Relation- and task-oriented roles as antecedents of ethical leadership: Examining synergistic effects

A growing body of literature demonstrates that ethical leadership has positive effects on employees’ work outcomes. Ethical leadership upholds the importance of  “normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships” (Brown, Trevino, & Harrison, 2005, p. 120). However, extant empirical research does not answer the question- of how ethical leaders balance their relation maintenance (i.e., relationship-oriented role) and performance maintenance (i.e., task-oriented role) behaviors with their employees to be perceived as ethical leaders. In the present paper, drawing upon the propositions informed by opposing domains theory and related research, I theorize that leaders' relationship-oriented and task-oriented roles create synergistic effects that predict their employees’ perceptions of ethical leadership. Results across two studies (an experiment and a correlational study involving samples from two different cultures) convergently confirmed the hypothesized relationships. I conclude by discussing several key theoretical and practical implications of these findings.