Investigating The Process Mechanisms For The Influence Of Unethical Leader And Peer Behaviors On Employee Job Performance

Since employee job performance is closely related to organizational performance, investigating the antecedents of employee job performance is one of the most important issues that many corporate managers care about. Besides, leader and peer are the significant components of employee work environment, which have a profound impcat on employee job performance. However, although various kinds of unethical leader and peer behaviors have been occurred in many organizations recently, still very few researches on the antecedents of employee job performance have studied the influence of unethical leader and peer behaviors on employee job performance. Drawn on the perspective of deontic justice, this paper investigates the process mechanisms for the influence of unethical leader and peer behaviors on employee job performance, analyzes the different mediating roles beween employee deontic justice and employee distributive justice and employee job embeddedness in explaining these relationships, and further explores the moderating mechanisms of the relationships between unethical leader and peer behaviors and employee job performance, and the boundary conditions of the indirect relationship between unethical leader and peer behaviors and employee job performance through employee deontic justice.This paper includes three studies. Study one, examines the effects of unethical leader and peer behaviors on employee job performance, and drawn on deontic justice theory and equity theory to explore the different mediating roles of employee deontic justice and employee distributibe justice in these relationships. Trough conducting multiple regression and structural equation modeling analysis on the two-point data collected from 271 employees, the multi-method-analysis results revealed that both unethical leader and peer behaviors had negative influence on employee job performance, and both unethical leader and peer behaviors related to employee job performance through the two different mediating paths of employee deontic justice and employee distributive justice. Study two, further analyzes the additional theoretical contributions of deontic justice theory, compared to conservation of resources theory, in explaining the effects of unethical leader and peer behaviors on employee job perforamnce. Trough conducting multiple regression and structural equation modeling analysis on the two-point data collected from 225 employees, the multi-method-analysis results revealed that, after controlling the effect of employee distributive justice, both unethical leader and peer behaviors related to employee job performance through the two different mediating paths of employee deontic justice (based on deontic justice theory) and employee job embeddedness (based on conservation of resources theory). Study three, elaborates the moderating mechanisms of unethical leader and peer behaviors on employee deontic justice, and the boundary conditions of the indirect relationship between unethical leader and peer behaviors and employee job performance through employee deontic justice. Trough conducting multiple regression analysis on the two-point data collected from 225 employees, the results revealed that ethical climate and leader-member exchange significantly moderated the relationship between unethical leader behavior and employee deontic justice, and the indirect relationship between unethical leader behavior and employee job performance through employee deontic justice; ethical climate and coworker-member exchange significantly moderated the relationship between unethical peer behavior and employee deontic justice, and the indirect relationship between unethical peer behavior and employee job performance through employee deontic justice.This paper has several following theoretical contributions:(1) This paper investigates the influence of unethical leader and peer behaviors and employee job performance, and further explores their mediating mechanisms; which not only broadens the researches on the antecedents of employee job performance, but also extends researches on the consequences of unethical leader and peer behaviors. (2) This paper explores the mediating role of employee deontic justice in the relationships between unethical leader and peer behaviors and employee job performance, demonstrates its additional theoretical contributions compared to equity theory and conservation of resources theory in explaining these relationships, and further examines the moderating mechanisms of unethical leader and peer behaviors on employee deontic justice; which enriches both the theoretical and empirical researches on deontic justice. (4) This paper compares the different impacts and contextual factors of unethical leader behavior and unethical peer behavior, which broadens the researches on others’ unethical behavior, and shows the necessity to distinguish unethical leader behavior and unethical peer behavior, and study their impacts separately. In addition, the results of this paper appeal organizations to put emphasize on preventing and reducing unethical behavior, which also help the whole society to cultivate the sense of honor and integrity.