Greed at the Front Desk: How Competition and Moral Disengagement Drive Unethical Loyalty

Frontline employees (FLEs), such as cashiers, waitstaff, and retail clerks, may view their roles as temporary, but their actions leave lasting impressions on organizations. These employees operate at the boundary between the organization and the public, where even small acts of misconduct can have outsized reputational consequences. This study examines why FLEs sometimes engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) actions that violate societal norms to benefit the organization by exploring the psychological and contextual conditions that shape their behavior and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) that violate organizational norms. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, we propose that a competitive psychological climate (CPC) depletes employees' psychological resources, prompting moral disengagement (MD) as a coping mechanism. We further explore how dispositional greed moderates this process, proposing that highly greedy individuals are more likely to respond to CPC with MD, thereby increasing their likelihood of engaging in UPB. Using data from 170 FLEs, our results confirm that CPC indirectly promotes UPB through moral disengagement, and this pathway is stronger for employees high in dispositional greed. These findings offer critical insights for organizations that rely on FLEs to safeguard their public reputation and highlight the need to consider personal traits and workplace climates that jointly influence ethical behavior.