Unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), introduced by Umphress et al. (2010), manifests as a type of uninstructed behavior exhibited by employees. UPBs are typically spontaneous, and the employees involved may believe that such behaviors will benefit their organization as well as themselves (Umphress et al., 2010). For example, to protect their organization, employees may lie about, conceal, or destroy information that may be disadvantageous to their organization. Although this may allow employees to protect their organization temporarily, engaging in UPBs can be detrimental to the organization in the long term. For instance, because of differences in salary, benefits, and job security, some employees may choose to conceal their probationary period from newly hired interns. However, with the prevalence of social media, corporate issues can easily become public knowledge, potentially damaging the reputation of the organization. Many studies have indicated that UPBs can cause internal and external harm to an organization (Graham et al., 2015; Hosain, 2021; Irshad & Bashir, 2020; Lawrence & Kacmar, 2017; Umphress & Bingham, 2011; D. Wang et al., 2022; T. Wang et al., 2020; X. Zhang & Yao, 2019).

Researchers have explored the antecedents and consequences of UPBs, including support for supervisors and other leaders (Effelsberg et al., 2014; Y. Wang & Li, 2019), entrepreneurs’ narcissistic personality (Yu et al., 2020), and UPB-induced emotional conflict (Tang et al., 2022). In addition, many related studies have been conducted with a focus on the associations between UPB stress and various identified causes of UPBs at the social level (Cherniss, 1980; Hosain, 2021; Xu & Wang, 2020). Demerouti et al. (2001) developed the job demands–resources (JD–R) model of workplace stress and burnout, in which it is proposed that job demands (a) can predict burnout and (b) are a kind of support related to and predictive of job engagement. Job demands refer to the various perceived negative aspects of a job—such as time pressure, workload, and an unfavorable work environment—which lead to sustained physical or psychological costs (Demerouti et al., 2001). Job demands consume various resources (Livne-Ofer et al., 2019). For example, Demerouti et al. reported that high job demands are a predictor of a high level of burnout among employees, suggesting that high job demands may trigger emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion refers to emotional overexpansion and job-induced exhaustion, which can involve physical, psychological, and affective elements and can increase as job demands increase. It is also considered a core feature of the burnout process (Cropanzano et al., 2003; Seidler et al., 2014; Wright & Cropanzano, 1998). Maslach and Jackson (1981) treated exhaustion as a dimension to predict burnout. In addition, many scholars have employed emotional exhaustion to predict performance, employee turnover, turnover intention, and burnout (Cropanzano et al., 2003; Tourigny et al., 2013; K. Zhang et al., 2022).

Financial technology is becoming a prevailing trend in the contemporary business world. Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable (2022) asserted that in the financial sector measures must be developed and implemented to control money laundering related to financial technologies—including electronic notes, electronic payments, and virtual assets. Complex job demands associated with constant fierce competition and ongoing technological changes may cause bank employees to develop negative emotions and job-related psychological stress. In this study we visited banks in Taiwan and recruited employees from the insurance and fund departments. Our aim was to extend the scope of research on work stress and job demands among people who could not work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic beyond the occupational categories that have already been studied in the context of the pandemic, such as medical staff.

We drew on conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989), according to which, when employees perceive stress they endeavor to retain and protect resources. Emotional exhaustion can be described as employees’ reaction to threats to their emotional resources and as a type of loss; thus, to reduce the impact of such loss individuals may choose to be less ethical, leading to UPBs (Kern & Chugh, 2009). According to COR theory, employees may view emotional exhaustion as a self-assessment cost, given that such exhaustion can lead to poor attendance and poor long-term performance at work, as well as increased turnover (Hobfoll, 1989).

The likelihood of UPBs occurring among the employees of an organization warrants further research. Few studies have examined, on the basis of the significance of conservation of resources and the interactions between environment and psychology, if employees are likely to develop plans or strategies that constitute UPBs following self-assessment (Hosain, 2021); consequently, the relationship between job demands and UPBs requires further clarification. In this study we applied COR theory in relation to emotional triggers resulting from job demands; our objective was to determine if job demands exert effects on engaging in UPBs through emotional exhaustion.

Job Demands and Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors

Job Demands and Emotional Exhaustion

Mediating Effect of Emotional Exhaustion in the Relationship Between Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors and Job Demands

Method

Participants

To ensure representativeness in our sample, we conducted a survey with employees of financial institutions in Taiwan, selecting people whose job entailed duties and tasks that meant they were unable to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. After three rounds of surveys, we collected 339 valid responses from 122 men and 217 women. A breakdown of the respondents’ demographic characteristics is presented in Table 1.

Procedure

We contacted managers in the financial sector to obtain their consent for the distribution of the survey, then distributed paper survey forms. The objective of this research, as explained to the respondents through the managers in every department of each organization, was to investigate if UPBs had occurred within the organization. Respondents completed the survey three times, with the objective of ensuring precision in the study; the second survey was conducted 1 week after the first, and the third survey was conducted 1 month after the second. Ultimately, 339 valid responses were collected over a period of 4 months, as some participants took some time to return their completed survey form. Responses were anonymous. The final three digits of each respondent’s telephone number were used as an identifier to ensure that all three responses of each participant had been completed by the same person. Participants were each compensated with a TWD 50 (USD 1.54) McDonald’s voucher each time they completed the survey. Data collected at Time 1 were used for the analysis of demographic statistics and job demands, and those collected at Times 2 and 3 were used for the analysis of emotional exhaustion and UPBs, respectively.

Measures

Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors

Job Demands

Emotional Exhaustion

Results

Analytical Process

Before we performed the data analyses, we examined all variables to ensure the accuracy of the entered data and identify missing values. In addition, we matched all data from employees with their telephone number, as described above. To fully utilize all useful data and reduce the likelihood of bias in the estimates, missing data were imputed using structural equation modeling (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1996). In addition, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses to assess the discriminant validity of multiple-item measures. The time lag between the three rounds of data collection mitigated concerns pertaining to common method variance. In addition, we analyzed data through the following steps: SPSS 29.0 was employed to examine the relationship between the job demands of the surveyed employees and their levels of emotional exhaustion and engagement in UPBs. The hypothesized mediation model was then examined through bootstrapping, which is a statistical procedure used to calculate effect sizes and to evaluate the mediation effects of hypothesized models (Preacher & Hayes, 2008).

Analysis of Measurement Models

We assessed construct validity by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis to calculate multiple fit indices. To determine model fit, we used the fit indices developed by Fuller et al. (2016) and Preacher and Hayes (2008). A comparison of the baseline model with two alternative models indicated that a three-factor structure (job demands, emotional exhaustion, and UPBs) provided the most favorable data fit for testing the hypotheses (see Table 2).

Hypothesis Testing

Table 3 presents the means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations among the examined variables. The identified bivariate correlations among job demands, emotional exhaustion, and UPBs were consistent with our expectations. Job demands were positively correlated with UPBs; thus, Hypothesis 1 was supported. In addition, job demands were positively correlated with emotional exhaustion; thus, Hypothesis 2 was supported.

As shown in Figure 2, job demands were significantly and positively correlated with UPBs; thus, Hypothesis 1 was further supported. In addition, a significant positive correlation was observed between job demands and emotional exhaustion; thus, Hypothesis 2 was further supported. Regarding direct and indirect effects, we conducted a bootstrapping analysis (Preacher & Hayes, 2008) to examine the indirect effect of job demands on UPBs. Emotional exhaustion mediated the positive indirect effect of job demands on UPBs (z = 3.95, p < .01), as evidenced by the bootstrapped 95% confidence interval [0.08, 0.24]; thus, Hypothesis 3 was supported.

 

Discussion

Theoretical and Methodological Contributions

We obtained three major findings: First, there was a positive relationship between job demands and UPBs. Specifically, job demands exerted a positive effect on UPBs. This finding is consistent with those of Xu and Wang (2020) regarding the effect of job complexity on UPBs. Second, there was a positive correlation between job demands and emotional exhaustion, which echoes the correlation between job demands and burnout in the JD–R model (Demerouti et al., 2001), in which emotional exhaustion is one of the dimensions of burnout. The positive correlation between job demands and emotional exhaustion found in the present study is consistent with prior research (Sliter & Yuan, 2015). The third major finding concerned the emotions that employees feel and the behaviors they engage in when job demands are high, which is related to COR theory. In summary, we found that employees in the financial industry faced high job demands, which could lead to them engaging in UPBs, and emotional exhaustion played a mediating role in this relationship. In this way, we identified antecedents for predicting UPBs.

This study makes three major contributions to the literature. First, we verified the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion in the relationship between job demands and UPBs. On the basis of COR theory, these results indicate that high job demands exacerbate emotional exhaustion and increase the likelihood of employees engaging in UPBs. Second, we indirectly clarified the relationship between emotional exhaustion and UPBs. Many researchers have explored the effect of emotional exhaustion on organizational behaviors (see, e.g., Cropanzano et al., 2003; Torlak et al., 2021; Wullur & Werang, 2020); however, no study had been conducted to test the relationship between emotional exhaustion and UPBs. Our results supported this positive relationship. Third, our results revealed a positive relationship between job demands and UPBs. Numerous antecedents of UPBs have been identified in prior research, including supervisor leadership (Effelsberg et al., 2014; Graham et al., 2015; Miao et al., 2013), organizational identification (Graham et al., 2020; Irshad & Bashir, 2020; Lee et al., 2019; Shu, 2015), and reciprocity (M. Zhang et al., 2021). However, few studies had explored the relationship between job demands and UPBs (Graham et al., 2015).

Practical Implications

The results in our study contribute to understanding of the relationship of job demands, emotional exhaustion, and UPBs. By identifying the effect of job demands in increasing emotional exhaustion among employees, we have expanded relevant knowledge regarding the antecedents of UPBs.

First, we found that emotional exhaustion mediated the relationship between job demands and UPBs. Claybourn (2011) reported that the negative emotions that employees experience result from their negative perceptions regarding their job, and that employees who harbor negative emotions may be willing to harm others. In this study we identified that emotionally exhausted employees will engage in UPBs. On the basis of these findings we recommend that organizations direct their supervisors to focus on reshaping the job demands of their employees and reducing their negative emotions.  Specifically, managers should ensure that working conditions are favorable in relation to job demands; for example, work content can be adjusted to accommodate shift schedules, balance workloads, and improve the work environment. Moreover, managers should collect feedback regarding job demands and emphasize the future development of their employees. Furthermore, supervisors should strive to understand, encourage, and support their employees by discussing their job demands with them (DeNisi & Pritchard, 2006). The implementation of these recommendations can enable employees to achieve balance and thus reduce the occurrence of emotional exhaustion and UPBs. Torlak et al. (2021) and Tourigny et al. (2013) found that organizational citizenship behavior and organizational commitment can foster a sense of mission in employees, which can increase their perceived level of job control (Syrek et al., 2013; Thun & Bakker, 2018; Tummers & Bakker, 2021).

Second, by asserting that employees’ emotionally exhausted state can explain how job demands indirectly promote UPBs, we have clarified the process through which job demands are linked to UPBs. Thus, the present research results enhance understanding of how the adverse effects of job demands manifest.

Third, the study findings highlight that job demands can predict UPBs. When job demands are high and are demonstrated to promote UPBs, organizations should pay attention to the consequences of UPBs, which can be both costly and widespread given that once employees begin to engage in UPBs, they tend to reinforce one another’s negative behaviors and thus create momentum for such behaviors to continue. UPBs are harmful to the organization (Pinto et al., 2008), primarily manifesting as damage to the organization’s reputation and the loss of public confidence (Hosain, 2021). As such, we recommend that organizations establish effective feedback systems that facilitate the transformation of employees’ perceptions and skills from those that lead to damage to the organization into those that will bring advantages for the organization (Nikolić et al., 2020; Roebuck, 1996).

Finally, in the highly competitive financial sector, a topic that warrants further exploration is how employee emotions as a result of high job demands influence UPBs. Most enterprises and organizations implement strict evaluation systems and impose high job demands; these phenomena are evident among employees of financial organizations (Koppad et al., 2023; Rinakhanum & Naik, 2023). When employees engage in UPBs, they mutually influence one another, resulting in the manifestation of a disruptive trend; such behaviors are ultimately detrimental to the organization (Pinto et al., 2008). To mitigate the consequences of UPBs, in this study we examined job demands and emotional exhaustion as organizational and emotional antecedents of UPBs and constructed a factor structure for UPBs. Managers of organizations can refer to this study regarding how job demands and emotional exhaustion can promote UPBs and infer suggestions regarding how to mitigate the occurrence of such behaviors. In addition, financial industry personnel in Taiwan face strict regulations and intense competition. They must safeguard confidential financial data, which made it impossible to work from home during the pandemic. By highlighting the impact of the pandemic on these frontline workers, our research is crucial in understanding the unique challenges this group faced. Furthermore, the study results expand the literature regarding emotional exhaustion by enhancing understanding of how environments and events are connected in the professional context.

Limitations and Future Research Directions

This study has some limitations. First, as employees of financial institutions in Taiwan face high job demands that may not be applicable in other industries or countries, our findings should be used as a reference rather than being conclusive. Future studies are recommended to explore other industries and countries. Second, to reduce common method variance we had the same group of respondents fill out the survey three times, and we observed a gradual decrease in the response rate with each successive round of data collection. We recommend that future studies employ larger samples to obtain more reliable data for evaluation.

 

The authors thank all those who took part in the survey.

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Yu-Jui Lin, Doctoral Program in Management, Da-Yeh University, No. 168, University Road, Dacun, Changhua 51591, Taiwan. Email: [email protected]