Leading with Green Ethics: How Environmentally Specific Ethical Leadership Enhances Employee Job Performance Through Communication and Engagement

This study investigates how environmentally specific ethical leadership (ESEL) enhances employee job performance in public healthcare organizations by examining the sequential mediating roles of communication competence and work engagement. Grounded in Social Learning Theory and the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) model, this study further explores the moderating effect of emotional regulation in this green leadership–performance linkage. Data were collected from 384 healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, and administrative staff, in public hospitals across Jordan using a cross-sectional survey design. Structural equation modeling (SEM) via SmartPLS was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. The results reveal that ESEL significantly improves job performance by fostering environmentally responsible communication and enhancing employee engagement. Specifically, the findings support a sequential mediation process: ESEL cultivates communication competence, which promotes work engagement, ultimately leading to higher performance. Furthermore, emotional regulation strengthens these relationships, suggesting that employees with greater self-regulatory capacity respond more positively to green ethical leadership. This study extends the literature on sustainable human resource management by uncovering how ESEL fosters pro-environmental behavior and high performance in ethically sensitive contexts such as healthcare. In practical terms, the findings emphasize the need for healthcare organizations to embed sustainability-focused communication and emotional regulation skills into leadership training to support green transition goals.