Professional Evaluation of Ethical Leadership and Employee Work Engagement in Nigerian Public Sector Organisations

Ethical leadership is a foundational driver of employee work engagement and public sector service quality, and professional evaluation of this relationship in Nigerian public sector organisations provides evidence for leadership development priorities. This study evaluated the relationship between ethical leadership behaviours and employee work engagement across 10 federal and state public sector organisations in Plateau, Niger, and Lagos States. Ethical leadership was measured using Brown's Ethical Leadership Scale, assessing fairness, integrity, concern for employees, role clarification, and ethical decision standards. Employee work engagement was assessed using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale covering vigour, dedication, and absorption dimensions. Data were collected from 350 public sector employees through structured questionnaires. Structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression were employed. Results confirmed that ethical leadership was a significant positive predictor of overall work engagement (standardised coefficient = 0.58, p < 0.001). Fairness had the strongest effect on dedication (coefficient = 0.51, p < 0.001). Integrity-based leadership was most strongly associated with vigour (coefficient = 0.47, p < 0.001). Public sector employees working under ethical leaders were 2.9 times more likely to report high engagement levels than those under leaders perceived as unethical. Trust in leadership fully mediated the ethical leadership-engagement relationship. The study concludes that ethical leadership development is the highest-leverage intervention for improving work engagement in Nigerian public sector organisations and recommends integration of ethical leadership modules in all Head of Service leadership development programmes. Keywords: ethical leadership, work engagement, public sector, Nigeria, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale