Employee–organisation connectedness and ethical behaviour: the mediating role of moral courage

Purpose How employees connect with their work organisation and how it may play a role in their moral courage and ethical behaviour remain under-explored. This study, using Psychological Contract Theory, aims to explore how employee–organisation connectedness influences employees' moral courage and ethical behaviour. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses were tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) on data collected through a questionnaire survey from 212 Australian healthcare professionals. Findings Employee connectedness with their work organisations showed a significant and direct impact on ethical behaviour. Along with moral courage, connectedness explained over half of the variance in ethical behaviour. Furthermore, moral courage partially mediated the effect of employee connectedness on ethical behaviour. Research limitations/implications The overall theoretical implication of this study is that psychological contracts between employees and their organisations operationalised through employee–organisation connectedness can explain the role of moral courage in ethical behaviour. Practical implications With increasing borderless management of organisations, organisational connectedness can be a critical factor in developing employees' moral courage and ethical behaviour within organisations. Socialisation interventions can be useful to promote employee–organisation connectedness. Originality/value The study developed a higher-order connectedness model and validated it with PLS-SEM. The study provides novel empirical evidence on the relationships between employee–organisation connectedness, moral courage and ethical behaviour.