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Ethical entrepreneurial leadership and organizational trust for organizational sustainability

, , & | (Reviewing editor)
Article: 1818368 | Received 04 Feb 2020, Accepted 30 Aug 2020, Published online: 09 Sep 2020

Abstract

This study aims to examine and analyze the role of ethics in entrepreneurial leadership, and its influence on organizational trust and organizational sustainability. This study also analyzes the role of organizational trust in mediating the relationship of ethical entrepreneurial leadership to organizational sustainability. This research was conducted at the Village Credit Institution (Lembaga Perkreditan Desa/LPD) in Bali. The total population of active LPD in Bali in 2018 was 1,422 units. The number of samples is determined based on the Slovin formula with a precision level of 10%. The calculation results obtained a total sample of 93 LPD. The determination of the number of samples in each group is done by stratified proportional random sampling. Data collection was carried out by distributing questionnaires to the leaders of the LPD. The data collected was analyzed with the SmartPLS 3.0 program. The results of the analysis show that ethics is significantly a part of entrepreneurial leadership, so leaders who reflect entrepreneurial leadership styles and prioritize ethical behavior can be referred to as ethical entrepreneurial leadership styles. The ethical entrepreneurial leadership style shows a significant positive effect on organizational trust, but not significantly on organizational sustainability. Organizational trust has a significant positive effect on organizational sustainability. The results also show that organizational trust acts as a full mediator in the relationship between ethical entrepreneurial leadership and organizational sustainability.

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Leadership has a very important role in the progress of the organization, especially leadership that has a high entrepreneurial spirit. However, entrepreneurial leadership has a dark side, where there is a tendency to do everything, including less ethical ways. These less ethical ways, in the long run, can hamper organizational progress. Therefore, the application of ethical entrepreneurial leadership concepts is very important in encouraging organizational progress. Ethical entrepreneurial leadership has the potential to increase organizational trust, and in the long run, further, ensure the sustainability of the organization.

1. Introduction

In an increasingly dynamic environment, each institution always tries to maintain its business continuity. However, not all organizations can do that. This is proven by the existence of some organizations that are not growing well, even going bankrupt. This condition can occur in various types of organizations or companies. Likewise, the Village Credit Institution (hereinafter referred to as LPD) which is one of the non-bank microfinance institutions owned by the Pakraman village in Bali (Widyani et al., Citation2018). Data from 2018 show that 177 (12.35%) did not operate out of 1,433 LPDs in Bali. Possible factors that cause LPDs to be unable to operate sustainably, one of which is the lack of ability of LPD leaders to manage the business. Apart from this, a decline in public confidence can also cause LPDs to be unable to operate properly. The inability of leaders, the decline in public confidence, and the unsustainability of the LPD are the focus of this study.

Judging from the amount of savings and loans the community shows an increasing trend. However, the increase in public savings and loans is not offset by better loan repayment rates. This low rate of loan repayment has led to an increase in net performing loans (NPLs) in a number of LPDs in Bali. Based on LPLPD data 2016, the percentage of NPLs is very high, reaching an average of above 7%. One of the causes of the number of problem loans in the LPD is because the LPD management does not pay enough attention to the criteria of criteria applicable in lending to the public. In some LPDs that were initially healthy, they could not operate or go bankrupt because they were caused by the management is not paying attention to the initial purpose of establishing an LPD, where funds collected from the community should be reallocated for community welfare. However, in many LPDs, public funds are used for investment. This causes the community’s trust to decrease, and subsequently the LPD performance decreases, so it is unable to maintain the sustainability of the LPD. This condition is shown in Figure .

Figure 1. LPD condition base on health level, 2019.

Figure 1. LPD condition base on health level, 2019.

Figure shows that in 2019, 69.36% of LPDs in Bali was in good health, 18.54% were unhealthy, and 12.11% were unable to continue their activities (unsustainable). LPD unsustainable can be caused by a number of factors.

Based on Kuratko (Citation2007) so that an organization (including LPD) can be sustainable, it requires leaders who are always entrepreneur-oriented in managing their institutions. The leadership style is termed an entrepreneurial leadership style. Entrepreneurial leadership is reflected in proactive, risk-taking, and innovative behavior. But, Kuratko (Citation2007) also said that entrepreneurial leadership has a dark side, that is, an entrepreneurial leadership tends to act unethically in achieving organizational goals. Though ethics is an important factor to limit the behavior of leaders so as not to get out of the limits of applicable norms. Therefore, the importance of integrating two concepts, namely entrepreneurial leadership and ethics in realizing organizational sustainability, including LPD.

Specifically, research on ethical entrepreneurial leadership to the extent that there is no knowledge of researchers, only limited research on ethical leadership and entrepreneurial leadership. In this study, researchers tried to combine the two concepts into ethical entrepreneurial leadership. This study discusses the ethical dimension in entrepreneurial leadership and its influence on organizational confidence and organizational sustainability in LPDs in Bali. This study aims to examine the importance of entrepreneurial leaders with ethical behavior, as well as ethical entrepreneurial leadership on organizational sustainability, especially in LPDs.

2. Theoretical review and research hypothesis

2.1. Organizational sustainability

Leaders have a great responsibility in the organization’s sustainability efforts (González et al., Citation2013). Thinking about sustainability has emerged since 1987. Organizational sustainability is intended as an organization’s ability to utilize its resources to remain able to survive in any situation Szekely & Knirsch (Citation2005). Organizational sustainability will be achieved by balancing their performance with the economic, environmental, and social domains. Schaltegger and Burritt (Citation2005) that organizational sustainability is a broad approach that includes a variety of characteristics, especially those relating to the contextual integration of economic, environmental and social aspects, and Esterhuyse (Citation2008) defines organizational sustainability as a multi-objective concept that is reflected through indicators—the following indicators: Strategy (integrating long-term economic, environmental and social aspects), Finance (the financial condition of a healthy company for the long term), Customers and products (innovating products to grow customer loyalty), Man factors age (management of human resources which are the assets of the organization), governance and stakeholders (setting standards of organizational governance about stakeholders).

Factors affecting the sustainability of an organization include competitiveness (competitive advantage) (Tsai et al., Citation2013); leadership (Slimane, Citation2012); trust (Wade & Robinson, Citation2012). Leadership and trust are two important factors in the management of financial organizations in the village.

2.2. Organizational trust

Organizational behavior is formed from the behavior of a leader in an organization (Gartner et al., Citation1992; Giberson, Citation2001; Pillai et al., Citation1999; Schnake et al., Citation1995, Citation1993; Schwartz & Bilsky, Citation1990; Sims & Brinkmann, Citation2002; Townsend et al., Citation2000). Organizational trust is defined as a positive attitude held by members of the organization towards other members. Other parties will act based on fair rules and will not take advantage of those rules of vulnerability and dependence in risky situations (Brenkert, Citation1998, p. 293). The understanding of the attitude of trust makes it possible to perceive trust as a combination of cognitive and affective (emotional) components. Trust is very important in every aspect of social life (Gucel et al., Citation2012). Loss of trust that makes organizations more difficult, Wales (Citation2013). According to Eccless et al. (Citation2012) and Meyer et al. (Citation2014), for a company to grow, it requires trust from the community. Tzafrir (Citation2007), Paliszkiewicz and Koohang (Citation2013), states that trust is very important for improving organizational performance. Organizational trust shows a significant influence on organizational performance (Çelik et al., Citation2011; Guinot et al., Citation2013; Paliszkiewicz et al., Citation2014). Therefore, maintaining organizational trust is very important so that good organizational performance can be maintained in the long term. This is in line with a number of research results that found that Organizational trust positively significantly influences the sustainability of the organization (Benn et al., Citation2014; Yu et al., Citation2018). Based on these arguments, the research hypothesis can be built:

Hypothesis 1: Organizational Trust has a significant positive effect on organizational sustainability

2.3. Ethical entrepreneurial leadership

Ethical Entrepreneurial Leadership is a concept of combining ethical entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial leadership. This integration is based on consideration of the importance of ethics in organizational leadership to achieve organizational sustainability. Because it is still a concept, it needs to be tested in more depth.

2.3.1. Ethical leadership

Leadership is the key to the success of an organization’s sustainability (Metcalf & Benn, Citation2013). Therefore, the organization needs a leader who can make changes for the better. According to Mayer et al. (Citation2012), one of the leadership styles that is believed to be able to do that is leadership based on ethics (ethical leadership). Ethical leadership is defined as a demonstration of normatively appropriate behavior through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and promotion of the behavior to subordinates through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision making (Brown et al., Citation2005, p. 120). Ethical leadership is very important for the credibility of a leader and his potential to influence his organization (Hartog & Belschak, Citation2012). The credibility of this ethical leader tends to have a significant influence on trust between a leader and followers (Eisenbeiss & Giessber, Citation2012).

The results found that ethical leadership significantly affected the trust of members of the organization (van den Akker et al., Citation2009; Engelbrecht, Citation2014; Yanik, Citation2018). Leaders with strong ethical values generally respected the words and commitments made and communicating it to members of the organization, which further strengthens the trust of members of the organization towards the leadership (Avolio et al., Citation2004; Dadhich & Bhal, Citation2008; Schoorman et al., Citation2007). Amisano and Anthony (Citation2017) research findings prove that ethical leadership significantly influences organizational sustainability. According to Tuhar (Citation2017), ethical leadership is very important for the sustainability of the organization.

2.3.2. Entrepreneurial leadership

Leadership and entrepreneurship have close links. According to Harrison and Leitch (Citation1994), there is a close relationship between the fields of leadership and entrepreneurship. These two fields provide the basis for the development of entrepreneurship concepts and management concepts. According to Kuratko and Hornsby (Citation1999), the ability of entrepreneurship is an important component for members of an organization. Therefore from within the members of the organization built an entrepreneurial spirit that is balanced by the strategy of cooperating entrepreneurs by top management to achieve business continuity (Kuratko, Citation2007; Kuratko & Hornsby, Citation1999). This type of leadership is very important in an organization and is proven to affect organizational sustainability (Mamun et al., Citation2018), wherein his research found leadership has a significant positive effect on organizational sustainability. The results of the study found were also found by Aishah et al. (Citation2020).

Basically, an organizational leader must have an entrepreneurial spirit in order to develop the organization in a more advanced direction (J. G. Covin & Slevin, Citation2002; Ireland et al., Citation2003; Rowe, Citation2001). In addition to this, for organizations to always run on the foundation of good norms, the leadership of the organization must have good ethics in the organization. Combining entrepreneurial leadership and ethical leadership, we are termed as ethical entrepreneurial leadership. Two leadership models (ethical leadership and entrepreneurial leadership) each have a significant positive effect on organizational sustainability. Integrating ethical behavior with entrepreneurial leadership is significantly able to improve organizational performance. So, ethical entrepreneurial leadership is very important in the management of the organization (Widyani et al., Citation2020). Based on these arguments, the research hypothesis can be built:

Hypothesis 2: Ethical Entrepreneurial Leadership has a significant positive effect on organizational sustainability

Some studies have found that ethical leaders can foster the trust of organizational members in their leaders (Akker et al., Citation2009; Engelbrecht, Citation2014). Leaders with strong ethical values generally respect their words and commitments made and communicate the same to members of the organization, thereby further strengthening the trust of members of the organization towards their leaders (Avolio et al., Citation2004; Dadhich & Bhal, Citation2008; Schoorman et al., Citation2007).

The ethical behavior of leaders, consistency in following values in organizational practices can communicate to their followers that not only are leaders as individuals who can be trusted but also organizations are built on ethical principles and, therefore, can be trusted (Gillespie & Mann, Citation2004). Therefore, perceptions about ethical organizations can motivate followers to reciprocate ethical behavior regarding their leaders and coworkers and develop mutual trust towards them. Based on this argument, the research hypothesis can be built:

Hypothesis 3: Ethical Entrepreneurial Leadership has a significant positive effect on organizational trust

Based on the suspicion that Ethical Entrepreneurial Leadership influences organizational trust and organizational sustainability, and organizational trust also affects organizational sustainability, then referring to these arguments, organizational trust can be assumed to play a role as mediator in the influence of entrepreneurial ethical leadership on organizational sustainability. In the study of Pucetaite and Novelskaite (Citation2014), organizational trust is placed as a mediator in the relationship of leadership to innovation, where organizational trust significantly acts as a mediator in that relationship. Organizational trust is also placed as a mediator in leadership relationships that serve with organizational communication (Rezaei et al., Citation2012). Based on this argument, the research hypothesis can be built:

Hypothesis 4: Organizational Trust is positively significant as a mediator in the ethical relationship between ethical entrepreneurial leadership and organizational sustainability

3. Research method

3.1. Design, population and research samples

This research was designed with an exploratory approach and an inferential quantitative approach. A confirmatory approach is taken to ensure ethics as part of entrepreneurial leadership. The study was conducted by LPD which had an active status in 2018 totaling 1,285. The sample collection is based on the Slovin formula with a precision of 10%, so the total sample is 93 LPD. The population and sample distribution are shown in Table .

Table 1. Population and research samples

The determination of the sample is done by stratified proportional random sampling with the respondent of the study being the chair of the LPD as the sample. Data collected through the distribution of questionnaires designed in the form of statements with Likert scale answers ranging from 1 (very strongly disagree)—7 (very very agree).

3.2. Data analysis technique

The initial phase of this study used a qualitative exploratory approach, to explore indicators related to ethics as one of the dimensions of entrepreneurial leadership. The next stage is to analyze these indicators with a statistical approach through content validity testing.

After ensuring that the research indicators meet the criteria of validity, it is followed by an inferential quantitative approach. This quantitative analysis is carried out with the SmartPLS 3.0 program, which consists of evaluating model measurements, evaluating the model structure, and testing hypotheses. Evaluation of model measurements based on convergent validity or outer model values must be less than 0.50 (> 0.50) (Nunnaly, Citation1967). Evaluation of the model structure is done by looking at the coefficient R-Square (R2) and Cronbach Alpha and greater than 0.60 (> 0.60) and composite reliability greater than 0.60 (> 0.60) (Nunnaly, Citation1967). The feasibility of the model is evaluated based on the predictive value of Q-square relevance (Q2) and the Goodness of Fit (GoF). The fit model based on Q2 according to Chin (Citation1998), namely: 0.02 (small), 0.15 (medium), 0.35 (large). Fit model based on GoF according to Akter et al. (Citation2011) namely: 0.10 (small), 0.25 (medium), 0.36 (large). Hypothesis testing is based on a significance level of 5% (p-value 0.05).

3.3. Research variables and indicators

This study uses 3 variables, namely Ethical Entrepreneurial Leadership (X), Organizational Trust (Y1), and Organizational Sustainability (Y2).

Ethical Entrepreneurial Leadership (X), reflected in 4 dimensions, namely proactive, innovative, risk-taking (Covin & Slevin, Citation1991), and ethical behavior (Mgeni, Citation2015). Proactively reflected by 5 indicators namely responsive, new product, new service, new system, and competitiveness. Innovative consists of 3 indicators namely product development, system development, and fast service. Risk-taking also consists of 3 indicators, namely risk analysis, courage to act, exploitation of opportunities. While ethical behavior consists of 5 indicators, namely transparency, caring for stakeholders, responsible, loyal, and disciplined.

Organizational Trust (Y1), reflected by 6 indicators, namely: the quality of interpersonal relationships, clarity of role, the openness of communication, competence to complete work, clarity of shared goals, respect for commitments (E. E. Joseph & Winston, Citation2005).

Organizational Sustainability (Y2) is reflected in 7 indicators: strategy, financial, customer, products, governance, stakeholders, human factors.

4. Result and discussion

4.1. Result of a qualitative explorative approach

The qualitative explorative approach in this study specifically explores ethical factors concerning leadership at the LPD in Bali. Explorative testing related to ethics as an indicator of entrepreneurial leadership refers to prepositions (Widyani et al. (Citation2018). Information gathering is done through in-depth interviews with informants who understand or are experts on this matter. Based on the results of interviews and analysis through the content validity ratio (CVR), it can be concluded that the honesty factor, paying attention to stakeholders, being responsible, being loyal, and obeying the rules, is relevant as an indicator that permits ethical behavior. This is also reinforced by the results of the validity and reliability tests in Table , which show that the indicators are valid and reliable reflecting the ethical dimension.

Table 2. Validity and reliability

4.2. Validity and reliability

The validity and reliability in this study are based on the results of data processing with SmartPLS 3.0, shown in Table . Based on Table where the outer loading coefficient for all indicators is greater than 0.50 and the Cronbach alpha value is greater than 0.60 (Nunnaly, Citation1967). Based on this, all the indicators in this study were declared valid and reliable.

4.3. Model accuracy test

The results of the analysis show the coefficient of influence of ethical entrepreneurial leadership on organizational trust by 0.307 meaning that organizational trust 30.7% is influenced by ethical entrepreneurial leadership. The coefficient of influence of ethical entrepreneurial leadership and organizational trust on organizational sustainability is 0,400, which means organizational sustainability is influenced by ethical entrepreneurial leadership and organizational trust by 40%. The rest are other factors that are not taken into account in this study.

Judging from the coefficient of Q-Square Predictive Relevance (Q2) obtained a value of Q2 = 1- [(1–0.307) (1–0,400)] = 0.585, meaning that the model has a predictive level of 58.50 (large). While the evaluation of the accuracy of the model based on Goodness of Fit results obtained by GoF = Ѵ (A.AVE x A.R2) = 0.4235 means that the model has an accuracy level of 42.35% (large).

4.4. Hypothesis testing

Testing the research hypothesis consisting of four hypotheses can be explained in Figure and Table .

Figure 2. SmartPLS 3.0 analysis results.

Figure 2. SmartPLS 3.0 analysis results.

Table 3. Coefficient path

Based on Figure and Table it can be explained that organizational trust has a significant positive effect on organizational sustainability, this is indicated by the path value of 0.575 with a p-value of 0,000 < 0.05. Ethical Entrepreneurial Leadership shows insignificant influence, where the path coefficient value is 0.095 with a p-value of 0.403 > 0.05. Ethical Entrepreneurial Leadership shows a significant positive effect on organizational trust, this can be seen from the path value of 0.554 with a p-value of 0,000 < 0.05.

Based on the results of the analysis where Ethical Entrepreneurial Leadership has a significant effect on Organizational Trust, and Organizational Trust has a significant effect on Organizational Sustainability, while the direct effect of ethical entrepreneurial leadership on organizational sustainability is not significant, Organizational Trust acts as a full mediation. This is reinforced from the results of statistical analysis which shows the effect of ethical entrepreneurial leadership on organizational sustainability through organizational trust with a path value of 0.319 with a p-value of 0,000. This gives the meaning that organizational trust is significant as a mediator.

The test results also showed that the ethical behavior dimension had the highest loading factor value (0.907) compared to other dimensions (proactive, innovative, and taking risks) (Table ). That meaning, dimension of ethical behavior has a dominant role in ethical entrepreneurial leadership.

5. Discussion, conclusion, recommendation, limitation, and future research

Based on reference studies and supported the results of previous research, this study found that organizational trust shows a significant positive effect on organizational sustainability. This means that increased organizational trust can significantly affect organizational sustainability. These results are in line with the results of research conducted by Yu et al. (Citation2018). Other findings indicate that organizational sustainability is not significantly influenced by ethical entrepreneurial leadership, which means an increase in ethical entrepreneurial leadership does not significantly improve organizational sustainability. This is different from the results of Slimane (Citation2012) and Metcalf and Benn (Citation2013), who stated that the style of a leader is the key to the success of the organization’s sustainability. On the other hand, ethical entrepreneurial leadership positively significantly influences organizational trust, which means that improving the ethics of entrepreneurial leadership can increase organizational trust. The results of the study were able to confirm some previous studies, which stated that an ethical leader had a significant effect on organizational trust (Engelbrecht, Citation2014; Gucel et al., Citation2012; E. Joseph & Wisnton, Citation2004; Engelbrecht et al., Citation2017)

The results of this study also found that organizational trust is positively capable of fully mediating the relationship between ethical entrepreneurial leadership and organizational trust. This means that organizational trust can make a positive contribution to the relationship between ethical entrepreneurial leadership and organizational sustainability.

Based on the results of this study, it is clear that organizational trust is an important factor in the relationship between ethical entrepreneurial leadership and organizational sustainability. In the results of research by Pucetaite (Citation2014) and Yanik (Citation2018) organizational trust significantly acts as a mediator in the relationship of ethical leadership with employee attitudes and behavior. Therefore, to improve the sustainability of an organization, organizational trust needs to be further enhanced. The results of this study mean that ethical entrepreneurial leadership is getting better, not necessarily able to make the organization sustainable, but it needs how the community trusts the existence of the organization. So, it is very important for every leader of the organization to always maintain and increase the trust of the community towards the organization, so as to maintain good relations. Thus the optimism of the long-term sustainability of the organization is maintained.

This research only increases the ethical leadership of entrepreneurship and organizational trust as a factor influencing organizational sustainability, while in reality business sustainability is influenced by several factors. Future research needs to consider including more relevant variables in analyzing business sustainability, especially the Village Credit Institution (LPD). To be generalized, research in other business fields needs to be done.

6. Managerial and social implications

The results of the study illustrate that the ethical behavior of a company/organization leader is very important, because this will have an impact on trust in the company/organization, and subsequently have an impact on sustainability in the longer term. Leaders of companies/organizations who have good morality/ethics tend to be respected by their employees so that employees will show their maximum abilities. This has an impact on employee performance that is getting better, and organizational performance is also getting better. Good employees and organizations will be able to bring the organization to grow in a sustainable manner.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

I. Wayan Gde Sarmawa

I. Wayan Gde Sarmawa is an associate professor of Economics and Business, Warmadewa University, Denpasar, Bali-Indonesia. Some studies have been conducted relating to human resource management, specifically in Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.

Anak Agung Dwi Widyani

Anak Agung Dwi Widyani is an associate professor of Economics and Business, Mahasaraswati University, Denpasar, Bali-Indonesia. The results of research carried out relating to human resource management in small and medium businesses.

Ida Ayu Putu Widani Sugianingrat

Ida Ayu Putu Widani Sugianingrat, is an associate professor of Economic, Business, and Tourism Hindu Indonesia University, Denpasar, Bali-Indonesia. Some studies have been conducted relating to human resource management, specifically in Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.

Ida Ayu Oka Martini

Ida Ayu Oka Martini, is an associate professor of Economics and Business, Mahasaraswati University, Denpasar, Bali-Indonesia. The results of research carried out relating to human resource management in small and medium businesses.

References

Appendix

Questionaries