Alarmed by the frequent incidents of industrial unrest, scholars in the field of employment relations have started to revisit the factors influencing employees’ perception of industrial relations climate. This paper proposes ethical leadership as a key ingredient in developing positive employment relations in organisations. Looking at the leader as a crucial link between employee and management, the effect of ethical leadership on employee voice behaviour through the perceived industrial relations climate is studied from the lens of social support theory. Further, the model looks at the negative association between ethical leadership and union commitment. Interestingly, ethical leadership shapes the ethical climate which, in turn, influences employees’ perception of the industrial relations climate. The proposed conceptual model integrates three key participants of employment relations viz., unions, employees, and leaders.
Our study makes two significant contributions to the existing literature on industrial relations climate and ethical leadership. We propose that ethical leadership leads to an increase in the commitment of employees towards the organisation by way of demonstrating voice behaviour and decline in commitment towards unions. Ethical climate creates a positive and favourable industrial relations climate that positively influences the employees’ voice behaviour.
We propose that leaders have a very crucial role to play in shaping the industrial relations climate by treating followers fairly and bringing justice and transparency at the workplace. Ethical leaders influence the intrinsic motivation of the individuals and motivate employees to share their concerns. In such an organisation climate, where an employee’s voice is heard and employees are treated well, the need for unionism decreases. Therefore, we propose that it is the ethical behaviour of leaders that forms the basis for healthy, cordial and co-operative relationship between management and employees, and which, further, positively influences the perception of employees about industrial relations climate.
