Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior Research Articles

Ethical leadership and follower unethical pro-organizational behavior: examining the dual influence mechanisms of affective and continuance commitments

This paper aims to examine the indirect effects of ethical leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). We primarily examine how two types of organizational commitment (i.e. affective commitment and continuance commitment) mediate the effect of the supervisors’ ethical leadership on their followers’ UPB. Collecting data from 291 employees in South Korea, at two points in time, we found that ethical leadership has a negative relationship with follower UPB through affective commitment and has a positive relationship with follower UPB through continuance commitment. Furthermore, follower organizational identification moderates the mediation processes, which makes the affective commitment-UPB relationship more negative but the continuance commitment-UPB relationship more positive when the followers more closely identify with their organization. We also discuss the theoretical contributions and practical implications.

Abusive supervision and employee unethical pro-organizational behavior: a moderated mediation model of moral disengagement and traditionality

PurposeThis study aims to understand how abusive supervision influences employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). In particular, the mediating effect of moral disengagement and moderating role of traditionality on this relationship were examined.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a two-wave questionnaire survey using data collected from 629 employees from different companies in China. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that moral disengagement mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ UPB. Employee traditionality enhances the relationship between abusive supervision and moral disengagement as well as the indirect effect of abusive supervision on employees’ UPB via moral disengagement.Originality/valueFirst, by exploring the positive impact of abusive supervision on UPB, the authors enhance the current understanding of the role of negative leadership in the development of UPB and enrich the research on the antecedents of UPB and outcomes of abusive supervision. Second, based on social cognitive theory, this study enriches the literature on abusive supervision and employee UPB by identifying moral disengagement as a mediator. Third, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors are among the first to incorporate traditionality to tell a Chinese story about how traditional employees respond to the effects of abusive supervision on UPB, providing a new lens for the cultural boundary condition in the occurrence mechanism of UPB.

The nonlinear impact of perceptions of organizational politics on unethical pro-organizational behavior in Chinese culture: Moderating role of Zhongyong

The nonlinear impact of perceptions of organizational politics on unethical pro-organizational behavior in Chinese culture: Moderating role of Zhongyong

The Influence of High-commitment Human Resource Management on Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior: The Moderating Role of the Perceived Organizational Support in Nigeria

The Influence of High-commitment Human Resource Management on Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior: The Moderating Role of the Perceived Organizational Support in Nigeria

Cleansing or Licensing? Corporate Social Responsibility Reconciles the Competing Effects of Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior on Moral Self-Regulation

Although emerging actor-centric research has revealed that performing morally laden behaviors shapes how employees behave subsequently, less is known about what work behaviors may emerge following employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB)—a unique behavior with competing moral connotations. We integrate the moral self-regulation literature with research on micro corporate social responsibility (CSR) to develop and test a theoretical framework articulating how perceived CSR initiatives reconcile the morally paradoxical nature of UPB and how people respond to such behavior. We propose that, given its dual moral nature, performing UPB simultaneously increases feelings of moral deficit (which triggers moral cleansing) and psychological entitlement (which triggers moral licensing). Importantly, perceived CSR initiatives moderate these countervailing psychological experiences by strengthening feelings of moral deficit while weakening psychological entitlement, which respectively result in increased service-oriented helping behavior and decreased deviant behavior. Results from a scenario-based lab study, an online experiment, and two field studies largely corroborate our propositions. This research provides a finer-grained understanding of the complex moral self-regulation processes that employees experience at work and highlights why and how organizations’ CSR initiatives affect employees’ moral mindsets and behaviors.

Structural relationships of high-performance work systems and unethical pro-organizational behaviors and the multiple mediating role of moral identity and psychological ownership

Structural relationships of high-performance work systems and unethical pro-organizational behaviors and the multiple mediating role of moral identity and psychological ownership

Types of Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior: Perspective of Self-determination Theory

Types of Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior: Perspective of Self-determination Theory

How Does Collective Moral Judgment Induce Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors in Infrastructure Construction Projects: The Mediating Role of Machiavellianism.

The sustainable development of infrastructure construction projects heavily depends on favorable cooperation of all parties and ethical code of conduct, while Un-ethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) may undermine the mutual efforts and cause serious consequences. UPB has aroused wide interest of researchers, but what may trigger construction employees to engage in UPB at team-level has not been elucidated completely. With information asymmetry and huge uncertainty, the behaviors of employees in temporary project teams are marked by environmental and personal characters. The study discusses the influences of collective moral judgement focus on self (CMJS) and Machiavellianism on UPB. Through a moderated mediation analysis conducted on a set of survey data from Chinese construction projects, the empirical results of the two-level hierarchical linear model indicate that CMJS positively impacts UPB directly, and meanwhile Machiavellianism acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between CMJS and UPB. The findings also reveal that performance-avoidance goal orientation (PAGO) and motivation to learn (MTL) moderate and strengthen the relationship between Machiavellianism and UPB. The study offers practical suggestions for both project managers and policymakers of construction projects.

Psychological safety as a precedent to unethical pro-organizational behavior: A social exchange analysis

Purpose. This study aims to investigate how psychological safety act as an antecedent of unethical pro-organizational behavior. Drawing from social exchange theory, we examine the role ofjob insecurity as a mediating variable along with moderation of employee proactive personality onthe said association. Study design. Data were collected using a survey structured questionnaire fromChinese managers (N = 135) from service and manufacturing companies in Hefei. Smart PLS was usedto analyze the data. Findings. The result showed that job insecurity mediated the relationship between psychological safety and unethical pro-organizational behavior. However, the results also revealed that a proactive personality does not moderate the relationship between psychological safety and job insecurity. Findings also suggest that supervisors should be conscious that workers who are at risk of being firedmaybe engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior just to keep their job safe. Such behavior can beharmful to the company in the long term, so managers must be careful and prompt in upsetting such behavior. Implications for practice. By statistically evaluating relationships between psychological safety and unethical pro-organizational behavior, the findings provide insight into social exchange theory and practice in the service and manufacturing industries. In the long run, managers must understand factors other than moral principles that influence employee commitment. Originality. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that precisely investigates psychological safety as an antecedent of unethical pro-organizational conduct with the mediation function of job insecurity.

Predictive validity of integrity tests for workplace deviance across industries and countries in the past 50 years: A meta-analytic review

The current meta-analysis provides a comprehensive and updated review on integrity-testing findings across industries and countries in the past 50 years (k = 150, N = 67,016). Integrity tests were coded into the types of overt tests, covert tests, biodata, organizational measures, value/moral reasoning/situational judgment tests, integrity-related cognitive ability tests, and novel measures. The criterion measures of workplace deviance included CWBs, unethical pro-organizational behaviors, and other workplace deviant behaviors. For the information source, both computer and manual searches were performed to locate relevant published and unpublished papers. A variety of sources were examined to avoid publication bias, and publication bias analyses were conducted to uphold the methodological rigor. Results indicated that all the integrity tests analyzed were significant in predicting workplace deviance, with an overall mean validity estimate corrected for indirect range restriction and measurement error as .43 (95% CI [.32; .52]; p < .001). Among the tests, the value-oriented tests and cognitive ability tests indicated relatively large validity estimates of .60 (95% CI [.41; .75]; p < .001) and .65 (95% CI [.53; .74]; p < .001), respectively. The relationship between integrity tests and workplace deviance was found to be significantly moderated by the type of integrity test, industry, country, and criterion source. The effect size of integrity tests was largest in predicting deviance in the military and law enforcement sector, and relatively large in the work samples of Canada, Germany, Israel, Romania, and the United States. However, the moderating effects of the nature of deviance, validation sample, validation strategy, publication status, medium of test, and gender, were nonsignificant. Compared with previous reviews, our study was unique in its cross-cultural direction, which included primary studies of integrity testing in countries with different languages (e.g., publications in Chinese) and associated cultural variations. New insights and comparisons with previous meta-analytic findings were discussed.

Perceived Ethical Climate and Unethical Behavior: The Moderating Role of Moral Identity

Unethical behavior in organizations results in significant negative outcomes, including financial impacts such as decreased shareholder value and profitability as well as non-financial impacts such as poor employee morale and reputation. This research empirically examines the moderating role of moral identity on the relation between ethical climate perceptions and unethical behavior as reflected by moral disengagement, unethical pro-organizational behavior, and ethical judgment. Moral identity was hypothesized to moderate the impact of ethical climate on unethical behavior such that higher levels of moral identity reduced the propensity to engage in unethical behavior in all ethical climate types. Moral identity internalization, but not moral identity symbolization, was found to have significant correlations with unethical behavior as well as the predicted moderating effects on the relationships between ethical climates and unethical behavior. Theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Types of Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior: Perspective of Self-Determination Theory

The research topic of unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) has gained increasing popularity all around the world. Yet, it's worth noting that scholars' understanding of its connotation and type is still vague and inconsistent.

Research on the consequences of employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior: The moderating role of moral identity.

In recent years, employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) has become a social hot issue. This behavior benefits their organization or colleagues while violating core social ethics. Numerous studies have predominately focused on identifying the antecedents and formation mechanisms of UPB. However, only a few studies have focused on the effects and outcomes of UPB. Moreover, guilt triggered by unethical behaviors can motivate individuals to adopt pro-social behaviors, but studies on the effects of UPB on pro-social behavior of actors are rather limited. Therefore, this study explores the underlying relationship between employees' UPB and their own pro-environmental behavior based on the conservation of resources theory. Through collecting data (N = 319) from a Chinese online survey company in different time intervals, the theoretical model was tested by the application of Amos 27.0 and SPSS 25.0 for analysis of the data. The CFA, descriptive analysis, hierarchical regression were illustrated in the article. This study demonstrated that, through emotions of guilt, employees' UPB is negatively correlated with their own environmental protection act. While this relationship is being examined, moral identity plays this mediating role, which can moderate the indirect relationship between employees' UPB and their environmental behavior through guilt. The purpose of the research was to identify the influence mechanisms that contribute to employees' pro-organizational but unethical behavior. With guilt serving as the mediating variable and moral identity serving as the moderating variable, a research model built on the principle of the conservation of resources theory was constructed. This research examines the impact mechanism and boundary conditions of UPB on individual pro-environmental behaviors from the perspective of employees. This paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the report's results.

You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours: Unethical pro-organizational behavior and deviance in response to different psychological contract states

In this multi-study paper, we integrate Social Exchange Theory and the discretionary workplace behavior literature. Specifically, we posit that by breaching their psychological contract (PC) obligations, organizations may trigger negative reciprocity, which in turn may increase deviant behavior. Moreover, we posit that by fulfilling their legitimately PC obligations, organizations may trigger positive reciprocity, which in turn may increase unethical pro-organizational behavior. Across two studies (3-wave field study with traditional breach measure and 2-wave field study with expanded breach measure and polynomial regression), we found repeated evidence for our hypotheses. Specifically, we found that PC breach (Study 1) and PC under-fulfillment (Study 2) are positively related to the enactment of organizational deviance via negative reciprocity. Furthermore, we found that PC fulfillment (Study 1) and high absolute levels of PC fulfillment (Study 2) are positively related to unethical pro-organizational behavior via positive reciprocity. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Formation Mechanism of Pro-organizational Rule-breaking Behavior from the Perspective of Digitalization Transformation

Pro-organizational Rule-breaking Behavior (PORB) is a negative organizational behavior which seems conceptually harmful to organizations. However, PORB can both be beneficial to organizations from the perspective of organizational value, and helpful to the facilitation of organizational performance or organizational innovation. PORB is actually acquiesced and encouraged by organizations in a way. In the context of digitalization transformation, due to the turbulent VUCA environment and competitive pressure, PORB even has a tendency to increase. Therefore, the correlative research questions as follows are put forward naturally. How to evaluate PORB objectively? Why do employees know that the behavior violates the organizational rules but still commit it? Is it essentially an individual problem of the employees or a problem of the organizational rules? What are the causes and mechanisms of PORB? There have been many researches on Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior and Pro-social Rule-breaking Behavior, which are closely related to PORB. However, there is neither systematically theoretical support nor efficient guiding measures on PORB for enterprise practice for the time being. Our research aims to study the formation mechanism of PORB in the context of digitalization transformation, which can not only develop the elementary theory of PORB, but also broaden the theories of Pro-social Rule-breaking Behavior and Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior. In practice, the results of our research can promote both the organizational management and governance of PORB.

The hidden dark side of empowering leadership: The moderating role of hindrance stressors in explaining when empowering employees can promote moral disengagement and unethical pro-organizational behavior.

The majority of theory and research on empowering leadership to date has focused on how empowering leader behaviors influence employees, portraying those behaviors as almost exclusively beneficial. We depart from this predominant consensus to focus on the potential detriments of empowering leadership for employees. Drawing from the social cognitive theory of morality, we propose that empowering leadership can unintentionally increase employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), and that it does so by increasing their levels of moral disengagement. Specifically, we propose that hindrance stressors create a reversing effect, such that empowering leadership increases (vs. decreases) moral disengagement when hindrance stressors are higher (vs. lower). Ultimately, we argue for a positive or negative indirect effect of empowering leadership on UPB through moral disengagement. We find support for our predictions in both a time-lagged field study (Study 1) and a scenario-based experiment using an anagram cheating task (Study 2). We thus highlight the impact that empowering leadership can have on unethical behavior, providing answers to both why and when the dark side of empowering leadership behavior occurs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of Idiosyncratic Deals, Psychological Contract, Job Satisfaction and Environmental Turbulence on Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior

Corporate ethics is an important part of corporate sustainable development. Sustainability is not only about the environment but also about the well-being of employees, including job satisfaction (JS), the Psychological contract (PC), etc. Among them, to organize relationships with other stakeholders, the unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) of employees not only damages the corporate image and reputation but even threatens the sustainable development of the enterprise. In this context, the influencing factors that induce UPB should be analyzed and considered. Based on social exchange theory and social cognitive theory, this research explores how idiosyncratic deals (I-deals) affect employees’ intention to perform UPB through the PC and JS from the viewpoint of employee-organization relationships, and the moderating role of environmental turbulence in it. The research sample was drawn from 377 employees working in China, manufacturing companies. The questionnaire was distributed at two time points. In the first questionnaire, the employees who participated in the survey answered information such as idiosyncratic deals, the PC, JS and environmental turbulence (ET). After 1 month, employees responded to UPB messages. The research hypotheses were tested analytically using SPSS 23.0 and Amos 23.0. The survey showed that I-deals had a beneficial impact on UPB. The psychological contract and JS also mediated the influence on I-deals on UPB. The positive relationship between I-deals and UPB through the chain mediated effect of PC and JS. Moreover, ET positively moderates the relationship between I-deals and UPB, the higher the ET, the stronger the relationship between I-deals and UPB. Conversely, the lower.

비윤리적 친조직 행동이 고용의도에 미치는 영향

Tremendous costs created by corporate scandals have enhanced social and scholarly attention to employee unethical behaviors. Among various types of unethical behaviors, unethical pro-organizational behaviors (UPB), with their unique qualities of unethicality and pro-organizational orientation, elicit ambivalent attitudes from observers. Shifting from previous approaches that focused on either actors or ingroup observers, the current research aimed to explore the attitudes of outgroup observers toward a hypothetical job applicant who either engaged in or refused to engage in UPB. Especially, drawing on moral utility theory (Hirsh et al., 2018) that considers subjective expected utility of behaviors, the current research explored how observers’ consideration of future consequences moderates the relationship between collectivistic orientation and reaction to the applicant’s UPB history. The current online experimental study involved hypothetical scenarios, and analysis was conducted on 173 workers in Korea who completed both questionnaires with two waves. First, participants preferred candidates with no UPB-related episode over others, supporting Hypothesis 1. Second, consistent with Hypothesis 2, the three-way interaction among UPB condition, collectivistic orientation, and consideration of future consequences was supported. Specifically, in UPB condition, when consideration of future consequences is high, collectivistic orientation was positively associated with hiring intentions; however, when consideration of future consequences is low, collectivistic orientation was negatively associated with hiring intentions. Finally, Hypothesis 3 was not supported because the higher the collectivistic orientation, the higher the hiring intentions, regardless of the level of consideration of future consequences. This study contributed to expanding UPB research by comprehensively considering the response of third parties to the applicant’s UPB history and empirically testing the effects of moderating variables. Finally, based on the research findings, we provided practical implications.

Standing in customers' shoes: How responsible leadership inhibits unethical pro-organizational behavior.

Although the negative impact of responsible leadership on employees' unethical pro-organizational behavior has been documented in the literature, little is known about its underlying processes and boundaries. Drawing on social information processing theory and social learning theory, we built a moderated mediation model to explain why and when unethical pro-organizational behavior could be inhibited by responsible leadership. We conducted a two-phase questionnaire survey to collect data. The empirical results based on the sample of 557 Chinese salespeople showed that customer-oriented perspective taking partially mediated the negative link between responsible leadership and unethical pro-organizational behavior and that leader competence strengthened the direct effects of responsible leadership on customer-oriented perspective taking and unethical pro-organizational behavior as well as the indirect effect of responsible leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior via customer-oriented perspective taking. These findings enrich the current understanding of how responsible leadership relates to unethical pro-organizational behavior, extend the limited literature on customer-oriented perspective taking, and offer some suggestions that managers can follow to inhibit unethical pro-organizational behavior. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Unethical pro-organizational behavior: how employee ethical ideology and unethical organizational culture contribute

PurposeThe corporate atmosphere in recent times speaks volumes about the crises of confidence and credibility brewing among professionals due to the rising incidences of unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). The study developed a model to demonstrate the underlying mechanisms through which unethical organizational culture (UOC) influences UPB through the mediating roles of idealism and relativism.Design/methodology/approachUsing a cross-sectional approach, data were collected through questionnaires that were distributed to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the Plateau state in Nigeria. A total of 269 responses were obtained and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique via Smart-PLS software.FindingsThe results revealed that the relationship between UOC and UPB was significant. The indirect predictive role of UOC on UPB was established via relativism but not through idealism. The results indicate that the preponderance of UPB among SMEs is a product of UOC which breeds a relativist ideology that ultimately promotes UPB. Finally, implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.Originality/valueThis study contributes to UPB in two unique ways. First, the authors bring to the fore the critical role of UOC in the debate on UPB which has been under-explored. Second, the study also established the mediating role of relativism in the relationship between UOC and UPB.