Impact of ethical leadership on employee engagement: investigating a moderated-mediation model in the education sector

Abstract

This research examines the influence of ethical leadership on employee engagement in the context of secondary school teachers in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan with trust in leader as the mediating variable and workplace spirituality as the moderating variable. The research seeks to better understand the role of school principals as they display ethical leadership behaviors that increase teacher engagement, impacting a larger context in the education setting. A quantitative research design was employed to gather data from a sample of 300 teachers from public and private secondary schools in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. It included teachers with diversity in gender, age, years of teaching experience, and educational background. We used a pre-structured questionnaire consisting of standardized scales such as the Ethical Leadership Questionnaire (ELQ), Employee Engagement Scale (EES), Workplace Spirituality Scale (WPS), and Trust in Leader Scale (TLS). The study explains the complex relationship between ethical leadership and trust and engagement in an educational context. The research underscored the importance of trust as a mediator that is, the behaviors of the leaders, such as their integrity, fairness, and transparency, directly influence the level of engagement that goes into the teachers' work. Examination of workplace spirituality as a moderator provides an understanding of how spiritual values and a sense of meaning at work might make a difference in this relationship, revealing cultural and contextual nuances. The present research findings make meaningful contributions to the literature on leadership and organizational behavior in the educational sector, while presenting practical implications for policymakers and school operators. Additionally, this research reinforces the crucial areas of employee engagement that are to empowers and inspires teachers to do their best as well as grow towards the overall intent of increasing quality education and betterment of the community and society at large.