics on this process. According to findings, ethical leadership is one of the significant positive antecedents of the employees’ organizational identification. On the other hand, the perceptions of organizational politics moderate this process by reducing the effect size of ethical leadership on organizational identification. Therefore, the results can be interpreted as Bthe more leaders conduct affairs ethically, the more employees identify themselves with the organization, despite politics in the workplace.^ However, the perceptions of politics in the workplace reduce the strength of the influence that the ethical leaders have over their followers. Being distinct from other studies, in this study, the moderating effect of the perceptions of organizational politics on the impact of ethical leadership on the employees’ organizational identification was uncovered. The value of this study arose from its previously unstudied research model, which presented the moderating effect of the perceptions of organizational politics on the impact of ethical leadership on the organizational identification, as well as its theoretical and practical implications for future researches. As mentioned earlier, if politics in the workplace continues, it disturbs employees and causes them to lose their beliefs in the morality and fairness of the managerial practices. From this point of view, we believe that the unexplored consequences of the perceptions of organizational politics on managerial practices generate a gap in the literature. Therefore, we believe that the findings of this study filled this gap to some extent and shed more light for the future studies by attracting attention on the moderating role of the perceptions of organizational politics over leadership practices and its negative effects on positive employee attitudes along with behaviors, which may later on have both positive and negative outcomes, in terms of both organizational and individual effectiveness.

Ethics lead the way despite organizational politics

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