Ethical Leadership and Followers’ Performance: The Mediation of Relational Identification

Abstract

This study investigated relational identification as a mediator in the relationship between ethical leadership and followers’ performance. Followers’ performance in the current study has been operationalized as the individual’s ability to be innovative, self -directed, and take personal initiatives. Various dimensions of employees’ performance have largely been studied but these aspects of individuals’ performance have rarely been explored except a few studies. The sample of this study consisted of employees working in various departments of State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan. Three hundred and fifty-two (352) properly filled responses were included in this study. Structural equation modeling techniques were applied for mediation analysis. The results showed that ethical leadership has a significant main and indirect effect on followers’ performance. The indirect effects were stronger than direct effects which shows the invaluable contribution of the mediator. Ethical leaders developed a sense of relational identification with their followers and in turn followers’ relational identification with their leaders showed improved performance in the workplace, showing that relational identification integrates like a bridge to the aforementioned relationship. The organizations should provide the environment to followers of ethical leaders in which dyads are likely to develop interpersonal relationships with each other and such bonding will ultimately lead to high performance of followers.