Can one bad apple spoil the barrel? Performance pressure amplifies the contagion effect of unethical pro-organizational behaviour among employees

Despite increasing knowledge about why employees engage in unethical pro-organizational behaviour (UPB), we know little about the interpersonal influence of UPB. Building on social learning theory, we contend that a co-worker’s UPB will lead to a focal employee’s bottom-line mentality, which will in turn promote the focal employee’s engagement in UPB. Moreover, this contagion effect is more pronounced when the focal employee faces high performance pressure. The results of a scenario-based experiment in China (Study 1a: N1a = 100), a recall experiment in the UK (Study 1b: N1b = 131) and a two-wave questionnaire survey in China (Study 2: N2 = 409) reveal that bottom-line mentality explains why the focal employee performs UPB in addition to the two frequently examined antecedents of UPB (i.e. moral disengagement and perceived self-interested ethical climate), especially when the focal employee is under high performance pressure. Our findings shed new light on the interpersonal dynamics of UPB among employees and carry crucial implications for practitioners to prevent the spread of such unethical conduct.