Why Committed Employees May or May Not Engage in UPB: The Central Role of Future Time Perspective

Abstract

Taking the future time perspective, we proposed and tested a theoretical model of organizational commitment and unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) in which affective (organizational) commitment and continuance (organizational) commitment induces different considerations of future consequences, which in turn influence unethical pro-organizational behavior. Based on analyses of one time-lagged field study and one vignette-based experimental study, we found that affective commitment is positively related to consideration of long-term future consequences but continuance commitment is positively related to consideration of short-term immediate consequences. Furthermore, we found a negative indirect relationship between affective commitment and UPB via the mediation of consideration of long-term consequences but a positive indirect relationship between continuance commitment and UPB via the mediation of consideration of short-term consequences. The paper concludes with discussions of theoretical and practical implications.