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Impact of Peer Unethical Behaviors on Employee Silence: The Role of Organizational Identification and Emotions

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Abstract

Although extant literature has covered the differences between unethical behaviors in relation to perpetrators and targets, most of this research has not considered the effects of observed unethical behaviors on employees. In this study, we focus on observed unethical behaviors of peers targeted at their organization and examine how witnessing a peer engage in an organizationally targeted unethical behavior would impact the observer. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, we propose that organizational identification will inform emotions, which in turn will shape employee silence, depending on how employees appraise the observed unethical behavior. We theorize that peer unethical behaviors would induce anger, anxiety, and vicarious shame, which will guide employees’ quiescent and prosocial silence behaviors. In addition, we suggest that the proposed relationships would vary with the level of organizational identification. With a sample of 329, results from a between-subject scenario study generally supported our hypotheses. There was a combined effect of peer unethical behaviors and organizational identification on anger, anxiety, and shame, which in turn led to employee silence in the cases of anxiety and shame.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Suleman Dawood School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan

    Aneka Fahima Sufi & Arif Nazir Butt

  2. Goodman School of Business, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada

    Usman Raja

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  1. Aneka Fahima Sufi
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  2. Usman Raja
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  3. Arif Nazir Butt
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Correspondence to Aneka Fahima Sufi.

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All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Research Board at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (No. LUMS-IRB/12102021/AFS-FWA-00019408).

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Sufi, A.F., Raja, U. & Butt, A.N. Impact of Peer Unethical Behaviors on Employee Silence: The Role of Organizational Identification and Emotions. J Bus Ethics 190, 821–839 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05397-x

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