Does it take two to tango? The joint role of high-performance work systems and ethical leadership

Employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), influenced both by human resource management (HRM) and leadership, is vital for meeting non-standard and unpredictable customer demands in the service industry. Drawing on social exchange theory, substitute-for-leadership theory and information-processing perspective, this study addresses the question of how employees’ perceptions of high-performance work systems (HPWS) and ethical leadership interact to impact employees’ affective commitment and service-oriented OCB. We tested the theoretical model using a sample of 275 supervisor–subordinate dyads from chain store enterprises in the service sector in Taiwan. The proposed models were tested with hierarchical linear modeling and Monte Carlo simulation. We found that the presence of high ethical leadership weakens the positive effect of employees’ perceptions of HPWS. Furthermore, affective commitment mediates the interactive effect of employees’ perceptions of HPWS and ethical leadership on employee service-oriented OCB. In particular, the indirect effect is positive and significant when ethical leadership is low.