Abstract: Contemporary companies are plagued by ethical problems such as stealing, cheating and abuse of resources etc. These employees’ unethical behaviors have been found to bring a huge damage to companies. As such, the interest in employee unethical behaviors should come as no surprise in both research and in the workplace. Employee unethical behavior refers to “either illegal or morally unacceptable actions to the larger community”. Previous studies have recognized that both organizational factors and individual factors can affect employee unethical behaviors, but few of these studies have considered their effects on unethical behaviors jointly. Thus, to better understand the mechanisms underlying employee unethical behavior, this study proposed and tested a moderated mediation model in which ethical leadership (organizational factor) influences employees’ unethical behavior, with ethical climate (organizational factor) as a mediator and perceived insider status (individual factor) as a moderator. 436 survey questionnaires were distributed to the companies located in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces, covering manufacturing, high technology, real estate, etc. In the end, 412 employees returned the questionnaires (response rate was 94.5%). After screening out the problematic cases, the final sample consists of 379 employees. 48.8% were male, 51.2% were female; the mean age was 30.66; the average of organizational tenure was 6.36. The results showed that 1) ethical leadership was negatively related to instrumental organizational ethical climate; 2) instrumental organizational ethical climate partially mediated the relationship between the ethical leadership of organization and the employees’ unethical behavior; 3) the employees’ perceived insider status moderated the relationship between instrumental organization ethical climate and employee’s unethical behavior; 4) the employees’ perceived insider status moderated the mediated relationship through instrumental ethical climate; that is, the higher the perceived insider status shows that the mediated relationship is stronger. By integrating the factors at organizational (i.e., ethical leadership of organization and instrumental organizational ethical climate) and individual levels (i.e., perceived insider status), this study makes two theoretical contributions. First, our results revealed the mediating role of instrumental ethical climate and the moderating role of perceived insider status, answering the questions of how and when ethical leadership of organization has an impact on employees’ unethical behavior within the same study. In addition, our results showed that followers with high perceived insider status are more likely to be influenced by instrumental ethical climate, and they engage in unethical behavior. As such, this finding opens a new window on the issue of unethical behavior by revealing the “seamy side” of employees with high perceived insider status. In terms of practical implications, managers of organizations should engage in ethical leadership behaviors and act as ethical role models in front of their followers. In so doing, managers of organizations are likely to discourage followers’ unethical behavior in their organizations. Further, our findings suggest that organizations should place high value on ethical rules and regulations as well as create an ethical organizational climate, which also contributes to the decrease in the followers’ unethical behavior. Finally, managers of organizations should pay more attention to the employees with high perceived insider status, given that they are more likely to be influenced by instrumental organizational ethical climate.

Key words: Ethical leadership, Ethical climate, Perceived insider status, Unethical behavior, Instrumentalism

摘要： 通过对379名企业员工的问卷调查，探讨伦理型领导对员工不道德行为的影响机制。结果发现：伦理型领导与工具主义伦理气氛显著负相关；组织伦理气氛在伦理型领导与不道德行为之间起部分中介作用；内部人身份感知调节了组织伦理气氛在伦理型领导与不道德行为关系的中介作用。内部人身份感知水平越高，组织伦理气氛的中介作用越强。

关键词: 伦理型领导 , 伦理气氛, 内部人身份感知 , 不道德行为, 工具主义