Configurations that Fuel Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior: A Fuzzy-Set Analysis of Attachment, Moral Cognition, and Bottom-Line Pressure
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) is paradoxical because it seeks to benefit the organization while violating moral standards. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on employee survey data (N = 450), the study examines six conditions: leader bottom-line mentality, moral disengagement, job embeddedness, leader–member exchange, moral awareness, and peer ethicality. Three sufficient configurations for higher UPB emerge. First, strong job embeddedness combined with leader bottom-line mentality (LBLM) and moral disengagement leads to UPB, even when moral awareness is weak. Second, high leader–member exchange paired with high embeddedness produces UPB in contexts of low peer ethicality. Third, high embeddedness with low moral awareness and moral disengagement enables UPB even when leader–member exchange is only moderate. In contrast, a key configuration for lower UPB shows that high peer ethicality and strong moral awareness jointly suppress UPB, even in highly embedded units exposed to bottom-line pressure. These findings reconceptualize organizational loyalty as a conditional liability, demonstrating that attachment and leader pressure, often viewed as positive resources, can facilitate misconduct when moral cognition and peer norms are weak. The study extends social exchange and attachment theories and illustrates how configurational theorizing deepens understanding of when relational resources become liabilities.
Author: ANEEQ INAM
Institution: Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7204075457