Author

Pok Man TANG

Date of Award

2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Philosophy (MPHIL)

Department

Management

First Advisor

Prof. CHEN Tingting

Second Advisor

Prof. WONG Shiu Ho, Alfred

Abstract

This research paper seeks to draw on social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) as an overarching framework to examine how unit managers’ ethical leadership style affects the team and individual prosocial voice behaviors in the context of social enterprises in Hong Kong.

Ethical leadership has been found to be conducive to both desirable team and individual employee behaviors. However, scholarly understanding of the multi-level effects of ethical leadership and the underlying mechanisms involved is rather limited. Moreover, previous research has directed attention almost exclusively to the influence of ethical leadership in the context of commercial organizations. This narrow stance has curiously left open the question of whether ethical leadership can profoundly and uniquely induce prosocial and desirable outcomes among employees in typical hybrid organizations, such as social enterprises.

first conducted 20 semi-structured interviews among employees, unit mangers, and senior executives from 29 social enterprises in Hong Kong to obtain the field illustrations of ethical leadership. Then, I proceeded to collect multi-level, multi-wave, and multi-sources data from employees, unit mangers, and senior executives (i.e., three sources) of 59 teams from the participating social enterprises across three points of times.

Findings of both the qualitative and quantitative study confirmed the positive role of ethical leadership in social enterprises. More specifically, this study demonstrated that ethical leadership is vital for encouraging the team and individual to voice out their concerns and opinions through different motivational mechanisms. Team initiative climate mediated the relationships between team ethical leadership and both team and individual prosocial voice; individual prosocial motivation mediated the relationships between team ethical leadership and individual prosocial voice; team initiative climate mediated the relationships between team ethical leadership and individual prosocial motivation; and finally, individual prosocial motivation mediated the relationships between team initiative climate and individual prosocial voice. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Recommended Citation

Tang, P. M. (2016). Ethical leadership in social enterprises: Multilevel investigation of its influence on team and individual prosocial voice (Master's thesis, Lingnan University, Hong Kong). Retrieved from http://commons.ln.edu.hk/mgt_etd/27

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