The malevolent side of organizational identification: unraveling the impact of psychological entitlement and manipulative personality on unethical work behaviors

Saima Naseer, Dave Bouckenooghe, Fauzia Syed, Abdul Karim Khan, Shadab Qazi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study expands the behavioral ethics literature by unraveling how and when the malevolent side of organizational identification promotes unethical work behaviors (i.e., pro-organizational and self-interested). Specifically, we examine whether employees’ engagement in unethical pro-organizational behaviors may be caused by overidentifying with their organization, which yields a sense of psychological entitlement that fosters careerist orientation and counterproductive work behaviors. We also hypothesize that psychological entitlement has an indirect effect contingent on employees’ manipulative personality. We used a multi-wave, two-source research design and collected data from 306 employees and their peers in Pakistan’s service sector. The data support the mediated effect between organizational identification and unethical pro-organizational behaviors through enhanced feelings of psychological entitlement. We also found that the impact of organizational identification on psychological entitlement was more pronounced among employees with higher manipulative personality scores.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)333-346
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Business and Psychology
Volume35
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 1 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Careerism
  • Counterproductive work behaviors
  • Manipulative personality
  • Organizational identification
  • Psychological entitlement
  • Unethical pro-organizational behaviors

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business and International Management
  • Business, Management and Accounting(all)
  • Applied Psychology
  • Psychology(all)

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