To read this content please select one of the options below:

Ethical leadership and job insecurity: Exploring interrelationships in the Egyptian public sector

Hisham Hamid Hawass (The Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Commerce, Damietta University, New Damietta, Egypt)

International Journal of Commerce and Management

ISSN: 1056-9219

Article publication date: 2 November 2015

1699

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the relationship between ethical leadership and the employee’s perception of job insecurity in the Egyptian public sector. It also investigates the mediating effect of work locus of control on the hypothesized relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a questionnaire that consists of measures adopted from existing and tested scales. The hypothesized model has been tested using multiple regression analysis.

Findings

The findings reveal that the character of ethical leadership significantly reduces the employee’s perception of threats to job features and the powerlessness to counteract threats. However, the empowerment dimension of ethical leadership has adverse effects in the employee’s perception of powerlessness.

Practical implications

The adverse effects of the empowerment behavior dimension of ethical leadership may be attributed to East–West differences in the conceptualization of empowerment. The Arab style of management promotes the Islamic principle of Shura, which may slightly deviate from that of empowerment.

Originality/value

This study extends job insecurity research in the often untapped Egyptian culture and provides new insights into the perceived role of leadership character and empowerment in a non-western context.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank three anonymous reviewers and Professor Hamid Hawass of the Faculty of Arts in Damietta University for their constructive insights in an early draft of the paper.

Citation

Hawass, H.H. (2015), "Ethical leadership and job insecurity: Exploring interrelationships in the Egyptian public sector", International Journal of Commerce and Management, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 557-581. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCoMA-02-2013-0015

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles