Role of moral judgment in peers’ vicarious learning from employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior

Kai Zeng, Duanxu Wang, Weize Huang*, Zhengwei Li, Xianwei Zheng

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

By integrating theories of social learning and moral judgment, we developed a theoretical model on whether and when peers imitate employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) in the workplace. The study, which involved 256 employees in a large manufacturing company in China, revealed that employees’ UPB positively predicted peers’ vicarious learning of UPB, with the effect strengthened by employees’ organizational tenure but weakened by peers’ deontic injustice. Moreover, the positive effect of employees’ UPB on their peers’ vicarious learning was mitigated, and even turned negative when employees’ organizational tenure was low, but peers’ deontic injustice was high.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)239-258
Number of pages20
JournalEthics and Behavior
Volume32
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Unethical pro-organizational behavior
  • deontic injustice
  • moral judgment
  • organizational tenure
  • social learning

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