Uncovering the dark side of leadership: How exploitative leaders fuel unethical pro-organizational behavior through moral disengagement

Abstract

This study presents a new mechanism for how exploitative leadership could influence unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPOB). This study examines how exploitative leadership affects followers’ moral disengagement from the perspective of social cognitive theory. In addition, it demonstrates how exploitative leadership directly impacts UPOB and how moral disengagement plays a mediating role. The survey collected data from 208 Saudi employees, and hypotheses were tested with hierarchical regression. The results show that exploitative leadership was positively related to UPOB, and moral disengagement fully mediated this relationship. This study suggests managers can take steps to mitigate the negative effects of exploitative leadership that cause moral disengagement and undesirable work behavior. The authors discuss the findings, contributions, limitations, and future directions.