Machiavellian Leadership And Subordinates Corruption Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

This study explains how and when a Machiavellian leader induces corruption behavior among followers using the social cognitive theory of moral disengagement. We used eight mechanisms of moral disengagement and two boundary conditions namely followers’ moral identity and anticipated guilt to explain this causal relationship. Using a time-lagged design data were obtained from 264 employees of public and private sector organizations of Pakistan. The results showed that Machiavellian leadership is positively linked with followers’ corruption behavior and mechanisms of followers’ moral disengagement mediate this relationship. The followers’ moral identity significantly moderated the relationship of Machiavellian leadership with overall moral disengagement and its dimensions except for advantageous comparison, attribution of blame, and dehumanization. The effect of overall as well as eight mechanisms of moral disengagement on followers’ corruption behavior was negatively moderated by the followers’ anticipated guilt. The followers with lower levels of moral identity and anticipated guilt were more likely to be corruption-prone and vice versa. Overall findings could be useful in the prevention of corruption behavior through moral identity and anticipated guilt in organizational settings.