Organizational and individual antecedents of defensive decision-making: The moderating role of ethical leadership

This study examines how individual and organizational factors predict workplace decision-making through the lens of conservation of resources theory, with a focus on the moderating role of ethical leadership. The sample consisted of 306 employees from diverse backgrounds. Results show that self-efficacy was the sole consistent predictor of a decision-making approach, whereas decision-making avoidance increased with attachment anxiety and job insecurity and decreased with self-efficacy. Psychological safety and perceived organisational support displayed only weak links to either decision facet. Ethical leadership did not strengthen proactive choices but significantly moderated avoidance: high ethical leadership reduced the steep rise in avoidance associated with low self-efficacy, high attachment avoidance, and marginally high job insecurity, yet introduced a modest increase in caution among employees low on those threats. These patterns underscore the primacy of personal resources in decision style and identify ethical leadership as a contextual regulator that tempers extreme withdrawal rather than uniformly promoting risk-taking.