Public administration scholars have continued to be interested in organizational
performance and have attempted to understand its influencing factors. Public sector
organizational performance is vital because it helps the sector accomplish better with
limited resources. In the private sector, there is conclusive evidence of organizational
performance and the factors that influence it. However, the issue is largely unknown and
under-researched in the public sector, particularly in the Somali context. Thus, grounded
in social capital and social learning theories, the study aims to unveil the impact of ethical
leadership on public sector organizational performance in Somalia via the underlying
mechanism of organizational social capital. Data were gathered from 343 public servants
in two Somali regional administrations (the Banadir and Jubaland). SmartPLS 4 software
was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the ethical leadership of publicsector organizations positively and significantly impacts both public-sector organizational
performance and organizational social capital. Moreover, the findings showed that social
capital partially mediates the association between ethical leadership and public-sector
organizational performance. The results of this study have important implications for
policymakers and public sector leaders in Somalia. The present study is the first to model
the mediating effect of public-sector organizational social capital in the association between
ethical leadership and public sector organizational performance in Somalia.