Servant Leadership and the Impact of Supervisor Affiliation on Pro-Group Unethical Behavior

Based on social identity theory, this research aims to develop and test a model contending that the supervisor affiliation perceived by employees mediates the influence of servant leadership on employees’ pro-group unethical behavior. Among a sample of 239 supervisor-employee matching data of four foreign-owned engineering enterprises, we found that supervisor affiliation mediated the positive effect of supervisors’ servant leadership on employees’ pro-group unethical behavior. The results also revealed that employees’ moral attentiveness weakened the positive impact of supervisor affiliation on pro-group unethical behavior. The current study continues the momentum on business ethics research by advancing our understanding of antecedents of pro-group unethical behavior as well as how positive servant leadership affects such negative unethical behavioral outcome. This effort also extends research that shows mediating and moderating roles played by interpersonal contextual influence and individual difference. Implications of these results for theory, practice and directions for future research are discussed.