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Employees’ Reactions to Peers’ Unfair Treatment by Supervisors: The Role of Ethical Leadership

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  • Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara
  • Miguel Suárez-Acosta

Abstract

Little is known about employee reactions in the form of un/ethical behavior to perceived acts of unfairness toward their peers perpetrated by the supervisor. Based on prior work suggesting that third parties also make fairness judgments and respond to the way employees are treated, this study first suggests that perceptions of interactional justice for peers (IJP) lead employees to two different responses to injustice at work: deviant workplace behaviors (DWBs) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Second, based on prior literature pointing to supervisors as among the most important sources of moral guidance at work, a mediating role is proposed for ethical leadership. The article suggests that supervisors who inflict acts of injustice on staff will be perceived as unethical leaders, and that these perceptions would explain why employees react to IJP in the form of deviance (DWBs) and citizenship (OCBs). Data were collected from 204 hotel employees. Results of structural equation modeling demonstrate that DWBs and OCBs are substantive reactions to IJP, whereas ethical leadership significantly mediates reactions in the form of DWBs and OCBs. Behavioral ethics and managerial implications are discussed. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:122:y:2014:i:4:p:537-549
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1778-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Turillo, Carmelo Joseph & Folger, Robert & Lavelle, James J. & Umphress, Elizabeth E. & Gee, Julie O., 2002. "Is virtue its own reward? Self-sacrificial decisions for the sake of fairness," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 839-865, September.
    2. Lind, E. Allan & Kray, Laura & Thompson, Leigh, 1998. "The Social Construction of Injustice: Fairness Judgments in Response to Own and Others' Unfair Treatment by Authorities, , ," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 1-22, July.
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    7. Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, Pablo & Aguiar-Quintana, Teresa & Suárez-Acosta, Miguel A., 2013. "A justice framework for understanding how guests react to hotel employee (mis)treatment," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 143-152.
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    Cited by:

    1. Benjamin Van Rooij & Adam Fine, 2018. "Toxic Corporate Culture: Assessing Organizational Processes of Deviancy," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-38, June.

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