The Impact of Ethical Leadership on Employees’ Innovative Behavior in Distribution-related Organizations: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Organization-based Self-Esteem and the Regulation Effect

Purpose: This study aimed to examine how a superior employee’s ethical leadership affects members’ innovative behaviors, mainly on organization-based self-esteem. It also aimed to verify the mediating effect of organization-based self-esteem in the process that ethical leadership affects members’ innovative behavior in distribution-related organizations. Research design, data and methodology: After collecting materials from companies’ executives and staff members in distribution-related organizations located in Seoul, South Korea, a research hypothesis was analyzed. Results: As a result, a superior employee’s ethical leadership affects a positive (+) effect on innovative behaviors of the organization’s members and the study confirmed that the relation of this effect was mediated by organization-based self-esteem. It means that the possibility that an organization’s members will do innovative behaviors will be increased if a leader conducts ethical leadership. It also means that a leader with ethical leadership enables an organization’s members to pay attention all the time and be awake for their work environment. Conclusions: The result of this study discusses how ethical leadership affects innovative behaviors of an organization's members from the perspective of organization-based self-esteem and has a theoretical implication that it has empirically examined it. More importantly, it has a theoretical implication because it verified how this effect was made using organization-based self-esteem and flexible human resource management.