Too tired to be moral? When does unethical leadership induce employee workplace incivility?

Building upon the social cognitive theory of the moral self and conservation of resources (COR) theory, we develop an integrated model to examine the mechanisms through which unethical leadership leads to employees workplace incivility. Study 1, in a field experiment with a 2 (ethical leadership vs. unethical leadership) X 2 (moral identity: high vs. low) between- subjects design, we find that unethical leadership influences employees workplace incivility via their moral fatigue. Further, employees moral identity strengthens the effect of unethical leadership on employees moral fatigue such that employees with strong moral identity could experience more moral fatigue under unethical leadership. On the basis of the findings, the authors conclude that there exists a moderated mediation effect of unethical leadership on employees workplace incivility. Study 2, a sample containing 242 dyads from 109 business units in China replicates the research results except the moderated mediation effect. Implications of the current study are described and future research directions are suggested.