Doing good keeps evil away: the impact of employee ethical voice on leaders’ unethical directives

Purpose Drawing on trait attribution theory, this study examines when and how employees’ ethical voice affects leaders’ unethical directives, by highlighting the critical moderating role of employees’ behavioral integrity and the mediating role of leaders’ perceptions of employees’ moral qualities. Design/methodology/approach Using a multi-wave, multi-source research design, data were collected from 228 employee–leader dyads. Hypotheses were examined using hierarchical regression and bootstrapping analyses in SPSS. Findings Results reveal that employees’ ethical voice indirectly influences leaders' unethical directives through perceived employees’ moral qualities. Furthermore, perceived employees’ behavioral integrity strengthens this indirect effect. Research limitations/implications First, the data were collected through a two-wave, multi-source design, which, while robust, may not fully capture causal relationships. Second, ethical voice was assessed by leaders, which may introduce bias due to self-reporting. Additionally, exploring other boundary conditions that influence the effectiveness of ethical voice, such as organizational culture and individual personality traits, would further expand the understanding of employee-driven ethical influence. Practical implications Employees can utilize moral voice as a subtle signaling tool to affect leaders' ethical decision-making and behavior. Originality/value Our study highlights employees capacity for moral agency, which moves beyond traditional portrayals of employees as passive recipients of moral influence, thereby building an accurate and fine-grained knowledge base of moral influence flow in leader–employee dyads. Additionally, it expands the frontiers of knowledge in ethical voice area by investigating the mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions of employees’ ethical voice on leaders’ ethical/unethical decision-making and behavior.