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Unethical leader behavior and employee performance: a deontic justice perspective

Chenjing Gan (Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China)
Weixiao Guo (Ningbo University, Ningbo, China)
Yandong Chai (Zhejiang Institute of Economics and Trade, Hangzhou, China)
Duanxu Wang (School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China)

Personnel Review

ISSN: 0048-3486

Article publication date: 11 October 2019

Issue publication date: 14 January 2020

1403

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of deontic justice in the relationship between unethical leader behavior and employee performance, and whether leader–member exchange (LMX) moderates the effect.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-time-point questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 225 employees of nine firms in China at two points in time separated by approximately three weeks.

Findings

The hypothesized moderated mediation model used in this study was supported. Deontic justice mediates the negative relationship between unethical leader behavior and employee performance, and higher LMX tends to strengthen this indirect relationship.

Originality/value

Previous scholars mainly focused on the cognitive and conscious thought process to explain employees’ reactions to unethical leader behavior, and largely ignored the research on the nonconscious thought process. Drawing on deontic justice theory, this study extends the previous research on the nonconscious system of moral decision-making processing by introducing employee deontic justice as a mediator in the relationship between unethical leader behavior and employee performance and further exploring LMX as a boundary condition of this indirect relationship.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by Zhejiang Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science No. 20NDQN272YB. Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province No. LQ18G020002. National Natural Science Foundation of China No. 71672175. K.C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University.

Citation

Gan, C., Guo, W., Chai, Y. and Wang, D. (2020), "Unethical leader behavior and employee performance: a deontic justice perspective", Personnel Review, Vol. 49 No. 1, pp. 188-201. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-08-2018-0290

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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