An Actor-Centric Perspective on the Dark Side of High Performance: Employee Job Performance, Psychological Entitlement and Unethical Behaviour

Abstract

The existing literature on job performance has largely neglected its effects on focal employees' behaviours. Taking an actor-centric perspective and drawing upon self-perception theory, this study explores whether, how, and when employee performance relates to unethical behaviour. Across two studies—a scenario-based experiment (Study 1) and a multi-wave field study (Study 2)—we test hypotheses (Study 2) and establish causality (Study 1). Specifically, the results reveal that employee job performance is positively related to psychological entitlement, which in turn triggers unethical behaviour. Furthermore, the relationship is stronger when employee agreeableness is low rather than high. Our findings offer important theoretical and practical implications.