Linking supervisors’ bottom-line mentality to workplace cheating behavior: examining the mediating and moderating role of organizational cynicism and moral identity
ISSN: 1746-5265
Article publication date: 8 July 2022
Issue publication date: 30 September 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how and when supervisors’ bottom-line mentality (BLM) influences workplace cheating behavior. Specifically, the authors draw upon social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) and the negative reciprocity norm (Gouldner, 1960) argument, to explain that supervisor BLM is likely related to organizational cynicism and subsequently those employees may engage in cheating behavior as a way to make things even with the organization. Furthermore, the authors theorized that organizational cynicism and supervisors’ BLM via organizational cynicism, increase cheating behavior among employees with a weak moral identity.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the current model, the authors collected data from 232 employees working in various Pakistani firms.
Findings
The results affirmed the authors’ moderated-mediation model. The positive indirect effects of supervisors’ BLM on workplace cheating behavior, through organizational cynicism, are moderated by employees’ moral identity.
Originality/value
This is the first study that examine the mediating and moderating role of organizational cynicism and employees’ moral identity in the relationship between supervisors’ BLM and workplace cheating behavior.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Ethical Approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Citation
Farasat, M., Azam, A., Imam, H. and Hassan, H. (2022), "Linking supervisors’ bottom-line mentality to workplace cheating behavior: examining the mediating and moderating role of organizational cynicism and moral identity", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 17 No. 5, pp. 603-620. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-11-2021-0422
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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