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The financial crisis, economic downturn and repeated scandals involving leaders from business and government organizations have led organizational researchers to re-examine how leaders can enhance employee loyalty and commitment to the organization ([10] De Cremer et al. , 2011). Increasing attention now is being paid to the role of ethical leadership ([4] Brown and Treviño, 2006; [50] Treviño and Brown, 2004) and empowering leadership ([1] Arnold et al. , 2000; [21] Huang et al. , 2010; [31] Konczak et al. , 2000) in fostering cooperative attitudes and behaviors among employees. Recent research indicates that ethical leadership and empowering leadership are each associated with a variety of important outcomes, including subordinate motivation, satisfaction, performance, pro-social behaviors, and deviant or counter-productive behaviors ([7] Chen et al. , 2011; [12] Den Hartog and De Hoogh, 2009; [21] Huang et al. , 2010; [26] Kim and Brymer, 2011; [31] Konczak et al. , 2000; [36] Mayer et al. , 2012; [37] Mayer et al. , 2009; [42] Piccolo et al. , 2010; [53] Walumbwa et al. , 2011; [54] Walumbwa and Schaubroeck, 2009).
Ethical and empowering leader behaviors are likely to be associated with high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships based on trust, mutual liking, and respect ([4] Brown and Treviño, 2006; [18] Graen and Scandura, 1987; [33] Liden et al. , 1997). Research on the correlates of LMX found that leaders with favorable exchange relationships are more likely to be perceived to be effective and induce affective subordinate commitment than leaders with unfavorable exchange relationships ([16] Gerstner and Day, 1997). However, previous studies did not examine ethical and empowering leadership as distinct types of behavior that may be related to LMX, affective subordinate commitment and perception of leader effectiveness in different ways. The purpose of the present research was to examine these relationships in the same study and the possibility that LMX mediates the other relationships.
Theory and hypotheses
Ethical leadership and LMX
Leadership research has long suggested that leaders' honesty, integrity, and trustworthiness are important predictors of leadership effectiveness ([29] Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1991; [32] Kouzes and Posner, 1992; [45] Posner and Schmidt, 1992). [5] Brown et al. (2005, p. 120) conceptualized ethical leadership as "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships,...