When the boss bends the rules for the company: Saleem Azhar publishes in Asian Business & Management

Our PhD student Saleem Azhar has published a study on how leaders’ unethical conduct (committed “for the good of the company”) can foster an unethical climate within work teams.

The study examines unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB): conduct that violates ethical norms but is intended to benefit the organization. Drawing on social cognitive theory, the study shows that employees do not simply copy their leader’s behavior. Instead, they infer a broader logic that can make unethical conduct easier to justify. As this moral disengagement develops across team members, it contributes to an unethical climate within the team. The effect is particularly pronounced when employees overlook their own ethical values.

The findings rest on multi-wave, multisource data from 165 team leaders and 495 employees in Pakistani manufacturing firms, analysed using multilevel structural equation modelling.

The article appears in Asian Business & Management.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41291-026-00337-9