The Effect of Moral Leadership on Deviant Behavior with the Mediating Role of Moral Climate and Organizational Commitment

 Conceptually deviant behaviors are behaviors by which individuals violate the rules, customs and official policies of the organization in various areas and thus provide the basis for harm to individuals and the organization. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of ethical leadership on deviant behavior mediated by ethical climate and organizational commitment.

The present study is a quantitative research with a correlational method in terms of method of collecting findings and is practical in terms of purpose. The statistical population of the study was 322 employees of Iran Ports Cooperative of Guilan Province. 168 persons were selected as a sample size by simple random method through Cochran's formula. The method of data collection is library and field and the data collection tool is a questionnaire. Research instruments included Brown & et al. (2005) Moral Leadership Questionnaire, Meyer & Allen (1991) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, Victor & Clone Moral Atmosphere Questionnaire (1988) and Robinson & Bennett (1995) Deviant Behavior Questionnaire. Structural equations and SPSS 22 and Smartpls 3 software were used to analyze the data.

Ethical Considerations: 

In compiling this research, preserving the originality of the texts, honesty and trustworthiness were observed and the participants answered the questionnaires with the knowledge of the objectives of the research.

 The research findings showed that ethical leadership is effective -0.28 on deviant behavior and 0.70 on the ethical atmosphere of employees, ethical atmosphere -0.25 on deviant behavior and ethical leadership is effective 0.89 on organizational commitment. Organizational commitment has an effect of -0.36 on the deviant behavior of employees. Ethical leadership also influences deviant behavior mediated by employees' ethical atmosphere and ethical leadership influences deviant behavior mediated by employees' organizational commitment, but the effect of ethical atmosphere on organizational commitment of employees was not significant.

 According to the results obtained to reduce deviant behaviors, while training and strengthening the ethical leadership style in the organization, its capacity should be used for how to create organizational commitment and ethical atmosphere in the organization.