The impact of ethical leadership on project success: the mediating role of trust and knowledge sharing

Abstract

PurposeAlthough the use of project teams is on the rise, there is a limited understanding of how project managers can ensure project team success. Research to date is relatively broad and does not pinpoint how and why leadership influences success in a project team context. Along these lines, we draw from social learning theory to illustrate that ethical leadership influences project success through leader trust and knowledge sharing.Design/methodology/approachWe collected data from 175 project team members from the information technology and software industry to evaluate our hypotheses. The results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsOur findings support our hypotheses, illustrating that ethical leadership is related to leader trust and knowledge sharing, and that leader trust and knowledge sharing mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and project success.Research limitations/implicationsOur work illustrates that the behaviors inherent in ethical leadership may be particularly well-suited for these project team challenges. Ethical leaders help team members understand that project success is possible when team members are transparent with one another, discussing their goals and challenges, and then working together to ensure their actions are coordinated in a way that increases the success of the overall project.Practical implicationsFor those in industries or organizations where project teams are commonly used, our study may help to attract, select, and retain project managers that exhibit ethical leadership tendencies. Project managers are likely to be attracted to settings that align with their leadership style. Thus, organizations could focus on developing a culture that focuses on process over results.Originality/valueWe sought to align with the contingency approach to leadership, which suggests that the ideal leadership style depends on the followers, and the context in which the leader and followers interact. Specifically, we investigate ethical leadership as an ideal approach for project managers influencing members of their project teams. Our study demonstrates how ethical leadership is an ideal, context-specific approach that project managers can apply to increase the chances of project success.

Effect of Chief Executive Officer’s Sustainable Leadership Styles on Organization Members’ Psychological Well-Being and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

“…In addition, many studies have been conducted on various types of leadership linked to organizational effectiveness levels such as job satisfaction, organizational immersion, and organizational citizenship behaviors of organization members [40,77,78]. In particular, according to the contingency approach, the effectiveness of leadership in making high collective achievements depends on the styles (e.g., servant, ethical, authentic leadership) by which leaders control the situation of organization members and positively influence various factors (e.g., human respect, potential, ethics) [82][83][84]. All things considered, the contingency approach of leadership was utilized and applied as a foundational theory in the path of sustainable leadership → organizational citizenship behavior in this study.…”

Linking Ethical Leadership to Followers’ Knowledge Sharing: Mediating Role of Psychological Ownership and Moderating Role of Professional Commitment

“…EL effects on employee’s knowledge sharing behavior was studied from a social perspective ( Ganguly et al, 2019 ), personal characteristics ( Kim and Shim, 2018 ), and cultural influences ( Liu et al, 2018 ). Ethical leadership has significant relationship with knowledge sharing ( Bhatti et al, 2021 ). Most studies have demonstrated that leadership significantly motivates individuals to share their knowledge with colleagues, regardless of the organizational setting ( Ali et al, 2021 ).…”

Ethical Leadership and Knowledge Sharing: The Effects of Positive Reciprocity and Moral Efficacy

“…Given the ethical nature of knowledge sharing and the significance of organization leadership styles, more and more recent studies have demonstrated that ethical leadership is the most appropriate leadership approach to encourage employees to engage in knowledge sharing (Bavik, et al, 2017; Bhatti et al, 2020; Bhatti et al, 2021; Lu et al, 2019). It has been found in many previous studies that ethical leadership negatively associated with knowledge hiding and a lot of valuable management practices have been explored to discourage employees to hide knowledge (Abdullah et al, 2019; Men et al, 2020; Tang et al, 2015).…”