Ethical and Transformational Leadership on Employee Creativity and Satisfaction within a Public Organization

Abstract

The rapid flow of information has transformed the way society searches for and shares information, moving away from conventional styles. This applies to social issues as well, including cases of corruption and unethical behavior among organizational leaders within the public sector. However, there is a lack of research that investigates the role of ethical and transformational leadership styles within government offices. This study explores how leadership styles (such as ethical and transformational leadership) influence employee creativity, which in turn affects the job satisfaction of Indonesian government employees. The sample consists of 427 government employees in the South Sulawesi province. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to test the research hypotheses. Empirical results indicate that ethics have a positive and significant influence on employee creativity. Meanwhile, transformational leadership plays a lesser role in this context. Additionally, the mediating variables have a partial role in mediating the relationship between ethical and transformational leadership and employee performance. This research is limited to government office employees in Indonesia. Therefore, further research is needed to analyze cross-regional, cultural, organizational, and religious differences.