Relationships among ethical leadership, organizational justice and employee performance: The case of ministry of youth and sport

The aim of this research is to determine the performance levels of the Ministry of Youth and Sports employees by determining the effects of the ethical leadership behaviors of the managers, who work at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, on the employee performance through the perception of organizational justice. Within the scope of the research, the hypothesis that the ethical leadership behavior characteristics of the managers will affect employee performance and that the perception of organizational justice has a mediating effect on this relationship has been emphasized. In this direction, the possible relationships between the variables were tested using structural equation modeling and the employee performances of the staff working at the Ministry of Youth and Sports were examined. The universe of the study consisted of staff working at 81 Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports, which is the Provincial Organization of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the sample consisted of 1654 staff members including 736 female and 918 male. In the study; "Ethical Leadership Scale", "Perception of Organizational Justice Scale", and "Employee Performance Scale" were used. In the process of data analysis, besides descriptive statistics, parametric tests (T-Test, ANOVA) and structural equation modeling were used. As a result of the research, it was determined that the perception levels of the employees towards managers' ethical leadership behavior, organizational justice perception and employee performance are at a high level. Within the scope of the research, employee performance of the staff are similar according to the variables of gender, marital status, duration of employment in the public sector, duration of service in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, whereas it varies according to age, education level and title variables. As a result of the tests of the hypotheses created within the scope of the research model; a positive relationship was found between ethical leadership and organizational justice perception, organizational justice perception and employee performance, ethical leadership and employee performance. It has also been determined that the perception of organizational justice has a mediating (partial) role in the relationship between ethical leadership and employee performance.