How and When Leaders’ Self-Sacrifice Backfires: Examining the Impact on Subordinate Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior

Abstract

Self-sacrificial leadership has generally been studied in terms of its beneficial effects on organizations. However, recent research has challenged this notion by highlighting that leaders’ self-sacrifice can also produce dysfunctional outcomes for leaders and their followers. The present study draws on social identity theory and extends this novel perspective by examining whether self-sacrificial leader behaviors can inadvertently encourage unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPOB) among subordinates. The study further explores the mediating role of organizational identification and the moderating role of followers’ unethical tolerance and ethical organizational climate. Using time-lagged data from 271 employees, results confirm that leaders’ self-sacrifice is indirectly related to UPOB through organizational identification. The indirect relationship gets weakened when followers have low unethical tolerance, and the organizational climate is highly ethical. This study augments our understanding of the antecedents of UPOB and the boundary conditions under which UPOB may be curtailed. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Keywords

• self-sacrificial leadership
• organizational identification
• unethical pro-organizational behavior
• unethical tolerance
• ethical organizational climate