A Social Exchange Perspective of Employee–Organization Relationships and Employee Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior: The Moderating Role of Individual Moral Identity

Taolin Wang (), Lirong Long (), Yong Zhang () and Wei He ()
Additional contact information
Taolin Wang: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Lirong Long: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Yong Zhang: Huazhong Agricultural University
Wei He: Nanjing University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2019, vol. 159, issue 2, No 11, 473-489

Abstract: Abstract Prior research on employee–organization relationships (EORs) has exclusively focused on the positive consequences of high-inducement EORs (i.e., mutual- and over-investment EORs). Drawing from social exchange theory , we develop a model theorizing employee unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) as one potential negative outcome of high-inducement EORs, as mediated by high-quality social exchange relationship between the employee and the employer. Empirical findings from two field studies provided convergent support to the mediation relationship between mutual-investment EORs and employee UPB via perceived social exchange. Moreover, the results in Study 2 further revealed that the relationship was less significant among employees with higher levels of moral identity, because the positive relationship between perceived social exchange and employee UPB was weakened by high moral identity. The theoretical and managerial implications were discussed.

Keywords: Employee–organization relationships; Unethical pro-organizational behavior; Social exchange; Moral identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-018-3782-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:159:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-018-3782-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-3782-9

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().