Odiljon Sobirovich Abdurazzakov

Unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) is gaining scholarly attention due to its harmful consequences, yet limited research explains how employees’ perceptions of leaders’ personality traits drive such behavior. Drawing on conservation of resources theory and the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept, this study examined whether and how perceived leader narcissistic rivalry predicts employee UPB. We argue that leaders high in narcissistic rivalry devalue and exclude others, increasing workplace ostracism. Ostracism, in turn, depletes employees’ psychological resources and motivates UPB as a compensatory strategy. We further propose that underdog expectations amplify this effect by shaping employees’ interpretations of exclusion. Using a three-wave, time-lagged survey of 383 full-time employees in South Korea and analyzing data with PROCESS Macro, results show that perceived leader narcissistic rivalry positively predicts workplace ostracism. Workplace ostracism increases UPB and mediates the relationship between leader narcissistic rivalry and UPB. Moreover, underdog expectations strengthen the positive association between ostracism and UPB, with stronger effects among employees high in such expectations. These findings identify workplace ostracism as a key resource-depletion mechanism linking leader narcissistic rivalry to unethical behavior and highlight underdog expectations as an important boundary condition. They highlight the need to manage narcissistic leadership, reduce ostracism, and strengthen ethical norms.

Purpose: This work assesses the contingent role of cognitive reappraisal on the link between supervisor incivility and psychological distress and examines the mediating role of psychological distress on the link between supervisor incivility and employee voice, namely, promotive and prohibitive.Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 447 highly skilled employees of manufacturing companies. To evaluate the validity of the proposed hypotheses, the authors conducted hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping test.Findings: The findings suggest that despite supervisor incivility, individuals with higher level of cognitive reappraisal are less likely to suffer from psychological distress, whereas individuals with a lower level of cognitive reappraisal are prone to psychological distress when individuals suffer from supervisor incivility. Moreover, the results indicate that psychological distress mediates the link between supervisor incivility and voice, namely, promotive and prohibitive.Originality/value: This work is the first to investigate the contingency role of cognitive reappraisal on the link between supervisor incivility and psychological distress and the mediating role of psychological distress on the link between supervisor incivility and employee voice.