- Titel
- Personal and environmental factors as (joined) predictors of unethical behavior in organizations
- Zitierfähige Url:
- https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-1002406
- Erstveröffentlichung
- 2025
- Datum der Einreichung
- 28.04.2025
- Datum der Verteidigung
- 04.09.2025
- Abstract (DE)
- Organizations and their members’ activities affect people, other organizations, and the wider social and ecological environment, and therefore have broad ethical implications. Knowledge is thus needed on the personal and environmental factors that may explain why and under which conditions people behave ethically and/or unethically, and why and under which circumstances they refrain from doing so. In my habilitation thesis, drawing on the socio-cognitive theory of morality and situational strength theory, I examined the extent to which selected person characteristics (i.e., authenticity, workaholism, implicit followership theories, leader prototypicality) and context conditions (i.e., climate of self-interest, leader injustice, ethical framing, organizational identification) contribute to the occurrence of (un)ethical acts of commission and omission. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal survey studies, experimental vignette studies, and literature reviews, the five empirical articles and two book chapters revealed three major insights. First, unethical intentions are no prerequisite for acts to be considered as unethical, and that research on (un)ethical behavior needs to take a nuanced approach that goes beyond good or bad. My studies revealed that participants agreed to commit unethical acts based on attempts to fulfil implicit followership theories of being a good citizen and benefitting the company, but resisted if unethical requests were made by unjust leaders. Second, the commission of unethical behavior and omission of ethical behavior is more likely when moral self-regulation is selectively disengaged. Third, the occurrence of such moral disengagement processes is contingent on person characteristics (e.g., workaholism, authenticity) and context conditions (e.g., climates of self-interest, pro-organizational framing), and they are more likely to occur in weak compared to strong situations.
- Freie Schlagwörter (DE)
- Unethical behavior, ethics, authenticity, moral disengagement, unethical leadership, socio-cognitive theory, situational strength
- Klassifikation (DDC)
- 570
- Den akademischen Grad verleihende / prüfende Institution
- Universität Leipzig, Leipzig
- Universität Leipzig, Leipzig
- Version / Begutachtungsstatus
- publizierte Version / Verlagsversion
- URN Qucosa
- urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-1002406
- Veröffentlichungsdatum Qucosa
- 10.11.2025
- Dokumenttyp
- Habilitation
- Sprache des Dokumentes
- Englisch
- Deutsch
- Lizenz / Rechtehinweis
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0- Inhaltsverzeichnis
Deutschsprachige Kurzfassung 4 Darstellung der theoretischen Grundlagen und verallgemeinernde Zusammenfassung aller Arbeitsergebnisse 13 Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Habilitationsschrift: 1. Harlos, K. & Knoll, M. (2021). Employee silence and workplace bullying. In P. D’Cruz & E. Noronha (Eds.), Handbooks of workplace bullying, emotonal abuse, and harassment. Vol. 2: Mapping the trajectory of the phenomenon (pp. 201-229). New York: Springer. 35 2. Schyns, B., Neves, P., Wisse, B., & Knoll, M. (2018). Turning the blind eye to destructive leadership. In R. Riggio (Ed.), What’s wrong with leadership? Improving leadership research and practice (pp. 189-206). New York: Routledge. 64 3. Monzani, L., Knoll, M., Giessner, S., van Dick, R., & Peiró, J. M. (2019). Between a rock and hard place: Combined effects of authentic leadership, organiza5onal identification, and team prototypicality on managerial prohibi5ve voice. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 22, e2, 1-20. 82 4. Zill, A.*, Knoll, M.*, Cook, A. (S.), & Meyer, B. (2020). When do followers compensate for leader silence? The motivating role of leader injustice. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 27, 65-79. *geteilte Erstautorenschaft 102 5. Knoll, M., Schyns, B., & Petersen, L.-E. (2017). How the influence of unethical leaders on followers is affected by their implicit followership theories. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24, 450-465. 117 6. Knoll, M., Fida, R., Marzocchi, I., Searle, R., Connelly, C.E., & Ronchek, M. (2025). Quiet workaholics? The link between workaholism and moral voice and silence as explained by social-cognitive theory of morality. Journal of Organizational Behavior, advanced online 133 7. Knoll, M., Lord, R., Petersen, L.-E., & Weigelt, O. (2016). Examining the Moral Grey Zone: The role of moral disengagement, authenticity, and situational strength in predicting unethical managerial behaviour. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 46, 65-78. 153 Selbständigkeitserklärung 167 Darstellung des wissenschaftlichen Werdeganges 168