Examining the Effect of Ethical Work Environment and Leadership Styles on Employees' Career Satisfaction in Organizations

Human resources policies continue as a concept that constantly renews and improves itself. Training and personal development opportunities are provided both to increase the performance of employees as a result of the competitive environment and the expectation that the performance criteria (a determiner of the motivation of employees) is realized. When employee satisfaction starts to decrease in organizations, the intention to leave in organizations starts to increase. In terms of human resources policies, these development opportunities are aimed at keeping challenges to a minimum. And, as a result, the performance of the companies increases based on the leadership roles of the senior managers, in addition to the human resources policies implemented. The leadership style and human resources policies of the managers shape the future of the organization. As a result of the research, we better understand how important leadership and a desirable working environment is for organizations. Thanks to the studies conducted in these areas, it is important that senior managers set an example for the decisions they make and contribute to shaping their leadership roles. In this context, we aim to examine the career satisfaction levels of white-collar employees working in the furniture industry against their leadership styles in an ethical working environment. The data obtained from the research were collected from the furniture producing companies in the marmara region where 388 white-collar employees were surveyed in 2019. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 25 and AMOS programs. Firstly, factor analysis and reliability analysis were performed for the validity of the scales representing the variables. Correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationships between variables and regression analysis was used to test hypotheses. The Sobel test was used to analyze the mediation effect. As a result of the research and as stated by the analysis, the change of leader members and transparent leadership have positive effects, but visionary leadership has no positive effect.