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The Effect of Leadership Style, Framing, and Promotion Regulatory Focus on Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior

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  • Katrina Graham
  • Jonathan Ziegert
  • Johnna Capitano

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of leadership and promotion regulatory focus on employees’ willingness to engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB; Umphress and Bingham, J Appl. Psychol 95:769–780, 2011 ). Building from a person–situation interactionist perspective, we investigate the interaction of leadership style and how leaders frame messages, as well as test a three-way interaction with promotion focus. Using an experimental design, we found that inspirational and charismatic transformational leaders elicited higher levels of UPB than transactional leaders when the leaders used loss framing, but not gain framing. Furthermore, followers’ promotion regulatory focus moderated this relationship such that the effect held for followers with low promotion focus, but not for individuals with high promotion focus. Our findings extend the understanding of UPB, offer theoretical mechanisms to explain when this behavior occurs, and contribute to leadership theory and research on ethical decision making. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

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  • Katrina Graham & Jonathan Ziegert & Johnna Capitano, 2015. "The Effect of Leadership Style, Framing, and Promotion Regulatory Focus on Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(3), pages 423-436, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:126:y:2015:i:3:p:423-436
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1952-3
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    17. Wan Jiang & Bingqian Liang & Linlin Wang, 2023. "The Double-Edged Sword Effect of Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior: The Relationship Between Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Work Effort," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(4), pages 1159-1172, April.
    18. Hao Zhou & Yang Ran, 2023. "The nonlinear impact of perceptions of organizational politics on unethical pro-organizational behavior in Chinese culture: Moderating role of Zhongyong," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(4), pages 1544-1566, September.
    19. Emmanuel Yeboah-Assiamah & Maame Adwoa A. Gyekye-Jandoh & Kwame Asamoah & Samuel Adams, 2022. "Henceforth, We Will Never Walk Alone: Empirical Study on the Benefits of Participatory Governance and Leadership," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 303-326, June.
    20. Christopher M. Castille & John E. Buckner & Christian N. Thoroughgood, 2018. "Prosocial Citizens Without a Moral Compass? Examining the Relationship Between Machiavellianism and Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(4), pages 919-930, June.
    21. Cheng, Ken & Wei, Feng & Lin, Yinghui, 2019. "The trickle-down effect of responsible leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior: The moderating role of leader-follower value congruence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 34-43.
    22. Allan Lee & Gary Schwarz & Alexander Newman & Alison Legood, 2019. "Investigating When and Why Psychological Entitlement Predicts Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 109-126, January.

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