The Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Individual Performance: Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment

Background: In the today's world, individual performance is affected by moral issues and human interaction, which should prevail in organizations. The role of ethical leadership in internalization of moral roles and impact on staff’s commitment and promotion of performance, is very important. The ethical leader can have a fundamental role in the training of positive emotions and responsibility of individuals and the performance of organization. This survey examines the relationship between ethical leadership with individual performance and moderating role of organizational commitment. Method: This research is descriptive-correlation study. The population in this research includes all supervisors and authorities of engineering department (N=174). The sample of 120 subjects was determined, which were selected by random sampling. Data were collected by three questionnaires; ethical leadership, Individual performance and organizational commitment. The correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were used for analysis of data. Results: There is a positive relationship between ethical leadership and organizational commitment with individual performance. In addition, the role of mediator organizational commitment in relationship between Individual performances with ethical leadership is significant. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that ethical leadership and organizational commitment are important factors that affect individual performance and promote the individual performance.