A meta-model of ethical behavior: An empirical examination of ethical leadership, ethical identity, ethical climate and emotions on unethical work behavior

A meta-model of ethical behavior in organizations is proposed that combines individual variables (e.g., moral identity and emotions) with situational variables (e.g., organizational culture and ethical leadership) to explain and predict the unethical work behavior of individuals in organizations. The influence of individual and situational variables on unethical work behaviors (e.g., passive-aggressive and bullying behaviors) was empirically tested on a population of 181 working executives across 57 teams and seven organizations. The results indicate that both situational and individual variables are significantly related to unethical work behaviors. Specifically, (a) ethical leadership is negatively related to both passive-aggressive and bullying behaviors in the workplace, (b) contempt is positively related to both passive-aggressive and bullying behaviors in the workplace while self-conscious emotions are negatively to passive aggressive behavior, (c) ethical identity is negatively related to passive aggressive behavior and (d) organizational ethical climate is negatively related to both bullying and passive-aggressive behaviors in the workplace.