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 language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 333-346 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Business and Psychology |
Volume | 35 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 1 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
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)