【学术视点】领导对下属非伦理行为的影响

How Leaders Drive Followers' Unethical Behavior

（领导对下属非伦理行为的影响）

Salar Mesdaghinia, Robert Eisenberger, Xueqi Wen, Zihan Liu, Blaine Lewis, Feng Qiu, Debra L. Shapiro 

Journal of Management, Vol. 49 No. 7, 2023

Recommend Reason

Based on the 2018 Global Business Ethics Survey, it was found that in 18 countries, ranging from 10% to 47% of employees reported facing pressure to compromise ethical standards. Despite its prevalence and harmfulness, there is limited research on leader encouragement of unethical behaviors, with existing studies predominantly focusing on leaders’ abusive conduct towards their followers (e.g., hostility, insults, unfair treatment). This study addressed this gap by introducing the new concept of leader immorality encouragement, concerning about leaders’ direct and intentional encouragement of unethical behaviors for the sake of the organization.

About the Author

Salar Mesdaghinia, Eastern Michigan University

Robert Eisenberger, University of Houston 

Xueqi Wen, Tongji University 

Zihan Liu, University of Illinois Springfield 

Blaine Lewis, University of Houston 

Feng Qiu, University of Massachusetts Amherst 

Debra L. Shapiro, University of Maryland

Keywords 

Leader immorality encouragement; unethical pro-organizational behavior; leader- member exchange; leader's organizational status; self-serving unethical behavior

Brief Introduction

In this research, we introduced the concept of Leader Immorality Encouragement (LIE), defined as an employee’s perception that a leader encourages unethical behaviors on behalf of the organization. Examples of LIE include leaders asking employees to exaggerate the organization’s good qualities to customers and the public, as well as encouraging actions like cooking the books, stealing intellectual property, or overcharging clients. LIE can involve mild ethical violations (e.g., incorrectly claiming a company’s product is superior) or severe misconduct (e.g., hiding fatal design flaws in airplanes). Building upon social learning theory, we conducted four field studies to examine the effects of LIE on employee unethical behaviors. Our findings indicate that LIE could promote unethical pro-organizational behavior by making employees believe that such behaviors are expected and will be rewarded by the organization (reward expectancy). When exposed to LIE, employees learn that unethical behavior brings success and can be justified. This principle promotes moral disengagement, allowing employees to engage in both unethical pro-organizational behaviors and self-serving unethical behaviors. Moreover, the negative effects of LIE are especially prominent when employees have high-quality exchange relationships with the leader and when the leader has high organizational status, as leaders tend to have more respect, legitimacy, and power in these situations. Our research alerts managers and management scholars to the irony that LIE, intended by leaders to promote unethical actions benefiting the organization, may inadvertently promote unethical actions harming the organization.