What Comes Around, Goes Around: Effects of Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviour on Time Theft.

In recent decades, China's rapid economic expansion has been accompanied by a rise in corporate ethical scandals, which have drawn increasing attention to unethical pro-organizational behaviour (UPB)--actions intended to benefit the organization but violating ethical norms. While often justified by...

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Publicado en:Industrial Relations / Relations Industrielles Vol. 80; no. 3; pp. 1 - 21
Autores principales: WU, Zhennan, DENG, Jianwei, YU, Qianqian, DENG, Wenhao, GUO, Yuangeng
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Universite Laval, Department of Industrial Relations 2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: What Comes Around, Goes Around: Effects of Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviour on Time Theft.
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        au:
          WU, Zhennan
          DENG, Jianwei
          YU, Qianqian
          DENG, Wenhao
          GUO, Yuangeng
        affil:
          Ph.D. Student, School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
          Associate Professor, School of Management, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
          Associate Professor, School of Art and Design, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
          Ph.D. Student, School of Management, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
          Ph.D. Student, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
      su:
        China
        Organizational behavior
        Economic expansion
        Ethics
        Cognitive dissonance
      sug:
        subj:
          Organizational behavior
          Economic expansion
          Ethics
          Cognitive dissonance
          China
      keyword:
        cognitive dissonance theory
        ego depletion
        moral sensitivity
        time theft
        unethical pro-organizational behaviour
        cognitive dissonance theory
        ego depletion
        moral sensitivity
        time theft
        unethical pro-organizational behaviour
      ab: In recent decades, China's rapid economic expansion has been accompanied by a rise in corporate ethical scandals, which have drawn increasing attention to unethical pro-organizational behaviour (UPB)--actions intended to benefit the organization but violating ethical norms. While often justified by employees as organizationally beneficial, UPB carries significant psychological and behavioural consequences. Using cognitive dissonance theory, we examine how UPB leads to time theft through the chain mediation of ego depletion and moral sensitivity, with managerial recognition serving as a key boundary condition. We collected data from 432 randomly selected retail employees through a structured questionnaire, including demographic data and measures of UPB, ego depletion, moral sensitivity, managerial recognition and time theft. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 27.0 for preliminary analyses (e.g., reliability, correlation) and MPLUS 8.3 for path analysis and hypothesis testing, including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and mediation analysis. The results show that UPB increases ego depletion and directly promotes time theft, while also reducing moral sensitivity indirectly through ego depletion. Ego depletion and moral sensitivity sequentially mediate the relationship between UPB and time theft. Importantly, managerial recognition moderates the mediation path by strengthening the positive relationship between ego depletion and time theft. These findings reveal not only the underlying psychological mechanism of UPB but also how organizational feedback can unintentionally reinforce deviant behaviour. We conclude that organizations should carefully evaluate recognition practices and implement ethics-oriented support systems to mitigate the hidden costs of UPB.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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