Impact of employee pro-organizational unethical behavior on performance evaluation rated by supervisor: a moderated mediation model of supervisor bottom-line mentality
ISSN: 1750-614X
Article publication date: 8 March 2021
Issue publication date: 17 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The topic of employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) has attracted more and more interest in both practice and academic fields. However, previous studies have mainly investigated the antecedents of UPB and little research has discussed the outcome variables. This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the effect mechanism of UPB on employee performance evaluation rated by a supervisor through a leader-member exchange (LMX) and the moderating role of supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM).
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a sample consisting of 304 employees and 96 supervisors in several manufacturing firms in China. The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to test the hypotheses, as this was cross-level research. In addition, this paper also uses Mplus7.4 to test the moderating effects of supervisor BLM on the indirect effects between the UPB and performance evaluation by a moderated path analysis.
Findings
The results confirm that UPB is positively related to performance evaluation rated by supervisors. Additionally, the mediating effect of LMX in the relationship between UPB and performance evaluation is successfully demonstrated. Furthermore, supervisor BLM cross-levelly moderates the relationship between UPB and LMX, as well as moderates the mediation effect of LMX on the correlation between UPB and performance evaluation.
Research limitations/implications
The primary contribution of this research is building a cross-level model for the effect of UPB on followers’ performance evaluation scored by the supervisor and thereby extending the nomological networks of both UPB and performance evaluation literature. Another contribution the study makes to the literature is that it provides a new perspective to understand how UPB relates to followers’ performance evaluation.
Originality/value
This is the first study about how and when UPB predicts followers’ performance evaluation rated by the supervisor.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the editorial team of Chinese Management Studies and the reviewers for their help to our paper. And authors also thanks to all the participants who helped them fill out the questionnaire.
Funding: This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (Grant number: 19JNQN19), Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Zhuhai supported by Zhuhai Social Science Planning Office (Grant number: 2019ZC136) and Guangdong Innovative Talents Project for Young Teachers in Universities (Grant number: 2019WQNCX004).
Citation
Zhan, X. and Liu, Y. (2022), "Impact of employee pro-organizational unethical behavior on performance evaluation rated by supervisor: a moderated mediation model of supervisor bottom-line mentality", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 102-118. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-07-2020-0299
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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