TY - JOUR
T1 - Leader Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior and Employee Unethical Conduct
T2 - Social Learning of Moral Disengagement as a Behavioral Principle
AU - Lian, Huiwen
AU - Huai, Mingyun
AU - Farh, Jiing Lih
AU - Huang, Jia Chi
AU - Lee, Cynthia
AU - Chao, Melody M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - leader unethical pro-organizational behavior
KW - moral disengagement
KW - power distance
KW - principle learning
KW - social learning
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U2 - 10.1177/0149206320959699
DO - 10.1177/0149206320959699
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85091806080
SN - 0149-2063
VL - 48
SP - 350
EP - 379
JO - Journal of Management
JF - Journal of Management
IS - 2
ER -