The mediating role of emotional labor in the effect of the manager's ethical leadership behavior on employees' loyalty towards the organization

The ethical leadership behavior of a manager influences organizational employees and contributes to the exhibition of the expected emotional labor behavior. Employees who trust their managers can more easily and healthily manage and express their emotions. Employees who are able to regulate their emotions become more committed to their work, benefiting from the opportunities provided by a peaceful work environment. This, in turn, strengthens their loyalty to the organization. Ethical leadership behavior is therefore crucial in fostering both emotional labor and organizational commitment among employees. Organizations that possess these attributes are positively affected. This study investigates the effects of managers' ethical leadership behaviors on employees' organizational commitment, with a particular focus on the mediating role of emotional labor. The findings reveal that ethical leadership positively influences the deep acting dimension of emotional labor and employees' organizational commitment. Furthermore, it was found that the deep acting dimension of emotional labor positively affects employees' organizational commitment. The study also demonstrates that deep acting and surface acting, as dimensions of emotional labor, mediate the relationship between ethical leadership behavior and organizational commitment. In summary, while ethical leadership behavior significantly and positively affects employees' deep acting behavior, it does not have a significant or positive effect on surface acting or genuine acting. Additionally, ethical leadership behavior significantly and positively influences employees' organizational commitment. Among the sub-dimensions of emotional labor, only deep acting was found to have a significant and positive effect on employees' organizational commitment, whereas surface acting and genuine acting did not. While surface acting and deep acting play a mediating role in the relationship between ethical leadership behavior and employees' organizational commitment, genuine acting does not exhibit such a mediating effect.