Organizational ethics and workplace incivility: the mediating effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the mediating effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles on the relationship between organizational ethics and workplace incivility. Design/methodology/approach The study employed cross-sectional survey design. Data were obtained from 209 employees from the telecommunication sector. The structural equation model was employed as the analytical tool to test the hypotheses of the study. Findings Organizational ethics was negatively related to workplace incivility. Both transformational and transactional leadership styles mediated the relationship between organizational ethics and workplace incivility. Practical implications Human resource developers and managers can employ, appraise, train and develop managers who can ethically demonstrate transactional, and transformational leadership behaviors to deal with workplace incivilities. Originality/value The paper makes an important contribution to the existing organizational literature by establishing the relevance of transformational and transactional leadership styles as mediators of the nexus between organizational ethics and workplace incivility in the telecommunication sector.