Civilizing the workplace: Does ethical leadership foster desirable workplace behaviors?

The present research examines the effect of ethical leadership in reducing workplace incivility to foster employee knowledge sharing and employee innovative job performance by underpinning social learning theory. This research employed a quantitative research design and followed the post-positivist philosophy in line with the underlying research questions, and the approach to theory is deductive, as this research intends to examine the causal relationship among study variables. The target population for this research is higher secondary and vocational schools (providing technical and skill-based education), providing tertiary and secondary education under the constituency of the Government of Punjab, Punjab province of Pakistan. We identified 150 unique workgroups with a mean size of 5 employees (n = 750), and every workgroup had a dedicated manager/leader/supervisor (Head/Principal). The intended sample was 150 leaders overseeing 750 employees in 150 schools. The findings of the present research noted that when employees are treated fairly, honestly, and with respect, they tend to model similar values, resulting in an ethical work environment that eventually reduces workplace incivility since employees not only observe but also anticipate the implications of their actions. When individuals observe that civility produces favorable results, they tend to engage in desirable outcomes at the workplace, including knowledge sharing and innovative job performance. Implementing training programs for school principals and teachers has the potential to foster healthy connections and, eventually, polite, desirable workplace behavior.