The mediating role of ethical climate in the relationship between abusive supervision and unethical behaviour

Abstract

This research aims to contribute to the literature on unethical behaviour by exploring the effect of abusive supervision on employees’ unethical behaviour. Also, the mediating role of ethical climate in this relationship is investigated. For this purpose, data was collected through a survey of 440 people working in information technology (IT) companies in Istanbul and Kocaeli cities, Turkey. First, validity and reliability tests were applied to the collected data. After determining that validity and reliability were appropriate, hypothesis tests were carried out using regression analysis.Additionally, Hayes' PROCESS Macro model was used to test the mediating role of ethical climate. SPSS version 23 package program was used to analyze the data. According to the results obtained, it is found that i-) abusive supervision is positively related to unethical behaviour, ii-) ethical climate is negatively related to unethical behaviour, iii-) abusive supervision is negatively related to ethical climate, and iv-) ethical climate partially mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and unethical behaviours.