Emotional Intelligence and Ethical Leadership Foster Employees’ Mental Health to Promote Sustainable Development in Organizations: The moderating role of Organizational Culture
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31272/jae.i150.1466Keywords:
Emotional intelligence, Ethical leadership, Employees’ mental health, Sustainable development, Organizational cultureAbstract
This study examines how emotional intelligence (EI) and ethical leadership (EL) influence employees’ mental health (EMH) and how EMH contributes to sustainable development (SD) in organizational settings. It also investigates the moderating role of organizational culture (OC) in strengthening the mental health–sustainability relationship. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was employed, targeting branch-level employees (Customer Service Officers, Bank Tellers, Loan Officers, Credit Officers, and Relationship Officers) in Iraqi private banks. A total of 298 responses were collected using validated measurement scales. Data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 28) with multiple and hierarchical regression techniques to test the hypothesized relationships. The results indicate that EI significantly enhances EMH, emphasizing the role of self-awareness, self-regulation, and social awareness in fostering psychological and emotional well-being and effective stress management. Conversely, EL did not show a significant direct effect on mental health, suggesting that fairness, integrity, and ethical guidance alone may not directly influence employee well-being in high-pressure work environments. EMH significantly contributed to SD, and OC positively moderated this relationship, highlighting the role of involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission in strengthening sustainability outcomes. This study contributes to organizational behavior and sustainability literature by validating the mental health–sustainability link in a developing country financial sector. The findings indicate that the widely held assumption that EL consistently enhances mental health may not always hold true, and extend existing frameworks by highlighting the moderating role of OC.
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