The Influence of Ethical Leadership on Employee Creative and Innovative Behaviour: A Higher-Order Constructs Modelling in PLS-SEM

The study is aimed at investigating the curvilinear relationship between ethical leadership and employee creative and innovative behaviour in a South African State Owned Enterprise. The central argument of this paper is that ethical leadership can influence employee creative and innovative behaviour in the workplace. One hypothesis was posited and to empirically test the hypothesis, a sample data set of 160 was used. The data from 160 respondents comprising managers and employees was collected using predeveloped questionnaires and analysed through structural equation modelling and multiple regression techniques conducted with the Smart-PLS statistical software. The hypothesis was found to be significant and supported. Drawing from the study findings, managerial implications are discussed, and limitations and future research directions are suggested. Overall, this study provides tentative empirical support that employee creative and innovative behaviour can be influenced by ethical leadership in South Africa: a context that is often less researched.