Abstract

Employee burnout has become an important issue in most of the organizations. However, the previous literature investigating the role of ethical leadership have received relatively little attention in relation to employees’ burnout. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of ethical leadership on employee burnout, and the mediating role of employees' trust in the relationship between ethical leadership behavior and employee burnout in the public sector hospitals of Pakistan. This research utilized a survey strategy and data was collected from 203 doctors through the convenience sampling technique. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 in order to test the hypothesized model. This research found a(i) negative and significant relationship between ethical leadership and employee’s burnout, (ii) positive and significant relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ trust (iii) negative and significant association between employees’trust and employee’s burnout, and (iv) that employees’ trust mediates between the relationship of ethical leadership and employee’s burnout. Findings of this research show that organizations should promote ethical leadership behaviors thereby fostering employees' trust leading towards minimizing employees’ experiencing burnout. Lastly, limitations and suggestions for further research are provided.

Key words: Ethical Leadership; Employees’ Trust; Employees’ Burnout