Unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) is when employees take part in unethical behaviors to benefit the organization. UPB is a complex construct and relatively new concept compared to other unethical behaviors. In this study, I tested a theoreti...
Unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) is when employees take part in unethical behaviors to benefit the organization. UPB is a complex construct and relatively new concept compared to other unethical behaviors. In this study, I tested a theoretical model to examine the effect of leaders' ethical leadership on followers’ two types of organizational commitment —affective commitment and continuance commitment—and on followers’ unethical pro-organizational behavior. In addition, I tested a boundary condition for the mediational process with followers’ organizational identification as a moderator between followers’ affective commitment and continuance commitment and unethical pro-organizational behavior. Based upon data from 291 employees in South Korea, collected at two points in time, I found that ethical leadership had a negative effect on UPB through affective commitment as a mediator, and a positive effect on UPB through continuous commitment as a mediator. Furthermore, organizational identification played the role of boundary conditions, making the affective commitment and UPB relationship more negative and the continuance commitment and UPB relationship more positive.