A Study On The Effects Of Work Passion On Employees’ Pro-Group Unethical Behavior

With increasing competition in the market,the market environment is becoming more ’volatility’ and ’uncertain’.In order to cope with this environment,many enterprises use teamwork to stimulate cooperation and competition in order to improve their competitiveness in the market.In this context,some group members may act to the detriment of other groups for the benefit of their own group(e.g.to gain access to internal resources,to stand out in internal competition,etc.).For example,withholding work-related information from other groups,not cooperating with other groups’ work,etc.Academics refer to this type of behaviour as pro-group unethical behaviour.In practice,pro-group unethical behaviour is extremely destructive,not only harming the interests of other groups,but also intensifying competition within the enterprise and restricting the sustainable development of the enterprise,which should be of concern to both academics and the business community.Current research on the antecedents of pro-group unethical behaviour is mainly based on external triggers,but ignores the impact of internal motivations of employees.Therefore,this study introduces work passion and uses self-regulation theory and moral disengagement theory as the theoretical basis to systematically explore the impact of the interaction between different types of work passions and pro-group unethical behaviour,and to verify the mediating effect of moral disengagement.The specific research focuses on(1)the negative effects of work passion,with a focus on the interaction between different types of work passions and pro-group unethical behaviour.(2)Exploring how employees implement pro-group unethical behaviour with the help of moral disengagement mechanisms under the effect of work passion and whether the mediating effect played by moral disengagement mechanisms is sufficient,etc.This study used a questionnaire to collect data from 529 members of 50 groups and used polynomial regression and response surface methods to verify the research hypothesis.The study found that:(1)"High harmonious passion-High obsessive passion" employees were more likely to engage in pro-group unethical behaviour than "Low harmonious passion-Low obsessive passion" employees.(2)"Low harmonious passion-High obsessive passion" employees were more likely to engage in pro-group unethical behaviour than "High harmonious passion-Low obsessive passion" employees.(3)The degree of pro-group unethical behaviour was inconsistent across passion types,with the likelihood ranging from "Low harmonious passion-High obsessive passion","High harmonious passion-High obsessive passion","High harmonious passion-Low obsessive passion" type,and "Low harmonious passion-Low obsessive passion" type.(4)"High harmonious passion-High obsessive passion" employees were more likely to engage in moral disengagement behaviour than "Low harmonious passion-Low obsessive passion" employees.(5)"Low harmonious passion-High obsessive passion" employees were more likely to engage in moral disengagement behaviour than "High harmonious passion-Low obsessive passion" employees.(6)The degree of moral disengagement behaviour was inconsistent across passion types,with the likelihood ranging from "Low harmonious passion-High obsessive passion","High harmonious passion-High obsessive passion","High harmonious passion-Low obsessive passion" type,and "Low harmonious passion-Low obsessive passion" type.(7)Moral disengagement partially mediates the effect of work passion on pro-group unethical behaviour.The theoretical findings of this study help to increase the research on the pro-group unethical behaviour,especially the influence of individual psychological factors on it.By verifying that work passion has an impact on employees’ pro-group unethical behaviour and that there are different influences by different passion types,and by verifying the mediating role of moral disengagement,not only does it enrich the research on the dark side of work passion and expand the research on pro-group unethical behaviour,but also complements the application of the moral disengagement mechanism.This study helps managers to pay attention to the negative effects of employees’ work passion from a practical perspective,to be constantly alert to the potential negative effects of obsessive work passion,and to focus on the effective stimulation of harmonious work passion.At the same time,managers should focus on building ethics within the group and strengthen ethical guidance for employees to deter them from developing excessive levels of moral disengagements and thus ignoring group norms and committing unethical behaviours,so that work passion is truly beneficial to the development of the group.This study has three innovations: Firstly,this study innovatively links work passion with pro-group unethical behaviour,which helps to research the negative effects of pro-group unethical behaviour.Secondly,this study explores the influencing mechanism of work passion on individual behaviours from a dualistic perspective,making up for the shortcomings of previous studies that have examined harmonious work passion and obessive work passion as separate influences.Thirdly,this study draws on self-regulation theory and moral disengagement theory to analyse the relationship of the variables,which can provide a useful addition to the theoretical basis and research perspective on altruistic unethical behaviour.