Employee Honesty-Humility and Workplace Deviant Behavior: From the Perspective of Trait Activation Theory

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240121

Abstract

Abstract: Although numerous studies have confirmed that employee honesty-humility negatively predicts workplace deviant behavior, most studies have focused on the direct effect of employee honesty-humility on workplace deviant behavior, and have ignored the role of organizational contexts in this process. Identifying which organizational contexts strengthen or weaken the direct effect of employee honesty-humility on workplace deviant behavior can not only provide a more comprehensive understanding of the process by which employee honesty-humility affects workplace deviant behavior, but also adopt corresponding measures in management practices to lead employee work behaviors toward the direction expected by organizations.
Based on the Trait Activation Theory, this study explores the organizational contextual conditions that may influence the direct effect of employee honesty-humility on workplace deviant behavior. Specifically, we argue that two ethics-related organizational contexts - ethical leadership behavior and team ethical climate - can activate employee honest-humility, thereby curbing the occurrence of workplace deviant behavior. In addition, ethical leadership behavior may also indirectly activate employee honesty-humility by promoting team ethical climate, thereby discouraging workplace deviant behavior.
We employed a multi-stage questionnaire survey to collect the data, which consisted of three stages with an interval of one month. In the first stage, employees were asked to rate their honest-humility and answer basic demographic information. In the second stage, employees were asked to evaluate ethical leadership behaviors of their team leaders and team ethical climate of their teams. In the third stage, employees were asked to report their workplace deviant behavior. Valid data were obtained from 30 teams with a total of 221 employees. The results showed that: (1) Ethical leadership behavior strengthened the negative relationship between employee honesty-humility and workplace deviant behavior; (2) Team ethical climate strengthened the negative relationship between employee honesty-humility and workplace deviant behavior; (3) Team ethical climate mediated the moderating effect of ethical leadership behavior on the relationship between employee honesty-humility and workplace deviant behavior.
This study has several theoretical contributions. First, by investigating the moderating effects of ethical leadership behavior and team ethical climate on the relationship between employee honesty-humility and workplace deviant behavior, this study provides a more comprehensive theoretical explanation for understanding the relationship between employee honesty-humility and workplace deviant behavior. Second, this study confirms that ethical leadership behavior and team ethical climate can act as trait-related contexts to activate employee honesty-humility, thus inhibiting the occurrence of workplace deviant behavior, which provides a novel perspective to understand the relationship between ethical leadership behavior and ethical climate and employee workplace deviant behavior. Finally, this study finds that trait-related contexts at the social level can influence the work behavior expression process of personality traits by affecting trait-related contexts at the organizational level, thus making a certain contribution to the Trait Activation Theory. Regarding practical implications, the findings suggest that managers should actively engage ethical leadership behavior and promote team ethical climate to activate employee honesty-humility, thus leading the development of their work behaviors in line with organization's expectations. Research deficiencies and prospects are also discussed.

Key words: honesty-humility, workplace deviant behavior, ethical leadership behavior, team ethical climate, trait activation theory

摘要： 本研究基于特质激发理论,考察了道德型领导行为和团队道德氛围对员工诚实-谦逊与工作越轨行为关系的调节作用。来自30个工作团队221名员工的多阶段数据分析结果表明：道德型领导行为和团队道德氛围不仅能单独增强员工诚实-谦逊对工作越轨行为的负向预测作用,并且道德型领导行为还能通过促进团队道德氛围进而增强员工诚实-谦逊对工作越轨行为的负向预测作用。研究结果为理解员工诚实-谦逊与工作越轨行为的关系提供了更加全面的理论解释,并提供了一定的实践启示。

关键词: 诚实-谦逊, 工作越轨行为, 道德型领导行为, 团队道德氛围, 特质激发理论

Han Zhiwei, Xi Yiheng, Qin Jia, Ren Zhishuai, Hu Feng. Employee Honesty-Humility and Workplace Deviant Behavior: From the Perspective of Trait Activation Theory[J]. Journal of Psychological Science, 2024, 47(1): 178-186.

韩志伟, 习怡衡, 秦嘉, 任志帅, 呼枫. 员工诚实-谦逊与工作越轨行为：基于特质激发理论的视角^*[J]. 心理科学, 2024, 47(1): 178-186.

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