Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Job Stress: Intermediary Role of Job Satisfaction and Customer Orientation

An ethically oriented leadership and the ethical values can act as the factors preventing the job stress experienced by the staffs. The objective of the present study is to examine the intermediary role of intrinsic job satisfaction and customer orientation in the relationship between ethical leadership and job stress.
This research is a practical descriptive correlational work. The statistical population of this study includes 448 sales staff of industrial units operating in food industries in industrial parks in Kerman Province, among which were selected based on a relative stratified random sampling. The standard questionnaires were used to operationalize the variables of the study. Structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the research hypotheses.
The findings showed that ethical leadership and morality are inversely correlated with job stress experienced by sales staff of selected industrial units. The findings also suggest that intrinsic job satisfaction and customer orientation can play an intermediary role in the relationship between ethical leadership and reduction in job stress.
Regarding the findings of this research, by enhancing intrinsic satisfaction, reducing job stress, and rising staffs` sense of customer orientation, especially among the sales unit staff, the managers of SMEs can make the staffs more committed to creating an ethical climate in their organization.