This
research was a cross-cultural study where we explored the impact of ethical
leadership on employee job performance.
We evaluate the direct relationship and the indirect relationship
whereby employee motivation was used as a mediating construct. The aim was to determine if group differences
existed between the two groups of the study: US participants and Nigerian
participants. Three research questions
guided this study: Is there a direct relationship between ethical leadership
and employee job performance? What
impact does employee motivation have on the relationship between ethical
leadership and employee job performance?
Does the relationship differ across cultural boundaries? Path analysis and multi-group analysis were
used to test the hypotheses. Our results
showed that there was a statistically significant direct relationship between
ethical leadership and employee job performance for the combined group and the
Nigerian group. However, the direct
relationship was not significant for the US group. Further, the results showed that employee
motivation mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and employee
job performance for the combined group, the US group, and the Nigerian group. Our results were consistent with the results
from other researchers who showed that cultural norms have a significant impact
on employee job performance, and the type of leadership style implemented that
may promote high employee job performance with one culture may have negative
impact with another.
