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Love of Money and Unethical Behavior Intention: Does an Authentic Supervisor’s Personal Integrity and Character (ASPIRE) Make a Difference?

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Abstract

We investigate the extent to which perceptions of the authenticity of supervisor’s personal integrity and character (ASPIRE) moderate the relationship between people’s love of money (LOM) and propensity to engage in unethical behavior (PUB) among 266 part-time employees who were also business students in a five-wave panel study. We found that a high level of ASPIRE perceptions was related to high love-of-money orientation, high self-esteem, but low unethical behavior intention (PUB). Unethical behavior intention (PUB) was significantly correlated with their high Machiavellianism, low self-esteem, and low intrinsic religiosity. Our counterintuitive results revealed that the main effect of LOM on PUB was not significant, but the main effect of ASPIRE on PUB was significant. Further, the significant interaction effect between LOM and ASPIRE on unethical behavior intention provided profoundly interesting findings: High LOM was related to high unethical behavior intention for people with low ASPIRE, but was related to low unethical intention for those with high ASPIRE. People with high LOM and low ASPIRE had the highest unethical behavior intention; whereas those with high LOM and high ASPIRE had the lowest. We discuss results in light of individual differences, ethical environment, and perceived demand characteristics.

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Notes

  1. We develop the acronym “ASPIRE” based on the following two terms: “Authentic Supervisor’s Personal Integrity and Character”, or “Authenticity of Supervisor’s Personal Integrity and Character.” We use the full terms and the acronym ASPIRE interchangeably thereafter in this article.

  2. We would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for providing the inspiration that help us focus on a broader perspective and present discussions in this section.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Fr. Mark Sappenfield for his suggestions, Sarah Weinstein, Michael Walker, David Green, and Stevie Bryan for their assistance, and Editor-in-Chief Deborah C. Poff and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments and suggestions. We dedicate this article to the late Dr. Hsien-Hen Lu of Columbia University

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  1. Department of Management and Marketing, Jennings A. Jones College of Business, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 37132, USA

    Thomas Li-Ping Tang

  2. Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA, 30341, USA

    Hsi Liu

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  1. Thomas Li-Ping Tang
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  2. Hsi Liu
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Correspondence to Thomas Li-Ping Tang.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 3 Confirmatory factor analysis results of ASPIRE Scale
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Tang, T.LP., Liu, H. Love of Money and Unethical Behavior Intention: Does an Authentic Supervisor’s Personal Integrity and Character (ASPIRE) Make a Difference?. J Bus Ethics 107, 295–312 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1040-5

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