A recent study published in Human Resource Management examined why conscientious employees - employees with the most ethical predisposition - may not always be perceived as ethical. The study used multisource field data from 820 employees, their line managers, and co-workers from a variety of different professions to test its hypothesised model that integrates trait activation theory with the social information processing perspective of work design. The findings show that a hierarchy of authority moderated the positive relationship between employee conscientiousness and voice, which in turn explained others' perceptions of the conscientious employees' ethicality. Conscientiousness was found to be positively related to others' assessments of ethicality only when hierarchy of authority was lower. Surprisingly, only promotive voice explained why others view conscientious employees as being more ethical in the lower levels of hierarchy of authority. By demonstrating that in some work contexts trait expressive behaviours may go unnoticed by others, the study extends the traditional view of trait activation theory and increases our understanding of how others make judgments about ethicality.
To find out more:
Read the full article here
Read a Press Release about the article here
Watch the interview with the authors here
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Jelena Petrovic
Knowledge Transfer Editor, Human Resource Management
Associate Professor, University of Southampton, UK
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