Beyond crisis: exploring how ethical leadership counters cynicism for rebuilding engagement in the post-COVID-19 landscape

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of ethical leadership on work engagement via organizational identification in the context of organizational cynicism from a social exchange theory perspective. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected responses through survey methodology from 258 manager–subordinate dyads working in various industries. The authors tested the hypotheses in two waves of data collection. Findings The findings show that ethical leadership has a positive influence on work engagement, and organizational identification mediates this relationship. In the presence of organizational cynicism, the positive influence of ethical leadership on organizational identification was found to be weakened. Originality/value This study investigates the role of organizational cynicism in weakening the relationship between ethical leadership and work engagement. Thus, this paper posits that human resource development practitioners must address organizational cynicism to realize the beneficial outcomes of ethical leadership interventions. In addition, for measuring work engagement of employees, data were collected from supervisors to mitigate any biases resulting from self-reported measures.