Supervisor bottom line mentality, self-regulation impairment and unethical pro-organizational behavior: investigating the moderating effect of perceived employability
International Journal of Ethics and Systems
ISSN: 2514-9369
Article publication date: 15 June 2022
Issue publication date: 18 April 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) is one of the major reasons behind high-profile financial frauds in the recent past. This study aims to explore how an exclusive focus on financial outcomes, i.e. supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM) leads to UPB among employees and highlights the critical role of self-regulation impairment and perceived employability in the process. Drawing on self-regulation theory, this study examines how BLM and perceived employability interactively impact self-regulatory strength, which ultimately influences UPB.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical model is tested through a time-lagged field study of 171 employees and hypothesis testing in SPSS PROCESS Macros.
Findings
Results suggest that self-regulation impairment mediates a positive relationship between supervisor BLM and employee UPB and perceived employability moderates this indirect association between BLM and UPB, wherein the indirect positive relationship is stronger when perceived employability is low (than high).
Originality/value
This study contributes to the BLM and UPB literature by identifying the critical role of perceived employability and suggesting that UPB is an impulsive action rather than an intentional move.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Data availability statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.
Compliance with ethical standards: Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Citation
Kamran, K., Farasat, M., Azam, A. and Atif, M.M. (2023), "Supervisor bottom line mentality, self-regulation impairment and unethical pro-organizational behavior: investigating the moderating effect of perceived employability", International Journal of Ethics and Systems, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 342-360. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOES-02-2022-0043
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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