Project Executive’s Ethical Leadership and Construction Projects’ Social Responsibility: Evidence from Wuhan, China

Abstract

With the accelerated urbanization and the need for sustainable development in China, the construction projects’ social responsibility (CPSR) has received increasing attention from scholars, but reliable empirical evidence on whether the project executive’s (PE’s) ethical leadership can promote the implementation of the CPSR is insufficient. This study constructs a moderated mediation model in which we examine the role of employees’ organizational identification and organizational justice in the relationship between the PE’s ethical leadership and the organizational CPSR through data of 367 samples collected validly. Through the research, we found that the PE’s ethical leadership has a positive impact on the CPSR, the employee’s organizational identification mediates the relationship between the PE’s ethical leadership and the organizational CPSR, and organizational justice moderates between the PE’s ethical leadership and employee’s organizational identification. The outcomes indicate that the PE’s ethical leadership can promote the implementation of the organizational CPSR. This study reveals the intrinsic action mechanism of the PE’s ethical leadership and the implementation of the organizational CPSR, which has certain implications for improving the performance of CPSR and achieving the sustainable development of the projects.