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Ethical Leadership as the Reliever of Frontline Service Employees' Emotional Exhaustion: A Moderated Mediation Model.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 02 04; 17(3)IJ

Abstract

Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study aims to create new knowledge on the antecedents of emotional exhaustion. We explore the internal mechanism and boundary conditions of the impact of ethical leadership on emotional exhaustion, using data gathered from 460 frontline service employees at an airport in China. Employees completed questionnaires regarding ethical leadership, emotional exhaustion, organizational embeddedness, job satisfaction, and demographic variables. After controlling for the effects of demographic variables and company tenure, ethical leadership was found to have a negative impact on emotional exhaustion (= -0.128, p < 0.01), and to be positively related to organizational embeddedness (= 0.518, p < 0.01). After adding in the mediating variable (organizational embeddedness), the effect of ethical leadership on emotional exhaustion was no longer significant (= 0.012, ns), while organizational embeddedness emerged as significantly related to emotional exhaustion (= -0.269, p < 0.01), implying that the effect of ethical leadership on emotional exhaustion was completely mediated by organizational embeddedness. Simultaneously, the results suggested that job satisfaction could strengthen the mediating effect of organizational embeddedness on emotional exhaustion (the difference in the mediating effect between the groups with respective high and low job satisfaction was -0.096, p < 0.05). This study proposed and validated a moderated mediation model, the implications of which are that ethical leadership is an effective way to alleviate frontline service employees' emotional exhaustion.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Zhou H
Business School, Sichuan University, 29 Wangjiang Road, Chengdu 610064, China.
Sheng X
Business School, Sichuan University, 29 Wangjiang Road, Chengdu 610064, China.
He Y
Business School, Sichuan University, 29 Wangjiang Road, Chengdu 610064, China.
Qian X
Business School, Sichuan University, 29 Wangjiang Road, Chengdu 610064, China.

MeSH

AdultChinaEmotionsFemaleHumansJob SatisfactionLeadershipMaleModels, PsychologicalMoralsOccupational StressSurveys and Questionnaires

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

32033237

Citation

Zhou, Hao, et al. "Ethical Leadership as the Reliever of Frontline Service Employees' Emotional Exhaustion: a Moderated Mediation Model." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 17, no. 3, 2020.
Zhou H, Sheng X, He Y, et al. Ethical Leadership as the Reliever of Frontline Service Employees' Emotional Exhaustion: A Moderated Mediation Model. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(3).
Zhou, H., Sheng, X., He, Y., & Qian, X. (2020). Ethical Leadership as the Reliever of Frontline Service Employees' Emotional Exhaustion: A Moderated Mediation Model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030976
Zhou H, et al. Ethical Leadership as the Reliever of Frontline Service Employees' Emotional Exhaustion: a Moderated Mediation Model. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 02 4;17(3) PubMed PMID: 32033237.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Ethical Leadership as the Reliever of Frontline Service Employees' Emotional Exhaustion: A Moderated Mediation Model. AU - Zhou,Hao, AU - Sheng,Xinyi, AU - He,Yulin, AU - Qian,Xiaoye, Y1 - 2020/02/04/ PY - 2019/12/03/received PY - 2020/01/24/revised PY - 2020/01/31/accepted PY - 2020/2/9/entrez PY - 2020/2/9/pubmed PY - 2020/7/10/medline KW - conservation of resources theory KW - emotional exhaustion KW - ethical leadership KW - job satisfaction KW - organizational embeddedness JF - International journal of environmental research and public health JO - Int J Environ Res Public Health VL - 17 IS - 3 N2 - Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study aims to create new knowledge on the antecedents of emotional exhaustion. We explore the internal mechanism and boundary conditions of the impact of ethical leadership on emotional exhaustion, using data gathered from 460 frontline service employees at an airport in China. Employees completed questionnaires regarding ethical leadership, emotional exhaustion, organizational embeddedness, job satisfaction, and demographic variables. After controlling for the effects of demographic variables and company tenure, ethical leadership was found to have a negative impact on emotional exhaustion (= -0.128, p < 0.01), and to be positively related to organizational embeddedness (= 0.518, p < 0.01). After adding in the mediating variable (organizational embeddedness), the effect of ethical leadership on emotional exhaustion was no longer significant (= 0.012, ns), while organizational embeddedness emerged as significantly related to emotional exhaustion (= -0.269, p < 0.01), implying that the effect of ethical leadership on emotional exhaustion was completely mediated by organizational embeddedness. Simultaneously, the results suggested that job satisfaction could strengthen the mediating effect of organizational embeddedness on emotional exhaustion (the difference in the mediating effect between the groups with respective high and low job satisfaction was -0.096, p < 0.05). This study proposed and validated a moderated mediation model, the implications of which are that ethical leadership is an effective way to alleviate frontline service employees' emotional exhaustion. SN - 1660-4601 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/32033237/Ethical_Leadership_as_the_Reliever_of_Frontline_Service_Employees'_Emotional_Exhaustion:_A_Moderated_Mediation_Model_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -