Does Value Similarity Matter? Influence of Ethical Leadership on Employee Engagement and Deviance

Although ethical leadership is thought to motivate employees to refrain from deviant behaviors that are harmful to the organization and its members, scholars have also found considerable variability in the relationship between ethical leadership and deviant subordinate behaviors beyond this general or main effect. Integrating theory on ethical leadership and work engagement, we develop and test a model that also considers the role of employee-leader value similarity in understanding employee interpersonal and organizational deviance. In two field studies employing multi-wave samples of leader-subordinate dyads, we demonstrate that value similarity moderates the effects of ethical leadership on subordinate deviance and does so via engagement. Implications for ethical leadership, employee engagement, and deviance literature are discussed.