Unethical pro-organizational behavior and task performance: a moderated mediation model of depression and self-reflection

ABSTRACTThis study develops and tests a model based on affective events theory. It specifies that engaging in unethical pro-organizational behaviors (UPB) decreases employee task performance through depression. Specifically, employees engaged in UPB are more likely to be depressed for those with a high rather than a low level of self-reflection, which in turn decreases task performance. Based on a sample of 205 sales employees in an insurance company located in mainland of China, we found that UPB had a significant indirect effect on task performance through depression; additionally, this effect was stronger for employees with high rather than low levels of self-reflection.KEYWORDS: Unethical pro-organizational behaviordepressiontask performanceself-reflection DISCLOSURE STATEMENTNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENTThe datasets generated and analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.ETHICAL APPROVALThis study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Science and Technology Beijing (No.2023-3-105). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.INFORMED CONSENTWritten informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71972009].