Ethical leadership and organisational commitment as key determining factors of strategic objectives: A case study of a municipality in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa

Abstract

Many organisations assert that ethical leadership is their only critical component. However, what is most important is its impact. Ethical leadership is achieved through ethical practices such as conforming and with-holding the rule of law. Different studies have found a positive and significant relationship between ethical leadership and organisational commitment. Many studies still need to study the mediator role of organisational commitment in the relationship between ethical leadership and achieving strategic objectives. The study investigates the impact of ethical leadership and organisational commitment in achieving strategic objectives at a certain municipality in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. Quantitative research methods adopted a survey and case study research designs to achieve this purpose. Data were collected from a convenience sampling of 217 participants. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse and test the seven hypotheses. Several statistical methods were utilised to test the hypotheses. All measurement scales achieved good reliability. Skewness and Kurtosis also confirmed the normal distribution of data. Confirmatory factor and path analysis confirmed the items' moderate/partial fit. Consistent with previous research, ethical leadership correlates with organisational commitment and achieving strategic objectives. However, the relationship between organisational commitment and achieving strategic objectives was negatively associated. The positive effect indicates that ethical leadership augments employee commitment and, as a result, leads to achieving strategic objectives, while the negative effect indicates that employee commitment alone does not contribute to the achievement of strategic objectives. Therefore, the study recommends that municipal managers design robust ethical leadership interventions and practices to enhance employee commitment to improve organisational performance. This can be done by establishing a dedicated ethics office, which will be responsible for developing, implementing, and monitoring ethics strategy. The office will further implement Continuous Employee Engagement in Ethics and its impact on Employee Commitment (CE4C). This study will contribute to the existing literature on ethical leadership, organisational commitment and strategic objectives and further advance the knowledge in organisational behaviour and good governance. The study will further provide managerial insight.