Frequent Change and Turnover Intention: The Moderating Role of Ethical Leadership

Mayowa T. Babalola, Jeroen Stouten, Martin Euwema

Journal of Business Ethics · 2016 · Volume 134 · Issue 2

Abstract

In a multi-source study, we examine how frequent change interacts with ethical leadership to reduce turnover intentions. We argue that ethical leaders enhance employees’ state self-esteem, which explains the moderating effect of ethical leadership. Results from 124 employee-coworker-supervisor triads revealed that ethical leadership moderated the relationship between frequent change and turnover intention such that the relationship was positive only when ethical leadership was low. The moderating relationship could be shown to be mediated by employees’ state self-esteem.

Keywords

Ethical leadership, Frequent change, State self-esteem, Turnover intention

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