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With great power comes more deviations: the negative influence of empowering leadership on unethical pro-supervisor behavior in the Chinese context

Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: As unethical pro-supervisor behavior focuses on the benefits of leaders and causes great damage to both organizations and individuals, leadership can be an effective tool to explore the causes and possible solutions. Empowering leadership is frequently seen as a positive leadership style, whereas it also has the dark side and may invoke unethical behavior. This study explored the influence of empowering leadership on unethical pro-supervisor behavior, examined the mediating role of leader identification, and investigated the moderating effect of employees' bottom-line mentality. METHODS: Two studies were conducted to test the proposed model. Specifically, in Study 1, a behavioral scenario experiment was administered to a sample comprising 162 employees in China. In Study 2, a three-wave questionnaire survey was administered to collect data among 305 employees in China. RESULTS: The results showed that empowering leadership had a positive impact on unethical pro-supervisor behavior, which was mediated by leader identification. Furthermore, employees' bottom-line mentality exerted positive moderating effects on the relationship between empowering leadership and unethical pro-supervisor behavior, as well as the relationship between leader identification and unethical pro-supervisor behavior. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide guiding values for organizations' management and normalization involving unethical pro-supervisor behavior in the practical field.
DOI: 10.1186/s40359-025-02712-1
Language: English
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,990
OpenAlex ID: W4409446559
FWCI: 2.039
Cites: 77
Cited by: 2
Related to: 10