IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ororsc/v22y2011i3p621-640.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When Employees Do Bad Things for Good Reasons: Examining Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth E. Umphress

    (Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843)

  • John B. Bingham

    (Department of Organizational Leadership and Strategy, Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84604)

Abstract

We propose that employees sometimes engage in unethical acts with the intent to benefit their organization, its members, or both---a construct we term unethical pro-organizational behavior . We suggest that positive social exchange relationships and organizational identification may lead to unethical pro-organizational behavior indirectly via neutralization, the process by which the moral content of unethical actions is overlooked. We incorporate situational and individual-level constructs as moderators of these relationships and consider managerial implications and future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth E. Umphress & John B. Bingham, 2011. "When Employees Do Bad Things for Good Reasons: Examining Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 621-640, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:22:y:2011:i:3:p:621-640
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1100.0559
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1100.0559
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/orsc.1100.0559?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yoav Vardi & Yoash Wiener, 1996. "Misbehavior in Organizations: A Motivational Framework," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(2), pages 151-165, April.
    2. Asare, Stephen K. & Wright, Arnold, 1995. "Normative and Substantive Expertise in Multiple Hypotheses Evaluation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 171-184, November.
    3. Klaus Uhlenbruck & Peter Rodriguez & Jonathan Doh & Lorraine Eden, 2006. "The Impact of Corruption on Entry Strategy: Evidence from Telecommunication Projects in Emerging Economies," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 402-414, June.
    4. Cohen-Charash, Yochi & Spector, Paul E., 2001. "The Role of Justice in Organizations: A Meta-Analysis," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 278-321, November.
    5. Velasquez, Manuel, 1996. "Why Ethics Matters: A Defense of Ethics in Business Organizations," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 201-222, April.
    6. Greenberg, Jerald, 1993. "Stealing in the Name of Justice: Informational and Interpersonal Moderators of Theft Reactions to Underpayment Inequity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 81-103, February.
    7. Brian Kulik & Michael O’Fallon & Manjula Salimath, 2008. "Do Competitive Environments Lead to the Rise and Spread of Unethical Behavior? Parallels from Enron," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(4), pages 703-723, December.
    8. Brown, Michael E. & Trevino, Linda K. & Harrison, David A., 2005. "Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 117-134, July.
    9. Greenberg, Jerald, 2002. "Who stole the money, and when? Individual and situational determinants of employee theft," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 985-1003, September.
    10. van Knippenberg, Daan & van Knippenberg, Barbara & van Dijk, Eric, 2000. "Who Takes the Lead in Risky Decision Making? Effects of Group Members' Risk Preferences and Prototypicality," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 213-234, November.
    11. Michael D. Pfarrer & Ken G. Smith & Kathryn M. Bartol & Dmitry M. Khanin & Xiaomeng Zhang, 2008. "Coming Forward: The Effects of Social and Regulatory Forces on the Voluntary Restatement of Earnings Subsequent to Wrongdoing," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 386-403, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Tang & Hsi Liu, 2012. "Love of Money and Unethical Behavior Intention: Does an Authentic Supervisor’s Personal Integrity and Character (ASPIRE) Make a Difference?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 295-312, May.
    2. Colquitt, Jason A. & Scott, Brent A. & Judge, Timothy A. & Shaw, John C., 2006. "Justice and personality: Using integrative theories to derive moderators of justice effects," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 110-127, May.
    3. Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara & Mercedes Viera-Armas, 2019. "Does Ethical Leadership Motivate Followers to Participate in Delivering Compassion?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 195-210, January.
    4. Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara & Miguel Suárez-Acosta, 2014. "Employees’ Reactions to Peers’ Unfair Treatment by Supervisors: The Role of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(4), pages 537-549, July.
    5. Yuh-Jia Chen & Thomas Tang, 2006. "Attitude Toward and Propensity to Engage in Unethical Behavior: Measurement Invariance across Major among University Students," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 69(1), pages 77-93, November.
    6. Ozgur Demirtas, 2015. "Ethical Leadership Influence at Organizations: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 273-284, January.
    7. Elisaveta Sardžoska & Thomas Tang, 2009. "Testing a Model of Behavioral Intentions in the Republic of Macedonia: Differences Between the Private and the Public Sectors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(4), pages 495-517, July.
    8. Ambrose, Maureen L., 2002. "Contemporary justice research: A new look at familiar questions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 803-812, September.
    9. Mehmet Ferhat Özbek & Mohammad Asif Yoldash & Thomas Li-Ping Tang, 2016. "Theory of Justice, OCB, and Individualism: Kyrgyz Citizens," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 365-382, August.
    10. Thuy-Van Tran & Sinikka Lepistö & Janne Järvinen, 2021. "The relationship between subjectivity in managerial performance evaluation and the three dimensions of justice perception," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 369-399, September.
    11. Robert Cialdini & Yexin Jessica Li & Adriana Samper & Ned Wellman, 2021. "How Bad Apples Promote Bad Barrels: Unethical Leader Behavior and the Selective Attrition Effect," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(4), pages 861-880, February.
    12. Kim, Andrea & Moon, Jinhee & Shin, Jiseon, 2019. "Justice perceptions, perceived insider status, and gossip at work: A social exchange perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 30-42.
    13. Elisaveta Sardžoska & Thomas Tang, 2012. "Work-Related Behavioral Intentions in Macedonia: Coping Strategies, Work Environment, Love of Money, Job Satisfaction, and Demographic Variables," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 108(3), pages 373-391, July.
    14. Elizabeth Umphress & Lily Ren & John Bingham & Celile Gogus, 2009. "The Influence of Distributive Justice on Lying for and Stealing from a Supervisor," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 86(4), pages 507-518, June.
    15. Emmanuel Osafo & Amy Paros & Robert M. Yawson, 2021. "Valence–Instrumentality–Expectancy Model of Motivation as an Alternative Model for Examining Ethical Leadership Behaviors," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, June.
    16. Joaquín Camps & Antonio Majocchi, 2010. "Learning Atmosphere and Ethical Behavior, Does It Make Sense?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(1), pages 129-147, June.
    17. Benjamin Van Rooij & Adam Fine, 2018. "Toxic Corporate Culture: Assessing Organizational Processes of Deviancy," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-38, June.
    18. Thomas Tang & Toto Sutarso, 2013. "Falling or Not Falling into Temptation? Multiple Faces of Temptation, Monetary Intelligence, and Unethical Intentions Across Gender," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(3), pages 529-552, September.
    19. Kedar Bhatt, 2020. "Measuring service fairness and its impact on service quality and satisfaction: a study of Indian Banking Services," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(1), pages 35-44, June.
    20. Thomas Tang & Yuh-Jia Chen, 2008. "Intelligence Vs. Wisdom: The Love of Money, Machiavellianism, and Unethical Behavior across College Major and Gender," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 82(1), pages 1-26, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:22:y:2011:i:3:p:621-640. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.