From top to bottom: unpacking the pathways from leader unethical pro-organizational behavior to team unethical climate through commitment and CWB

Our study provides answer to the research question of how leader unethical pro-organizational behavior foster an unethical climate in teams. Based on the principle learning perspective of social learning theory, this study investigates an indirect association between leader unethical pro-organizational behavior and team-level unethical climate, sequentially mediated through team commitment to leader and team counterproductive work behavior. This is a multi-wave and multisource study with data collected from 170 leaders and 524 subordinate team-members, empirically supporting the theoretical model. Findings suggest that leader UPB indirectly predicts an unethical climate in teams with full mediation of team commitment to leader and team counterproductive work behavior. This study discussed the theoretical and practical implications as well as future research avenues.