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Antecedents of Duty Orientation and Follower Work Behavior: The Interactive Effects of Perceived Organizational Support and Ethical Leadership

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Abstract

Drawing on social exchange theory, the present study seeks to understand how ethical leaders channel followers’ responses to positive treatment from the organization into a dutiful mindset, resulting in in-role and extra-role performance. Specifically, it examines the influence of perceived organizational support on both followers’ job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors, and the mediating effects of duty orientation on such relationships. In addition, it examines whether the mediated effects are contingent on the ethical leadership exhibited by the team leader. Based on multi-source, multi-level data obtained from 233 employees in 60 teams from the Chinese public sector, we found that ethical leadership moderated the mediated relationship between perceived organizational support and follower work behaviors through duty orientation, such that this relationship was stronger in the presence of higher ethical leadership.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71672174 & R17G020002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash Business School, Monash University, Caulfield, Australia

    Nathan Eva, Dan Wang & Brian Cooper

  2. Deakin Business School, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

    Alexander Newman

  3. Center of Social Welfare & Governance, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Qing Miao

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  1. Nathan Eva
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  2. Alexander Newman
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  3. Qing Miao
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  4. Dan Wang
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Correspondence to Qing Miao.

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Eva, N., Newman, A., Miao, Q. et al. Antecedents of Duty Orientation and Follower Work Behavior: The Interactive Effects of Perceived Organizational Support and Ethical Leadership. J Bus Ethics 161, 627–639 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3948-5

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