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This research presents a comprehensive explanation of unethical pro-organisational behaviour (UPB), an emerging phenomenon in organisational behaviour and especially in moral behaviour research. The authors tested the fit of Culture-Identification-Ideology-UPB moral behaviour model. The results indicate that individuals having strong organisational identification and high relativism ethical ideology may indulge in the practice of UPB. Interestingly, our study also reveals that strong ethical organisational culture may not restrain, rather may facilitate UPB. The authors concluded with suggestions for the practitioners and future scope of research.

The sound leadership style can be indicative of organizational success and explanatory of quality performance. Besides this, there are various factors that can impact organizational performance. To this end, this study aims to investigate the effect of ethical leadership on organizational performance, with the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational culture.

The service sector in Jordan was targeted by this research, and data were collected from 371 middle-level and top-level managers working in service companies. These responses were analyzed by using analysis of a moment structure.

The result conveyed that ethical leadership does not only influence organizational performance, but it also, and positively so, affects the organizational culture and CSR. In addition, CSR and organizational culture significantly mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational performance.

The findings of this study are a guide for managers and owners of service companies who are aiming to enhance organizational performance. If they follow the ethical leadership approach and emphasize CSR initiatives and organizational culture, they can attain, and naturally so, the maximum level of organizational performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research paper is the first to analyze ethical leadership in the context of the service sector in Jordan and highlight its influence on organizational culture, CSR and ultimately organizational performance. Moreover, it examined the mediating effects of organizational culture and CSR between ethical leadership and organizational performance.

The purpose of this study is to adopt the upper echelon theory to analyze the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) transformational leadership on organizational ethical culture and its subsequent impact on firm performance. The study also integrates the knowledge from the structure–conduct–performance paradigm to test whether the high degree of competitive intensity that firms experience could weaken the effect of organizational ethical culture on firm performance.

Online survey data were obtained from firms in Thailand that were randomly selected from the directory provided by the Department of Business Development (n = 200). Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

Organizational ethical culture significantly meditates the effect of CEO transformational leadership on firm performance. Moreover, the moderating effect analysis illustrates that the positive effect of organizational ethical culture on firm performance tends to be lower when firms have a high level of competitive intensity in the market.

Overall, this study adds new knowledge to the literature by showing that, although ethical culture created by transformational leaders can lead to high firm performance, the market environment in terms of competitive intensity could mitigate this benefit.

This research examines the impact of organisational culture on the ethical judgement and ethical intention of corporate accountants in Vietnam.

The study relies on survey data collected from 283 practising accountants in Vietnam. Organisational culture was measured using the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument, developed by Cameron and Quinn (2011). The Instrument is developed based on the competing values framework comprised of four distinct cultures: clan, hierarchy, market and adhocracy. Ethical judgement and ethical intention were measured based on respondent responses to five ethical scenarios, each linked to a principle of professional conduct in the code of ethics.

The findings indicate that the clan culture (family oriented) is dominant and has a significant positive influence on accountants' ethical judgement and ethical intention. Respondents in the clan culture evaluate scenarios more ethically compared with accountants in the adhocracy and market cultures but not the hierarchy culture. Accountants who emphasise the adhocracy and market cultures display a more relaxed attitude towards unethical scenarios whereas respondents in the hierarchy culture (rule oriented) display the highest ethical attitude.

The code of ethics, its content and how it is interpreted and applied may differ between professions, organisations or cultures.

Organisational research on ethical decision-making is ample but few studies link organisational culture with ethical judgement and ethical intention from the perspective of individual accountants.

Although existing studies demonstrate positive relationships between ethical cultures and innovativeness, their explanations of why an ethical culture leads to innovativeness are limited. This study explores the relationship between ethical organizational culture and knowledge workers' innovativeness

Based on Kierkegaardian existential philosophy, this study proposes a research model that employs knowledge workers' existential affirmation as the link between ethical culture and innovativeness. The main hypothesis proposed in this study is that ethical organizational culture offers knowledge workers the opportunity to find their existential affirmation, which leads them to become more innovative. A structural equation modeling analysis is based on data collected from a survey of 348 knowledge workers from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in different hi-tech industries.

The findings suggest that among the four subdimensions of an ethical organizational culture, ethics training and awareness raising had the strongest relationships with knowledge workers' existential affirmation, which, in turn, had a significant relationship with their innovativeness.

Based on this philosophical reflection, this study develops a research model that examines knowledge workers' existential affirmation as the factor that links ethical organizational culture and knowledge workers' innovativeness. The authors test ethical organizational culture as an environment that allows knowledge workers to validate their existential affirmation. Further, they test the link between knowledge workers' existential affirmation and their innovativeness.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness.

A quantitative empirical analysis was conducted on the basis of a survey of 147 respondents within the public sector in Finland. A multivariate linear regression analysis was done to examine how the ethical culture of organisations is related to organisational innovativeness.

A positive link was found in the ethical culture of an organisation and organisational innovativeness: ethical culture was important to behavioural, strategic and process innovativeness. Within the ethical culture of an organisation, the dimension of the congruency of management in particular had an important role in organisational innovativeness.

The data were collected from the public sector, and therefore, future studies from the private sector organisations are needed. The results lend support to previous research arguments for the positive effect of an ethical organisational culture on organisational outcomes, particularly the organisational innovativeness described in this paper.

It is suggested that congruency of management, discussability and supportability are the organisational virtues which can most effectively enhance organisational innovativeness, specifically behavioural, strategic and process innovativeness in practice.

The research paper provides empirical evidence on the interrelation between the ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness; evidence which is scarce in existing literature on organisational innovativeness. Thus, the paper helps fill this gap in the literature in the field.

The main aim of the present study is to discover whether the managers’ self‐evaluations of their ethical leadership style are associated with their assessments of the ethical organisational culture (measured with an eight‐dimensional Corporate Ethical Virtues‐model). It aims to hypothesise that the more ethical the managers evaluate their own leadership style to be, the higher evaluations they give on the ethical culture of their organisation. The underlying assumption is that ethical managers can enhance the ethical culture by behaving in accordance with their own values.

This quantitative research was based on a questionnaire study with 902 respondents throughout Finland. A linear regression analysis was conducted to examine how ethical leadership was related to ethical organisational culture.

Managers who appraised their own leadership style as ethical also evaluated the ethical culture of their organisations more positively. The result implies that an ethically behaving leader can develop the culture of his/her organisation towards more ethical practices. The results also showed that differences in evaluating both ethical leadership and culture emerged concerning background variables.

The data collected were based only on self‐assessments from one data source, and therefore future studies, e.g. including employee ratings, are needed.

Promoting ethical virtues in organisations can lead to a virtuous circle, which supports both ethical culture and ethical leadership.

This empirical study contributes to the research on ethical leadership by examining it in relation to ethical organisational culture.

The purpose of this paper is to addresses the impact of organizational ethical context (ethical climate and ethical culture) and Machiavellianism on organizational‐professional conflict (OPC) and affective organizational commitment (OC) among Chinese accountants. The paper also aims to test for interactive effects of ethical context and Machiavellianism.

The paper is based on a field survey of 89 professional accountants employed by companies operating in Mainland China.

Two aspects of the organizational ethical culture, expectations of obedience to authority and strong ethical norms/incentives, emerged as the dominant influences on both OPC and affective commitment. Strong negative correlations are observed between OPC and OC, and between Machiavellianism and OC. Contrary to expectations, the organizational ethical context had the greatest impact on OC among high Machiavellians. For low Machiavellians, OPC fully mediated the relationship between ethical context and OC, but no such mediation effects are found for high Machiavellians.

This is the first study of the relationships among ethical context, OPC and OC among industry accountants in China, and the first study of the effects of Machiavellianism on these relationships. The results generally support our contention that organizational ethical context will be a key determinant of OPC and OC. The fact that weaker ethical cultures were strongly associated with increased conflict and decreased commitment suggests that managers of accounting/auditing departments should take a proactive approach to developing and nurturing positive or supportive cultures. The differences in results for high and low Machiavellians also raise interesting questions that should be addressed in future research.

Ethical decisions determine which individuals and/or groups benefit, and which suffer. Such decisions by executives impact front-line providers directly and customers indirectly; they are important because repercussions in service interactions feel personal. The purpose of this paper is to fill an important gap in the service literature by exploring how high-level executives make ethical decisions, creating values and culture within an organization; the results include testable propositions.

The research used a grounded theory approach, wherein high-level executives in successful service organizations responded through in-depth interviews. Complete interview transcripts were analyzed using standard qualitative methodology, including open coding to better understand and categorize the data, axial coding to seek out crucial relationships between concepts, and selective coding to develop research propositions.

Data analysis revealed two groups of interviewees, one more outcome-oriented in decision making and the other more process-oriented. The organizations led by more outcome-oriented executives have strong family-like (or paternalistic) cultures, whereas the organizations led by more process-oriented executives value adaptability and diversity.

The executives interviewed are quite successful; therefore, it is not possible to make inferences about unsuccessful executives or those leading poorly performing organizations. Propositions developed relate that process-oriented executives use both analytical measures and intuition in decision making, whereas outcome-oriented respondents rely more heavily on analytical measures.

Service executives apparently make ethical decisions while focusing either on processes or on outcomes; members of these two groups use different evaluative criteria to identify a successful decision. Decisions relating to people within the organization are perceived by the executives to be especially salient, apparently owing to interpersonal interaction in services.

There are inherent social implications when ethical decisions are made, because these decisions determine which individuals or groups benefit, and which suffer.

This research is among the first to interview high-level service executives about their ethical decision making when their choices define culture and values within their organizations. Findings offer a new look at how differences between executives that focus on processes and those that focus on outcomes may shape organizational cultures and lead to consideration of different criteria in making and evaluating decisions.

The corporate atmosphere in recent times speaks volumes about the crises of confidence and credibility brewing among professionals due to the rising incidences of unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). The study developed a model to demonstrate the underlying mechanisms through which unethical organizational culture (UOC) influences UPB through the mediating roles of idealism and relativism.

Using a cross-sectional approach, data were collected through questionnaires that were distributed to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the Plateau state in Nigeria. A total of 269 responses were obtained and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique via Smart-PLS software.

The results revealed that the relationship between UOC and UPB was significant. The indirect predictive role of UOC on UPB was established via relativism but not through idealism. The results indicate that the preponderance of UPB among SMEs is a product of UOC which breeds a relativist ideology that ultimately promotes UPB. Finally, implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

This study contributes to UPB in two unique ways. First, the authors bring to the fore the critical role of UOC in the debate on UPB which has been under-explored. Second, the study also established the mediating role of relativism in the relationship between UOC and UPB.