Investigating When and Why Psychological Entitlement Predicts Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior

Abstract

In this research, we examine the relationship between employee psychological entitlement (PE) and employee willingness to engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). We hypothesize that a high level of PE-the belief that one should receive desirable treatment irrespective of whether it is deserved-will increase the prevalence of this particular type of unethical behavior. We argue that, driven by self-interest and the desire to look good in the eyes of others, highly entitled employees may be more willing to engage in UPB when their personal goals are aligned with those of their organizations. Support for this proposition was found in Study 1, which demonstrates that organizational identification accentuates the link between PE and the willingness to engage in UPB. Study 2 builds on these findings by examining a number of mediating variables that shed light on why PE leads to a greater willingness among employees to engage in UPB. Furthermore, we explored the differential effects of PE on UPB compared to counterproductive work behavior (CWB). We found support for our moderated mediation model, which shows that status striving and moral disengagement fully mediate the link between PE and UPB. PE was also linked to CWB, and was fully mediated by perceptions of organizational justice and moral disengagement. Growing research has demonstrated that employees commonly engage in unethical behaviors that are intended to serve the interests of their organization (e.g., destroying incriminating files to protect an organization's reputation; disclosing exaggerated information to the public; Umphress and Bingham 2011). This type of behavior has been referred to as unethical proorganizational behavior (UPB) (Umphress et al. 2010), and it is carried out consciously, in a discretionary manner (i.e., it is neither ordered by a supervisor nor part of a formal job description), and in violation of moral hypernorms (Warren 2003). The intention to benefit an organization distinguishes UPB from many other forms of unethical work behavior, such as counterproductive or deviant behavior, which are performed with the intention of harming one's organization and/or its members (e.g., Spector and Fox 2005).UPB is an important phenomenon for companies to consider because, in the long term, it may hurt their reputations and expose them to lawsuits (Umphress and Bingham 2011). Due to the seemingly increasing number of high-profile events occuring in the public domain whereby ethical standards have been violated in the interest of organizational benefit, scholars have emphasized the need for a more comprehensive understanding of the antecedents of UPB (Pierce and Aguinis 2015). Research has begun to systematically investigate and theorize about UPB with a particular focus on employee motivations to engage in such behaviors (e.g., Chen et al. 2016;Graham et al. 2015;Kong 2016). However, the research to date has largely focused on the examination of situational and attitudinal antecedents of UPB such as leadership (e.g., Effel...

Public service motivation and performance: The role of organizational identification

“…This study could be replicated in public sector organizations in different institutional environments. Although, in our study, employee performance was supervisor-rated in line with recent best practices (for example Lee et al, 2017); future research should collect data from other sources such as official appraisals, peer evaluations and self-reports to enable triangulation and assure that the performance assessment is as objective as possible. Another limitation of the study is that the analysis focused solely on one mediating factor between PSM and job performance.…”

Leader–member exchange social comparisons and follower outcomes: The roles of felt obligation and psychological entitlement

“…PE also has theoretical links with status striving, as entitlement leads individuals to seek to maintain an enhanced status vis‐à‐vis others (e.g., Campbell et al ., ). Indeed, Lee, Schwarz, Newman, and Legood () found empirical support for the link between PE and status striving. Thus, those high in PE are likely to be particularly sensitive to their LMX status compared to others and will feel they deserve to have high LMXSC.…”

Internalized equality and protest against injustice: The role of disadvantaged group members’ self‐respect in collective action tendencies

“…These findings lend further support to the assumption that self‐respect facilitates demands regarding entitlement to equal rights without depriving others of their rights or creating disadvantages for others (Renger, ). These beliefs correspond to what Tomlinson () has called legitimate entitlement based on rights in contrast to over‐entitlement beliefs (e.g., captured in the concept of psychological entitlement, Campbell et al, ) that are linked to aggressive, unethical, and conflictual behavior (Anastasio & Rose, ; Lee, Schwarz, Newman, & Legood, ; Moeller, Crocker, & Bushman, ; Renger, ).…”