The Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Organizational Commitment in Nonprofit Associations

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between an employee’s perception of ethical leadership and the three forms of organizational commitment in nonprofit associations. Further, the research tested the moderating effects that gender, age, tenure, education and being a supervisor had on an employee’s affective commitment. The data were collected from 136 association staff members across four states. The Social Learning Theory served as the theoretical framework for investigating the relationship and results indicate that ethical leaders do influence affective and normative commitment of association staff. No relationship was found between ethical leadership and continuance commitment. The study found statistical support for the moderating effect of the demographic variables age and tenure on affective commitment.