When empowering leadership goes awry and unintentionally promotes employee unethical behavior

What is it about?

We examine when and why empowering leadership can result in employee unethical behavior. We find that in situations where employees face high levels of “bad stress” (such as bureaucracy or conflict), they are more likely to morally disengage from their work and ultimately engage in what is called unethical pro-organizational behavior. An important caveat is that we also find that empowering leadership has to potential to reduce unethical behavior when employees experience low levels of bad stress.

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Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Our research is important because it can shed light on a thus far unrecognized potential driver of unethical conduct in organizations. This could help to prevent corporate scandals by putting the right countermeasures in place or ensuring that employees face as little bad stress as possible in their workplace.