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The relationship between ethical leadership and unethical pro-organizational behavior: linear or curvilinear effects?

journal contribution
posted on 2013-09-01, 00:00 authored by Q Miao, Alexander Newman, J Yu, L Xu
In this study, we examine the nature of the relationship between ethical leadership and unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), defined as unethical behavior conducted by employees with the aim of benefiting their organization, and whether the strength of the relationship differs between subordinates experiencing high and low identification with supervisor. Based on three-wave survey data obtained from 239 public sector employees in China, we find that ethical leadership has an inverted u-shaped (curvilinear) relationship with UPB. As the level of ethical leadership increases from low to moderate, UPB increases; as the level of ethical leadership increases from moderate to high, UPB decreases. Further, we find that the strength of this inverted u-curve relationship differs between subordinates with high and low identification with supervisor. That is to say, the inverted u-shaped relationship between ethical leadership and UPB was stronger when subordinates experienced high levels of identification with supervisor. The theoretical and managerial implications of our findings for understanding how to manage UPB in an organizational context are discussed. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

History

Journal

Journal of business ethics

Volume

116

Issue

3

Pagination

641 - 653

Publisher

Springer

Location

Ann Arbor, Mich

ISSN

0167-4544

eISSN

1573-0697

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal; C Journal article

Copyright notice

2013, Springer