The impact of values-centered leadership on ethical climate and employee voice

In this study, it is aimed to reveal the relationship between values-centered leadership, ethical climate, and employee voice. In this context, the study consists of two chapters. In the first chapter's first section, values and leadership theories were reviewed in order to address values-centered leadership. In the second section, ethical climate and other relevant notions were theoretically discussed. In the third section, employee voice and silence notions and theories were examined. The previous studies on the subject was discussed in the fourth section. Evaluation of all these notions was made in terms of structural equation modeling (SEM) in the second chapter. A hotel chain operated in Turkey and Germany was selected for sampling. A questionnaire was applied simultaneously in Turkey and Germany in order to define the meaning of values-centered leadership, ethical climate, and employee voice in different cultures, interaction in-between, and development and change therein resulted from different variables. Scales employed in this questionnaire are 20-item "Values-Based Leadership Scale" developed by Garg and Krishnan, 7-item "Ethical Climate Scale" developed by Schwepker, and 5-item "Employee Voice Scale" developed by Premeaux. Data gathered were interpreted through structural equation model and comparative statistical analysis. According to data gathered from employees and managers participated in the research from Turkey, it was concluded that values-centered leadership affects ethical climate, ethical climate affects employee voice, and employee voice do not affect the ethical climate. Based on the analysis of answers from those participated in the study from Germany, it was determined that the ethical climate is affected by values-centered leadership. On the other hand, it was concluded that ethical climate affects employee voice while not affecting employee silence, and similarly employee voice affects ethical climate while employee silence does not. Keywords: Values-Centered Leadership, Ethical Climate, Employee Voice,Organizational Silence, Structural Equation Modeling