Leader unethical pro-organizational behavior: an implicit encouragement of unethical behavior and development of team unethical climate

We explore how employees learn unethical behavior from leader’s unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) and develop team unethical climate. Drawing upon social cognitive theory, our serial mediation model proposes that indirect association between leader UPB and team-level unethical climate is sequentially mediated by employees’ moral detachment and self-interested unethical behavior. We employed a multilevel structural equation model to empirically support this model on dyadic data obtained from 165 leaders and 330 employees. Results suggest that employees process and learn unethical behavioral principles from leader UPB and perform self-interested unethical behavior such that it ultimately develops team-level unethical climate. Key theoretical and practical implications are discussed.