Vol. 11 No. 4 (2023): Business & Management Studies: An International Journal
Articles

The mediating role of ethical climate in the relationship between abusive supervision and unethical behaviour

Yasin Nar
Gebze Technical University, Kocaeli, Turkey
Meral Elçi
Prof. Dr., Gebze Technical University, Kocaeli, Türkiye
Gülay Murat Eminoğlu
Gebze Technical University, Kocaeli, Türkiye

Published 2023-12-25

Keywords

  • Unethical Behaviours, Abusive Supervision, Ethical Climate
  • Etik Dışı Davranış, İstismarcı Yönetim, Etik İklim

How to Cite

Nar, Y., Elçi, M., & Murat Eminoğlu, G. (2023). The mediating role of ethical climate in the relationship between abusive supervision and unethical behaviour . Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, 11(4), 1410–1422. https://doi.org/10.15295/bmij.v11i4.2313

Abstract

This research aims to contribute to the literature on unethical behaviour by exploring the effect of abusive supervision on employees’ unethical behaviour. Also, the mediating role of ethical climate in this relationship is investigated. For this purpose, data was collected through a survey of 440 people working in information technology (IT) companies in Istanbul and Kocaeli cities, Turkey. First, validity and reliability tests were applied to the collected data. After determining that validity and reliability were appropriate, hypothesis tests were carried out using regression analysis.Additionally, Hayes' PROCESS Macro model was used to test the mediating role of ethical climate. SPSS version 23 package program was used to analyze the data. According to the results obtained, it is found that i-) abusive supervision is positively related to unethical behaviour, ii-) ethical climate is negatively related to unethical behaviour, iii-) abusive supervision is negatively related to ethical climate, and  iv-) ethical climate partially mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and unethical behaviours.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

  1. Al Halbusi, H., Williams, K. A., Ramayah, T., Aldieri, L., & Vinci, C. P. (2021). Linking ethical leadership and ethical climate to employees' ethical behaviours: the moderating role of person–organization fit. Personnel Review, 50(1), 159-185.
  2. Antunez, M., Ramalho, N., & Marques, T. M. (2023). Context Matters Less Than Leadership in Preventing Unethical Behaviour in International Business. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-16.
  3. Aryati, A. S., Sudiro, A., Hadiwidjaja, D., & Noermijati, N. (2018). The influence of ethical leadership to deviant workplace behaviours mediated by ethical climate and organizational commitment. International Journal of Law and Management, 60(2), 233-249.
  4. Ashforth, B. E. (1997). Petty tyranny in organizations: A preliminary examination of antecedents and consequences. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration, 14(2), 126-140.
  5. Askew, O. A., Beisler, J. M., & Keel, J. (2015). Current trends of unethical behaviours within organizations. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (IJMIS), 19(3), 107-114.
  6. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1986(23-28).
  7. Barnes, C., Lucianetti, L., Bhave, D., & Christian, M. (2015). You wouldn't like me when I'm sleepy: Leader sleep, daily abusive supervision, and work unit engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 58(5), 1419–1437.
  8. Baron, R. M. & Kenny, D. A. (1986), “The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinctionin Social Psychological Research: Conceptual, Strategic, and Statistical Considerations”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,51(6), 1173-1182.
  9. Bennett, R., & Robinson, S. 2003. The past, present, and future of workplace deviance research. In J. Greenberg (Ed.), Organizational behaviours: The state of the science (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum.
  10. Birtch, T. A., & Chiang, F. F. (2014). The influence of business school’s ethical climate on students’ unethical behaviours. Journal of Business Ethics, 123, 283-294.
  11. Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and Power in Social Life John Wiley & Sons. New York, 93-94.
  12. Brown, M., Treviño, L. K., & Harrison, D. 2005. Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behaviours and Human Decision Processes, 97: 117-134.
  13. Brown, M.E. & Trevino, L.K. (2006), Ethical leadership: a review and future directions, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 17 No. 6, pp. 595-616.
  14. Camps, J., Stouten, J., & Euwema, M. (2016). The relation between supervisors’ big five personality traits and employees’ experiences of abusive supervision. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 112.
  15. Cropanzano, R., & Mitchell, M. S. (2005). Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review. Journal of management, 31(6), 874-900.
  16. Cullen, J. B., Victor, B., & Stephens, C. (1989). An ethical weather report: Assessing the organization's ethical climate. Organizational dynamics, 18(2), 50-62.
  17. Demirtas, O., & Akdogan, A. A. (2015). The effect of ethical leadership behaviours on ethical climate, turnover intention, and affective commitment. Journal of Business Ethics, 130, 59-67.
  18. Deshpande, S. P., George, E., & Joseph, J. (2000). Ethical climates and managerial success in Russian organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 23(2), 211–217.
  19. Dunlop, P. D., & Lee, K. (2004). Workplace deviance, organizational citizenship behaviours, and business unit performance: The bad apples do spoil the whole barrel. Journal of Organizational Behaviours: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behaviours, 25(1), 67-80.
  20. Elçi, M., Şener, I., & Alpkan, L. (2013). The impacts of ethical leadership on the antisocial behaviours of employees: the mediating role of ethical climate. Journal of Global Strategic Management, 14(1), 56-66.
  21. Forte, A. (2004). Business ethics: A study of the moral reasoning of selected business managers and the influence of organizational ethical climate. Journal of business ethics, 51, 167-173.
  22. Gino, F., Schweitzer, M. E., Mead, N. L., & Ariely, D. (2011). Unable to resist temptation: How self-control depletion promotes unethical behaviours. Organizational Behaviours and Human Decision Processes, 115, 191–203.
  23. GÖK, M. Ş., & Yasin, N. A. R. (2016). Dinamik çevre etkisinde pazarlama stratejileri ve pazar performansı analizi: Bilişim sektörü değerlendirmesi. Beykent Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 9(1).
  24. Hayes, A. F. (2013). Mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach, 1, 20.
  25. Herndon, N. C., Jr., Ferrell, O. C., LeClair, D. Y., & Ferrell, L. K. (1999). Relation¬ship of individual moral values and perceived ethical climate to satisfaction, commitment, and turnover in a sales organization. Research in Marketing, 15, 25-48.
  26. Javed, B., Fatima, T., Yasin, R. M., Jahanzeb, S., & Rawwas, M. Y. (2019). Impact of abusive supervision on deviant work behaviours: The role of Islamic work ethic. Business Ethics: A European Review, 28(2), 221-233.
  27. Jex, S. & Britt, T. W. (2008). Organizational psychology: A scientist-practitioner approach (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
  28. Jones, T. M. (1991). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model. The Academy of Management Review, 16(2), 366–395.
  29. Kish-Gephart, J. J., Harrison, D. A., & Treviño, L. K. (2010). Bad apples, bad cases, and bad barrels: meta-analytic evidence about sources of unethical decisions at work. Journal of applied psychology, 95(1), 1.
  30. Kuenzi, M., Mayer, D. M., & Greenbaum, R. L. (2020). Creating an ethical organizational environment: The relationship between ethical leadership, ethical organizational climate, and unethical behaviours. Personnel Psychology, 73(1), 43-71.
  31. Lam, C. K., Walter, F., & Huang, X. (2017). Supervisors' emotional exhaustion and abusive supervision: The moderating roles of perceived subordinate performance and supervisor self‐monitoring. Journal of Organizational Behaviours, 38(8), 1151-1166.
  32. Lian, H., Brown, D. J., Ferris, D. L., Liang, L. H., Keeping, L. M., & Morrison, R. (2014). Abusive supervision and retaliation: A self-control framework. Academy of Management Journal, 57(1), 116-139.
  33. Liang, L. H., Hanig, S., Evans, R., Brown, D. J., & Lian, H. (2018). Why is your boss making you sick? A longitudinal investigation modeling time‐lagged relations between abusive supervision and employee physical health. Journal of Organizational Behaviours, 39(9), 1050-1065.
  34. Liu, S., Zhu, Q., & Wei, F. (2019). How abusive supervision affects employees’ unethical behaviours: A moderated mediation examination of turnover intentions and caring climate. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(21), 4187.
  35. Martin, K. D., & Cullen, J. B. (2006). Continuities and extensions of ethical climate theory: A meta-analytic review. Journal of business ethics, 69, 175-194.
  36. Mayer, D. M., Kuenzi, M., & Greenbaum, R. L. (2009). Making ethical climate a mainstream management topic. Psychological perspectives on ethical behaviours and decision making, 181-213.
  37. Mayer, D. M., Kuenzi, M., & Greenbaum, R. L. (2010). Examining the link between ethical leadership and employee misconduct: The mediating role of ethical climate. Journal of business ethics, 95, 7-16.
  38. Nunnaly, J. C. (1978). Psychometric Theory. Second Edition, McGraw-Hill.
  39. Peterson, D. K. (2002). The relationship between unethical behaviours and the dimensions of the ethical climate questionnaire. Journal of business ethics, 41, 313-326.
  40. Pierce, J. R., & Aguinis, H. (2015). Detrimental citizenship behaviour: a multilevel framework of antecedents and consequences. Manag. Organ. Rev. 11, 66–99.
  41. Reichers, A. E., & Schneider, B. (1990). Climate and culture: An evolution of constructs. Organizational climate and culture, 1, 5-39.
  42. Robinson, S. L., & O'Leary-Kelly, A. M. (1998). Monkey see, monkey do: The influence of work groups on the antisocial behaviours of employees. Academy of management journal, 41(6), 658-672.
  43. Rui, J., & Qi, L. X. (2021). The trickle-down effect of authoritarian leadership on unethical employee behaviours: a cross-level moderated mediation model. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 550082.
  44. Rusaw, A.C. (2001). Leading public organizations an interactive approach. New York, NY: Harcourt College Publishers.
  45. Salancik, G. R., & Pfeffer, J. (1978). A social information processing approach to job attitudes and task design. Administrative science quarterly, 224-253.
  46. Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M. G., & Macey, W. H. (2011). Organizational climate research. The handbook of organizational culture and climate, 29, 12169-012.
  47. Schwepker Jr, C. H. (2001). Ethical climate's relationship to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention in the salesforce. Journal of business research, 54(1), 39-52.
  48. Tepper, B.J., Simon, L. & Park, H.M. (2017), “Abusive supervision”, in Morgeson, F.P. (Ed.), Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behaviours, Palo Alto: Annual Reviews, Vol. 4 No. 1.
  49. Tepper, B. J., Henle, C. A., & Lambert, L. S. (2008). Abusive supervision and subordinates’ organization deviance. J. Appl. Psychol. 93, 721–732.
  50. Tepper, B. J. (2000). Consequences of abusive supervision. Academy of management journal, 43(2), 178-190.
  51. Tonus, H., & Oruç, İ. (2012). Unethical behaviours and their management in human resource management: A content analysis of a company's personnel regulation. Turkish Journal of Business Ethics, 5(10), 173-181.
  52. Trevino, L.K., Den Nieuwenboer, N.A. & Kish-Gephart, J.J. (2015), “Un Ethical behaviours in organizations”, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 65 No. 1, pp. 635-660.
  53. Treviño, L. K., & Weaver, G. R. 2001. Organizational justice and ethics program follow through: Influences on employees’ helpful and harmful behaviours, Business Ethics Quarterly, 11(4): 651-671.
  54. Trevino, L.K., Butterfield, K.D. & McCabe, D.L. (1998), The ethical context in organizations: influences on employee attitudes and behaviours, Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 447-476.
  55. Trevino, L. K. (1986). Ethical decision making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist model. Academy of Management Review, 11(3), 601-617.
  56. Vardi, Y., & Weitz, E. 2004. Misbehaviours in organizations: Theory, research, and management. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  57. Victor, B., & Cullen, J. B. (1988). The organizational bases of ethical work climates. Administrative Science Quarterly, 101-125.
  58. Wang, H., & Xiao, J. (2021). Examining the within‐person effects of abusive supervision on multifoci deviance: Ethical climate as a moderator. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, 30(4), 784-800.
  59. Wang, W., Mao, J., Wu, W., & Liu, J. (2012). Abusive supervision and workplace deviance: The mediating role of interactional justice and the moderating role of power distance. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 50(1), 43-60.
  60. Weeks, W. A., Loe, T. W., Chonko, L. B., Martinez, C. R., & Wakefield, K. (2006). Cognitive moral development and the impact of perceived organizational ethical climate on the search for sales force excellence: A cross-cultural study. Journal of personal selling & sales management, 26(2), 205-217.
  61. Yang, M., Luu, T. T., & Hoang, G. (2023). Can ethical climate and ethical self-efficacy channel ethical leadership into service performance? A multilevel investigation. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 114, 103548.
  62. Zellars, K. L., Tepper, B. J., & Duffy, M. K. (2002). Abusive supervision and subordinates’ organizational citizenship behaviours. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 1068-1076.
  63. Zhang, Y., Hou, Z., Zhou, X., Yue, Y., Liu, S., Jiang, X., & Li, L. (2022). Abusive supervision: a content analysis of theory and methodology. Chinese Management Studies, 16(3), 509-550.