<p>In recent years, ethical leadership has gained renewed attention for its role in mitigating employee unethical deviant behavior. However, most research has adopted a single theoretical framework and examined the ethical leadership - deviant behavior relationship from a macro perspective, leaving a gap in understanding its specific impacts. This study explores the mediating effects of organizational commitment and organizational identification between ethical leadership and deviant behavior within state-owned enterprises, characterized by top-down organizational structures, using cognitive-affective system theory as a framework. Data was collected from 603 employees in the retail sector of state-owned enterprises in Guangxi Province, China, using the ethical leadership scale, organizational commitment scale, organizational identification scale, and deviant behavior scale. Structural equation modeling, conducted via SPSS 22 and AMOS 24, revealed that ethical leadership positively influenced both organizational commitment and organizational identification. While ethical leadership did not directly affect deviant behavior, organizational commitment and organizational identification significantly and negatively impacted deviant behavior, fully mediating the relationship between ethical leadership and deviant behavior. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which ethical leadership can reduce deviant behavior, offering valuable insights for addressing workplace deviance in state-owned enterprises and contributing to the broader research field.</p>