Psychological contract breach, organizational disidentification, and employees' unethical behavior: Organizational ethical climate as moderator

Abstract

We explored the effect of psychological contract breach on employees' unethical behavior and examined the mediating and moderating roles of organizational disidentification and organizational ethical climate, respectively, using data from 362 paired questionnaires. The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that psychological contract breach was positively related to employees' unethical behavior and also that organizational disidentification completely mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees' unethical behavior. In addition, organizational ethical climate moderated the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees' unethical behavior by weakening the mediating role of organizational disidentification. The results demonstrated that avoidance of organizational disidentification and cultivation of a higher level of organizational ethical climate were conducive to the reduction of employees' unethical behavior.