Purpose: The objective of this research is to investigate how ethical leadership (EL) directly or indirectly impacts adaptive performance (AP) within the hospitality industry, focusing on the mediation of trust in leaders (TiL) and job crafting (JC).
Design/methodology/approach: Data were gathered from 328 employees and 66 leaders across 28 hotels in central and northern areas of Pakistan using a time-lagged methodology. Structural equation modeling was applied for data analysis using SPSS and AMOS.