Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Employee’s Unethical Behavior On His Victimization By Observers

With the accelerated transformation and rapid change of the society, the old and new values staggered side by side in our daily life, employees always face ethical dilemmas and ethical choices, and employee’s unethical behavior frequently appears in various forms in organizations. Employee’s unethical behavior which as wrongdoing harming individual, organization and society should have been resisted resolutely by observers, however, the reality is not the case. Furthermore, the inner mechanisms between various types of employee’s unethical behavior and his victimization have not been interpreted sufficiently in theory. Based on the perspective of social interaction between implementer and observer of unethical behavior, this study focuses on the basic problem of "how the implementer of unethical behavior is victimized by observers" with taking the implementer and observer of unethical behavior as the research object. On the basis of ethical decision-making theory and social learning theory, the thesis deeply explores the different effects and multiple paths of employee’s unethical behavior’s influence on his victimization by specifying employee’s two unethical behaviors:anti-organizational unethical behavior and pro-organizational unethical behavior, and by dividing employee’s victimization by observers into overt victimization and covert victimization. In addition, it further analyses the effects of situational factors such as leadership, task and individual situations in the mediating process.On the basis of two survey databases, using two statistical methods of linear regression and structural equation, the results of the study show that (1) the employee’s anti-organizational unethical behavior has significant positive effect on his overt victimization and covert victimization; the employee’s pro-organizational unethical behavior has significant negative effect on his overt victimization and covert victimization; (2)The relationships between employee’s unethical behavior (anti-organizational behavior and pro-organizational behavior) and employee’s victimization (overt victimization and covert victimization) are mediated by observers’deontic injustice and observers’vicarious learning; (3) the positive relationship between anti-organizational behavior and observer’s deontic injustice is stronger when ethical leadership is high versus low, and the negative relationship between anti-organizational behavior and observer’s vicarious learning is stronger when task interdependence is high versus low; (4) the positive relationship between observer’s deontic injustice and employee’s overt victimization is stronger when employee’s turnover intention is high versus low, and the negative relationship between observer’s vicarious learning and employee’s covert victimization is stronger when employee’s turnover intention is high versus low.The innovation points of this study are as follows:(1) It integrates the related findings of two research areas:unethical behavior and victimization, enriches the consequence research of individual unethical behavior as well as the antecedent research of victimization. (2) It explores the influence of unethical behavior on its implementers based on the perspective of social interaction between individuals and observers, which opens up a new thought on the research of unethical behavior. (3) It advances the mechanism study of individual unethical behavior, reveals the dual paths of how individual unethical behaviors impact his victimization systematically. (4) It specifies the two unethical behaviors:anti-organizational unethical behavior and pro-organizational unethical behavior, and the two victimization ways:overt victimization and covert victimization, profoundly reflects the effects of different types of unethical behavior on the ways of victimization. (5) Fully explores the influence of various situational factors on the process mechanism, deepens the understanding of the boundary conditions of the influence process of individual unethical behavior on victimization, and highlights the inner differences of two kinds of unethical behaviors and two ways of victimization. In addition, the results of this study not only help organizations to prevent and reduce employees’ unethical behavior, but also help the whole society to cultivate the sense of honor and integrity.