When Employees Do Bad Things for Good Reasons: Examining Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors
Elizabeth E. Umphress, John B. Bingham
Organization Science · 2011 · Volume 22 · Issue 3
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.
Keywords
unethical behavior, social exchange, organizational identification, ethics, moral disengagement, neutralization, guilt, shame, amoral culture, severity
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