When psychopathy becomes organisationally harmful: a conditional process model of psychological entitlement and organisational identification

Purpose Unethical pro-organisational behaviour (UPOB) represents a paradoxical form of workplace misconduct in which employees violate ethical norms ostensibly to benefit their organisation. Although prior research has emphasised contextual and identification-based antecedents of UPOB, less is known about how dark personality traits translate into such behaviour through underlying psychological mechanisms and boundary conditions. This study examines when and how psychopathy contributes to UPOB by focusing on psychological entitlement as a mediating mechanism and organisational identification as a moderating condition. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 341 full-time employees working in the hospitality sector in Türkiye. Hypotheses were tested using regression-based conditional process analysis with bootstrapping procedures to estimate a moderated mediation model. Findings Results indicate that psychopathy is positively associated with psychological entitlement, which in turn increases UPOB. Organisational identification moderates the relationship between entitlement and UPOB such that this relationship is stronger when organisational identification is low. Consistent with this pattern, the indirect effect of psychopathy on UPOB via psychological entitlement is contingent upon organisational identification and is most pronounced under conditions of low identification. Practical implications Findings suggest that organisations can mitigate unethical pro-organisational behaviour by addressing entitlement-based cognitions and fostering ethically grounded forms of organisational identification. Originality/value This study advances research on workplace psychopathy and UPOB by integrating psychopathy, psychological entitlement and organisational identification within a conditional process framework. By identifying entitlement-based cognition as a key explanatory mechanism and demonstrating how organisational identification shapes when this process is most likely to occur, this study offers a more comprehensive explanation of how and when dark personality traits translate into UPOB.