Corporate culture as a mediator in the relationship between ethical leadership and personal internet use

Abstract

Despite the large number of factors at work that have been linked to personal Internet use (PIU), ethical leadership has not yet been examined. The first aim of this study is to test whether ethical leadership is associated with employees' participation in PIU, specifically with cyberloafing and e-citizenship. The article then proposes an explanation for this linkage. The prediction is made that ethical leadership influences the way followers perceive corporate culture, which, in turn, leads them to PIU. Questionnaire data from 300 employees at 100 investment banks in the City of London on ethical leadership, Cameron and Quinn's corporate cultures, cyberloafing, and e-citizenship were analyzed. Results found a significant negative relationship between ethical leadership and cyberloafing, and a positive relationship with e-citizenship. Once corporate culture was entered into the model as a mediator, ethical leadership also showed significant links with corporate culture, which, in turn, acted as a significant mediator. All the culture types performed as partial mediators in ethical leadership's association with cybercivism, and only adhocracy culture performed as a full mediator in the case of cyberloafing. A practical implication is that managers should pay explicit attention to the advantages of supervising PIU with ethical values and, especially in the case of cyberloafing, with the innovative values of adhocracy culture.