Virtuous leadership model

The aim of the study is to determine what characteristics make the manager a virtuous leader in the Turkish culture, in this context, it is also aimed to develop the virtuous leadership scale which is specific to the Turkish culture revealing its model, to investigate the effects of virtuous leadership on the happiness of the employee at work and their affective commitment. For this purpose, three studies were conducted, respectively. The research was carried out using quantitative methods with the participation of white-collar employees who work in the manufacturing and service industry. At the end of the first research process conducted with 240 participants, an item pool was formed representing the 34 virtuous leader characteristics, which were prioritized by the managers. The second study was conducted to reveal the structure of the virtuous leadership scale based on the expert agreement to provide content validity. In the second research process, a pilot study was conducted with 301 participants. As a result of this process, the structure of the virtuous leadership scale consisting of two dimensions with 21 items was obtained. With the third study, the structure of the scale was confirmed, the criteria validity was provided, and its reliability was examined. The developed virtuous leadership scale's employee/human sensitivity dimension represents the leader's virtues of benevolence/kindness, tolerance, appreciation, being supportive, being fair, empathy, being justice, rewarding and respect. The success/responsibility sensitivity dimension represents the leader's virtues of industriousness, competence (mastery), determination/decisive, responsibility, vision, innovativeness, objectivity and result oriented. Thus, the characteristics of virtuous leaders in the Turkish culture and the virtuous leadership model were revealed. Besides, within the scope of the third research, the effects of virtuous leadership on happiness of the employees at work and their affective commitment which is one of the main aims of this study were examined. As a result of the analyses carried out with the data of 494 participants, it was found out that the virtuous leadership positively affects the happiness of the employees at work and their affective commitment. Virtuous leaders' behaviors towards employee/human sensitivity have a more positive effect on employee happiness than their behaviors towards success/responsibility sensitivity. However, the behavior of leaders towards employee/human sensitivity affects the affective commitment of employees more than their happiness. Finally, it was determined that while the leaders' behaviors towards success/responsibility sensitivity increased the happiness of the employees, it didn't have a significant effect on their affective commitment.