Ethical leadership and follower performance above and beyond the full-range leadership model and authentic leadership

Although ethical leadership has been known to have beneficial effects on followers work outcomes, to date the cumulative evidence on ethical leadership has been largely collected from Western contexts. In addition, scholarly efforts geared toward identifying the psychological processes influencing the relationship between ethical leadership and followers work outcomes remain scant. Drawing on the group-value model of social identity theory and ethical leadership theory, our two studies examine the mediating effects of affective and normative commitment on the relationships among ethical leadership, job performance, and turnover intentions. We also examine the unique effects of ethical leadership that goes above and beyond other closely related styles of leadership to explicate the incremental validity of ethical leadership. Using two separate samples collected in South Korea, our findings suggest that both affective and normative commitment mediate the relationships among ethical leadership, follower performance, and turnover intentions, even after controlling for the full-range leadership model and authentic leadership.