Ethical leadership and job crafting: the role of intrinsic motivation and job feedback.

Authors

Pei Wang, Yu Zhang, Kun Yu

Published in

Frontiers in psychology. Volume 17. Pages 1817186. Epub Oct 16, 2026.

Abstract

Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and its sub-theory Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET), the present study examines how ethical leadership relates to employees' job crafting through intrinsic motivation, and how this indirect relationship is contingent on job feedback. We proposed that ethical leadership is positively related to job crafting via intrinsic motivation, and that job feedback moderates this indirect effect by providing competence-relevant informational cues.
We tested our hypotheses using two-wave data collected from 102 employees in the customer service department of a gaming company in northern China.
The results provided preliminary evidence of a moderated mediation pattern, suggesting that the indirect association between ethical leadership and job crafting through intrinsic motivation varied as a function of job feedback.
These findings extend research on ethical leadership and job crafting by clarifying intrinsic motivation as the motivational mechanism and job feedback as a key boundary condition. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

PMID:
42964120
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 31 Oct 2026.

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