Knowledge sharing and unethical pro-organizational behavior in a Mexican organization

Abstract

Knowledge sharing and unethical pro-organizational behavior in a Mexican organization:Moderating effects of dispositional resistance to change and perceived organizational politics Abstract Purpose-This article investigates the relationship of knowledge sharing with unethical proorganizational behavior (UPB), as well as the potential augmenting effects of two factors: employees' dispositional resistance to change and perceptions of organizational politics.Design/methodology/approach-Quantitative data come from employees in a Mexican manufacturing organization. The hypotheses tests use hierarchical regression analysis.Findings-Knowledge sharing increases the risk that employees engage in UPB. This effect is most salient when employees tend to resist organizational change or believe the organizational climate is highly political.Practical implications-Organizations should discourage UPB with their ranks, and to do so, they must realize that employees' likelihood to engage in it may be enhanced by their access to peer knowledge. Employees with such access may feel more confident that they can protect their organization against external scrutiny through such unethical means. This process can be activated by both personal and organizational factors that make UPB appear more desirable.Originality/value-This study contributes to organizational research by providing a deeper understanding of the risk that employees will engage in UPB, according to the extent of their knowledge sharing. It also explicates when knowledge sharing might have the greatest impact, both for good and for ill.

The damage of deference: how personal and organizational factors transform deference to leader authority into unethical pro-organizational behavior

“…The risk is contingent on the extent to which employees are tempted, or not, by complementary resources that enhance the desirability or feasibility of fulfilling their desire for compliance with these behaviors. Finally, by investigating the roles of these resources in influencing the likelihood that employees fulfill their desire for compliance by performing UPB, this study underscores indirect harmful effects, instead of direct ones, in shaping controversial work activities (Belausteguigoitia and De Clercq, 2018;Belle and Cantarelli, 2017;Liu et al, 2020;Salgado, 2002).…”

“…A learning orientation is also associated with a proactive personality (Raemdonck et al, 2012), such that employees with a strong desire to obey organizational leaders might embrace UPB because they are determined to find the best ways to hide information about organizational failures (Umphress and Bingham, 2011). From this perspective, employees' proactive personality enhances their propensity for UPB, because they possess superior knowledge about how to succeed in their leveraging efforts (Belausteguigoitia and De Clercq, 2018). In addition, political savvy accompanies a proactive personality (Seibert et al, 2001), so it may generate clearer comprehension of the personal benefits that might result from efforts to channel their desire for compliance into dedicated unethical proorganizational efforts, such as organizational rewards (Effelsberg et al, 2014;Zhan and Liu, 2022).…”

“…In other words, they are better positioned to address and overcome pertinent peer concerns, which leaves them better able to exploit their desire for compliance with organizational authorities by protecting the organization against external threats. Conversely, employees with limited rotation or exposure to other functional units might be unable to achieve the successful application of discretionary energy to such behaviors (Belausteguigoitia and De Clercq, 2018), so their perceived ability to use their deference of authority as a means to spur UPB diminishes:…”

“…Notably, their motivation to adopt UPB may be constrained by the threat of negative repercussions if their ethically questionable actions were to be revealed over time (Mishra et al , 2022). They also may have a limited understanding of how to protect their organization from the scrutiny of external stakeholders (Belausteguigoitia and De Clercq, 2018). In turn, this study postulates that the conversion of deference to leader authority into enhanced UPB is more likely when employees believe that they can benefit personally from this conversion and that they will be successful in their endeavors.…”

“…By citing the invigorating roles of dispositional greed, proactive personality, workplace status and job rotation, I extend studies that investigate the direct roles of these specific factors in stimulating unethical work behaviors. That is, prior evidence affirms that unethical behaviors are more prevalent among employees who always look for more (Belle and Cantarelli, 2017), embrace initiative and new experiences (Salgado, 2002), enjoy higher power or status (Liu et al , 2020) and have access to pertinent knowledge that is dispersed across the organization (Belausteguigoitia and De Clercq, 2018). By focusing on how these factors may encourage employees to leverage desires to defer to organizational leaders in the form of pro-organizational behaviors that are ethically questionable, this study offers novel insights.…”