When good citizens do bad things for their organization: examining the link between organizational citizenship behavior and unethical pro-organizational behavior
Fubin Xia, Ping Lu, Lifang Wang · 2026
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Description
Fubin Xia, Ping Lu, and Lifang Wang study a dark side of being a good workplace citizen in a 2026 journal article. Staff who help beyond their job, cover for peers, and guard the firm's name earn praise. But such extra work drains self control, which may open the door to bending rules for the firm's sake.
The team surveyed 376 staff in Chinese firms at two time points. Extra role help did raise the odds of unethical acts done to aid the firm. A drained sense of self control explained part of that link. The pull grew stronger when staff feared for their jobs. The authors call this a paradox: a prized trait can carry an ethical cost that managers should watch.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Fubin Xia, Ping Lu, Lifang Wang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 37 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |