The effects of ethical leadership, help seeking and happiness on innovation: an examination in China

Purpose The study specifically focused on ethical leadership and help seeking during innovation and tested the moderating effect of happiness on the path from help seeking to innovation. Design/methodology/approach In this longitudinal study, 472 employees from an HR outsourcing company in China participated in the first survey. However, only 184 employees completed two surveys (1 month apart). We used path analysis to test all hypotheses through Mplus. Findings We found that ethical leadership, through help-seeking, is correlated to innovation. We also found that one’s happiness level is related to innovation, and when employees are chronically happy, the positive effect of help-seeking on innovation is stronger. Originality/value Working in an ethical environment, employees are comfortable acknowledging mistakes, hearing feedback and making corrections, which fosters continuous innovation. Conversely, without the influence from ethical leaders, employees may choose to remain silent and abandon continuous innovation due to the concern of losing “face” the context of China.