Enhancing employee wellbeing by ethical leadership in the construction industry: The role of perceived organizational support

• Main Authors: Jiajia Cheng (Author), Lianying Zhang (Author), Yuan Lin (Author), Haiyan Guo (Author), Shaoping Zhang (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A., 2022-09-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2296-2565; 10.3389/fpubh.2022.935557
• Keywords: ethical leadership; employee wellbeing; perceived organizational support; construction industry; mediating role; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Frontiers in Public Health, Vol 10 (2022)

Employee wellbeing is a crucial determinant in overall organizational performance. However, in the construction Industry, it is damaged by hazardous and stressful work environment. This study aims to explore how ethical leadership influences and thus could enhance employee wellbeing through perceived organizational support (POS). We proposed several hypotheses and developed the research framework accordingly. To test the hypotheses, an elaborately designed survey was used to collect quantitative data from 194 employees in the construction companies in China. Our results show that ethical leadership is positively related to the employee wellbeing. This study further reveals a remarkable indirect effect of ethical leadership on employee wellbeing via the mediating POS. Consequently, our findings suggest that, to enhance employee wellbeing, ethical leaders can develop a relaxing ethical environment and provide sufficient organizational support to the employees.