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When Moral Tension Begets Cognitive Dissonance: An Investigation of Responses to Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior and the Contingent Effect of Construal Level

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Abstract

Research on unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) has predominantly focused on its antecedents, while overlooking how engaging in such behavior might affect employees’ psychological experience and their downstream work behaviors. Integrating cognitive dissonance theory with the moral identity literature, we argue that engaging in UPB restricts moral identity internalization as a result of attempts to alleviate the cognitive dissonance about moral self-regard, which in turn translates into decreased organizational citizenship behavior and increased counterproductive workplace behavior. Moreover, employees’ construal level weakens these indirect effects by alleviating the negative effect of engaging in UPB on moral identity internalization. The results from one experimental study and one multi-wave, multisource field study provide support for these predictions. Our research extends knowledge on the negative consequences of UPB for actors and organizations.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

For clarity, control variables are not pictured. Numbers shown are unstandardized parameter estimates. CL Construal level; UPB × CL The latent interaction of UPB and construal level; MI Moral identity internalization; ocbp1, ocbp2, and ocbp3 represent the indicators of OCB by parceling original nine items; cwbp1, cwbp2, and cwbp3 represent the indicators of CWB by parceling original 11 items.*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01

Fig. 4

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Notes

  1. We estimated inter-rater agreements for the construal level ratings. The results lend support to the use of aggregated scores from two coders (rwg(j) = 0.87, ICC1 = 0.16, ICC2 = 0.94, p < 0.01).

  2. We also estimated inter-rater agreements for the UPB ratings. Again, the results lend support to the use of aggregated scores from two coders (rwg(j) = 0.77, ICC1 = 0.07, ICC2 = 0.93, p < 0.01).

  3. Results of t tests showed that most missing data were missing completely at random (MCAR) (i.e., t statistic was non-significant), few missing data were missing at random (MAR) (i.e., t statistic was significant).

  4. We adopted MLR and used auxiliary variables to deal with MCAR and MAR. Enders (2010) and Newman (2014) have suggested that maximum likelihood method is a direct estimation technique to yield unbiased parameter estimates and accurate SEs under MCAR and MAR. The similar approach has also been used by Lin et al. (2020) and Welsh et al. (2020). Additionally, we conducted a set of tests to identify proper auxiliary variables that were correlated with the incomplete CWB (because most missingness were in CWB). In doing so, we used correlation analysis and independent t tests to examine the correlation between leader demographics and missingness in CWB. Results showed that leader’s gender (r = 0.21, p < 0.01), education (r = 0.39, p < 0.01) related to incomplete CWB, and leader’s team tenure might account for the missingness in CWB (t = − 3.04, p < 0.01; t = − 3.33, p < 0.01). We thus added leader’s gender, education, and team tenure as auxiliary variables in our analytic model. These analyses yielded virtually identical results that did not alter our study findings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

    Na Yang & Mei Xue

  2. Shandong Institute of Talent Development Strategy, Shandong University, Jinan, China

    Congcong Lin

  3. D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston, USA

    Zhenyu Liao

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  1. Na Yang
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  2. Congcong Lin
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Yang, N., Lin, C., Liao, Z. et al. When Moral Tension Begets Cognitive Dissonance: An Investigation of Responses to Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior and the Contingent Effect of Construal Level. J Bus Ethics 180, 339–353 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04866-5

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