The relationship between Ethical Leadership with teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior: mediating role of teachers' social capital

Education, as an educational and cultural institution, has a fundamental and pivotal role in the moral and cultural development of society. School, principals and teachers are the heart of education. Existence of effective and constructive moral and communication characteristics in principals and teachers enriches the school environment. Today, school principals need high leadership skills to achieve the school's educational and cultural goals. Because leaders play a fundamental role in the organization development on the path of achievement its goals and the survival of the organization. School leaders are able to influence teachers' behavior and interactions. One of the new approaches to leadership that has received a lot of attention and has addressed the weaknesses and problems of traditional leadership models is the ethical approach. Needs to pay attention to ethical leadership stems from the fact that the positive results of ethical leadership in the organization have been confirmed (Abbaszadeh, Salehi & Bahmanshi, 2015: 45). Ethical leaders also create conducive and appropriate environment for expressing opinions and ideas by opening relationships within the organization and in line with the views of employees. Ethical leadership creates an open climate in which individuals will be more willing to express their beliefs and opinions. The result is the formation of concepts such as social capital and citizenship behavior in teachers. The importance of the present study is to identify the role of school principals' ethical leadership in teachers’ social capital and citizenship behavior, because ethical leaders encourage value creation, ethical awareness, delegation of authority , shared management, appropriate climate for organizational health, honesty and trustworthiness, value ​​based decision making and fair behavior in any situation (Tutar, 2011).   Ethical leaders allow their employees to express their opinions and participate in decisions, and to use employees 'thoughts and ideas to instill a sense of trust in them (De Hoog'h' & Den Hartog, 2008). Ethical leaders are people who are committed to principles, sociable, and honest, who make balanced and good decisions, often communicate ethical principles to their followers, set clear ethical standards, and use rewards and punishments to create a healthy and rewarding environment. Create high productivity in the organization (Brown & Trevino, 2006). Ethical leadership at different levels of the organization plays an important role in the development and maintenance of ethical culture and ethical behavior (Macey et al, 2004). Today, ethical leadership is recognized as a fundamental strategy in the field of management and leadership of organizations. In general, ethical leadership includes appropriate behavior in group actions and behavior, which normatively encourages colleagues to communicate bilaterally and leads to optimal decision making (Brown, 2005). Therefore, the moral leadership of principals plays an essential role in creating interactions that lead to the formation of teachers' social capital. Organizations have measured the relationships between the above categories separately, but so far, no comprehensive and constructive study has been deployed on the relationships of the above categories. Among the categories, a theoretical framework can be stablished. Then this framework can be investigated and examined. According to the importance, precedence and succeeding of these categories in organizational studies, the ethical leadership of principals according to the theories have positive effects on subordinates. Since, teachers are the principals ‘subordinates in schools, principals’ ethical leadership, teachers’ social capital and organizational citizenship behavior are considered as independent, mediating and dependent variables. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the factors affecting the organizational citizenship behavior by emphasizing the principals’ ethical leadership and teachers’ social capital in secondary high schools in Kermanshah. It provides information based on which the organization will be able to adopt appropriate strategies and address the desired solutions to improve human resources’ performance and productivity. Therefore, it can be argued the main issue of the present study is whether the principals’ ethical leadership has direct and indirect effects on teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior through the mediating role of social capital or not.  

According to the philosophy of research, the present study is quantitative. According to its purpose, it is an applied study. The data collection and analysis method is descriptive -correlational, especially sstructural equation modeling. The research population included all 3056 teachers of secondary high schools in Kermanshah. Of those, 341 was determined as a sample based on Morgan table. The measurements include 30-item questionnaire of organizational citizenship behavior of the Organ (1988) model; 27-item social capital questionnaire of Nahappit & Goshal (1998) model, as well as 10-item ethical leadership questionnaire of Brown, Truino & Harrison (2005) model. To determine the reliability and validity of the tools, Cronbach’s alpha technique and confirmatory factor analysis were used. Data analysis was performed by confirmation path analysis using Lisrel software.  

The results showed that ethical leadership of principals has a direct (0.45), indirect (0.254) and overall (0.704) positive effect on the teachers' organizational citizenship behavior at the level of 0.05. Teachers 'social capital has a significant positive direct effect (0.41) on the teachers' organizational citizenship behavior at the level of 0.05. The ethical leadership of principals with an indirect path coefficient due to the social capital of teachers (0.254) and the value of T (2.84) has an indirect, positive and significant effect on the organizational citizenship behavior of teachers at the level of 0.05. According to the results of the research, the following strategies are recommended to improve the principals’ ethical leadership due to its direct and indirect effect on the teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior. Principals should allow subordinates to participate in vital decision-making. Principals allow individuals to contribute to defining educational goals. By establishing ethical relationships, playing an ethical role for employees, and being serious about ethics in the organization, the ethical leader can use methods to strengthen ethical behavior and reduce unethical behavior that can affect the ethical climate of the organization and ultimately determine a fair reward and punishment system to fulfill the employees ‘educational goals