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Introduction
There has been an increase in organizational malfeasance in recent years, and we are seeing more and more instances of employees acting unethically for personal or organizational gain, with or without the approval of their supervisor. According to research findings, employees in organizations frequently engage in unethical behavior for personal gain, to retaliate against or harm the organization or coworkers (Shah et al., 2022; Ahmad et al., 2021; Umphress et al., 2010). Although unethical behavior at work is undesirable, there is a growing body of research indicating that individuals may engage in unethical behavior to assist another person or even the organization (Lian et al., 2022; Umphress et al., 2020; Porcena et al., 2021). Scholars (Umphress et al., 2010; Ghosh, 2015; Man et al., 2020) have contributed to this theoretical and empirical debate by raising the issue of unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). UPB is said to occur when sales representatives mislead customers/clients about the efficacy of their products to increase sales (for their organizations) or when an accountant falsifies financial reports to reduce their company's tax liability.
Scholars have been preoccupied with explaining the UPB phenomenon via various antecedents and its implications for organizations and their stakeholders (Tang et al., 2022; Miao et al., 2020; Fehr et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2019). According to research, unethical leadership influences UPB indirectly through reflective moral attentiveness (Miao et al., 2020), whereas responsible leadership is negatively associated with UPB (Cheng et al., 2019). Such findings emphasize the importance of leadership and organizational culture in influencing UPB, as an organization's culture is largely determined by its leaders. In addition, the ethical ideology prevailing within an organization may be the reason why employees regard their unethical behaviors as acceptable, indicating the potential mediating role of ethical ideologies (i.e. idealism vs relativism) in the relationship between unethical organizational culture (UOC) and UPB. We argue for a direct and indirect relationship between UOC and UPB via the ethical ideologies of idealism and relativism, under social identity, social exchange, social learning and ethical theory.
In theory, employees' reactions to job insecurity can lead to impression management (Ghosh, 2015; Huang et al., 2013). As a result, they...