Trust, Talk, and Tech: The Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Work-Related Social Media Use

This study examines how ethical leadership fosters employees’ constructive use of work-related social media, with particular attention to the mediating role of work engagement and the moderated mediating effect of positive workplace gossip about a supervisor (PWGS). Drawing on the job demands-resources model and social information processing theory, we propose that ethical leadership enhances work engagement, which in turn motivates employees to leverage social media for effective workplace communication and collaboration. We further suggest that PWGS reinforces employees’ perception of their leaders’ ethicality, thereby strengthening the indirect effect of ethical leadership on social media use via work engagement. Using data collected from 213 full-time employees in South Korea, our findings demonstrate that ethical leadership is positively related to work engagement and, through this work engagement, indirectly promotes work-related social media use. Furthermore, this indirect relationship is stronger among employees who frequently engage in PWGS. These results contribute to the literature on leadership and technology use by illustrating how ethical leadership can shape employees’ constructive digital communication behaviors, offering practical implications for organizations aiming to foster psychologically safe and digitally integrated work environments through ethical leadership development and the promotion of positive social norms.