Stealing Time on the Company’s Dime: Examining the Indirect Effect of Laissez-Faire Leadership on Employee Time Theft

Biyun Hu (), Crystal M. Harold () and Dayoung Kim ()
Additional contact information
Biyun Hu: Shanghai International Studies University
Crystal M. Harold: Temple University
Dayoung Kim: Temple University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2023, vol. 183, issue 2, No 9, 475-493

Abstract: Abstract Employee time theft is a costly and prevalent unethical work behavior. Yet, this construct has received less attention compared to other unethical behaviors, and as such, the literature has only a rudimentary understanding of why employees engage in time theft. Thus, the primary goal of this research is to provide greater insight into both why employees engage in time theft and who is most likely to engage in time theft. To do so, we draw from social information processing theory to examine the effect of laissez-faire leadership on employee time theft. More specifically, we propose that laissez-faire leadership is related to employee time theft through workplace time theft norms. We further propose that this indirect effect is contingent on employee conscientiousness, such that the indirect effect of laissez-faire leadership on employee time theft is stronger for individuals lower in conscientiousness. We conducted two three-wave field studies to test our predictions. The results of Study 1 supported our prediction that workplace time theft norms mediate the effect of laissez-faire leadership on employee time theft. Study 2 replicated and extended this finding by offering evidence for the conditional indirect effect of employee conscientiousness. Implications for future research and managerial practice are discussed.

Keywords: Employee time theft; Laissez-faire leadership; Workplace time theft norms; Conscientiousness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-022-05077-2 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:183:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-022-05077-2

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

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05077-2

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 ().