TITLE:
Foundational Leadership Theory: An Ethical Leadership Approach to Developing Positive Employee Work Engagement
AUTHORS:
LaJuan Perronoski Fuller
KEYWORDS:
Ethical Leadership, Organizational Commitment, Work Engagement, Leadership Theories
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.9 No.5,
August
19,
2021
ABSTRACT: Organizational commitment has a significant positive association with
employee work engagement. Comparatively, organizational leaders recognize the
value and competitive advantage of inspiring employee work engagement for
sustainability in their industry. Numerous studies confirm that ethical
leadership predicts organizational commitment. However, as of 2019, research
suggested that alternative ethical leadership theories were needed to explain
the influence on work engagement better. This study aimed to investigate the
predictive power of Foundational Leadership Theory (FLT) developed by Fuller in
2021. FLT is an inward (internal) and outward (employee perceived) examination
of ethical decisions based on integrity, assurance, and pragmatism. The
findings were based on responses from 248 full-time employees across various
industries in the United States of America. Pearson correlation and regression
analysis revealed that integrity, assurance, and pragmatism predicted positive
employee work engagement. FLT is a new theory and advances our understanding of
employee commitment and work engagement in an organization. Human resource
managers (HRM) recognized that employee enthusiasm is reflected in their work
engagement. Therefore, leaders who rely on FLT are more likely to maintain a
competitive advantage by creating or improving employee enthusiasm and
engagement on the job.