The Nexus Between Ethical Leadership and Employees' Perception of Workplace Safety During COVID-19 Under Mediation and Moderation Model

Jianmin Sun; Muddassar Sarfraz; Muhammad Asghar

doi:10.2147/RMHP.S426295

The Nexus Between Ethical Leadership and Employees' Perception of Workplace Safety During COVID-19 Under Mediation and Moderation Model

Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2023 Sep 12:16:1815-1837. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S426295. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jianmin Sun¹, Muddassar Sarfraz², Muhammad Asghar³

Affiliations

¹ School of Management, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
² School of Management, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou, 310015, People's Republic of China.
³ Business School, Hunan University, Changsha, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Background: Workplace safety is a crucial aspect of employee well-being and organizational success, with ethical leadership playing a key role in shaping employees' perceptions of safety. Today, the underlying mechanisms through which ethical leadership influences workplace safety perception remain underexplored, especially in the Pakistan healthcare industry. Based on the social cognitive theory, this study aims to investigate the relationship between ethical leadership and workplace safety perception and examine the mediating role of media quality, communication climate, and supervisory communication and the moderating role of moral attentiveness.

Methods: An empirical survey method was used to conduct the quantitative study, with respondents representing nursing staff from hospitals in Pakistan. Data was collected using an online questionnaire during COVID-19, and Smart PLS was used to analyze the data.

Results: The study demonstrated that ethical leadership positively and significantly affects workplace safety perception. Media quality, communication climate, and supervisory communication mediate between ethical leadership and workplace safety perception. Moral attentiveness moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and workplace safety perception.

Conclusion: Ethical leadership is an essential tool that improves media quality, communication climate, supervisory communication, and moral attentiveness. The article presents a novel approach to examining the relationship between ethical leadership and workers' safety perceptions under the influence of mediating and moderating variables. By better understanding these dynamics, the study contributes to developing organizational strategies to improve workplace safety and overall employee well-being. In addition, it is a pioneering study exploring ethical leadership's role in influencing workers' perceptions of safety. Overall, the study is a great initiative that fosters the ethical concepts of individuals, thus achieving health protection and safety.

Keywords: COVID-19; communication climate; ethical leadership; healthcare policy; nurses; supervisory communication; workplace safety.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No: 71974102) and the Philosophy; Social Science Fund of Tianjin City, China (Grant No: TJYJ20-012).