How and when exploitative leadership evokes team-level unethical climate

Using the social learning theory as a foundation, this study investigates the processes that link exploitative leadership and team-level unethical climate with mediating role of team interpersonal aggression. We employ 480 supervisor-subordinate dyads from Pakistan as our sample, supporting the mediation effect of team interpersonal aggression. Additionally, we discover that (high) team moral identity and (low) team power distance orientation as significant boundary conditions interact with exploitative leadership independently, to weaken its positive influence on team interpersonal aggression and sequentially reduce team-level unethical climate. We also find that through team interpersonal aggression, exploitative leadership strengthens team-level unethical climate among high power distance orientation teams and when moral identity in teams is low. This study discussed the theoretical and practical implications.