Leader Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior and Employee Unethical Conduct: Social Learning of Moral Disengagement as a Behavioral Principle

Unethical behavior in organizations has attracted much attention among researchers, yet we know little about when and why unethical behavior conducted by leaders that is intended to benefit the organization—or leader unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB)—might translate into employee unethical...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of management Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 350 - 379
Main Authors: Lian, Huiwen, Huai, Mingyun, Farh, Jiing-Lih, Huang, Jia-Chi, Lee, Cynthia, Chao, Melody M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.02.2022
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects:
Behavior
Disengagement
Employees
Estate agents
Ethics
Morality
Organizational behavior
Power
Real estate
Social & emotional learning
Social factors
Social learning
social learning
power distance
moral disengagement
leader unethical pro-organizational behavior
principle learning
ISSN:0149-2063, 1557-1211
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Unethical behavior in organizations has attracted much attention among researchers, yet we know little about when and why unethical behavior conducted by leaders that is intended to benefit the organization—or leader unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB)—might translate into employee unethical behavior. Drawing on a social-learning-of-principle perspective, which proposes that people can learn the principles that govern observed behaviors, we propose that employees, especially those with a high power distance orientation, can abstract and learn a moral disengagement behavioral principle by observing leader UPB. This learned moral disengagement behavioral principle then enables them to engage in unethical behaviors that may be intended to benefit or harm their organizations. In two multiwave field studies with data collected from real estate agents, we found overall support for our theoretical model but the moderating effect of power distance orientation. We discuss some key theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0149-2063
1557-1211
DOI:10.1177/0149206320959699