While a number of studies are being done on
ethical leadership, little is known about the role of ethical
ideology and organizational justice in the relation of the
ethical leadership behavior and individual behaviors such
as work engagement and organizational misbehavior has
tended to be neglected in ethics literature. This study
examines the mediating effects of organizational justice on
the relations of ethical leadership, work engagement and
organizational misbehavior. Also, it investigates the mod-
erating effect of ethical ideology on the relationships
among these variables. It proposes that managers’ ethical
values and organizational members’ ethical perspectives
such as absolutism, exceptionism, situationism, and sub-
jectivism have the potential to be agents of virtue within
the organizations. Employee attributions and emotional
reactions to the unethical behavior of their leaders are
important factors on individual behavior outcomes. So, in
this study it is hypothesized that ethical leadership behavior
affects organizational justice perception and this, respec-
tively, affects organizational members’ work engagement
and organizational misbehavior. It is also hypothesized that
ethical ideology would moderate the relationship between
the ethical leadership and organizational justice. Results
indicate that ethical leadership has both direct and indirect
influence on work engagement and organizational misbe-
havior. Finally, practical implications are discussed, and
suggestions for the future research are made.