Examining the effects of unethical behavior on an organization

The purpose of this study is to assess whether or not an employee is more likely to act unethically in a business environment, if they have a personality trait that relates to the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy) (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). When employees act unethically on the job site, this results in counter productive work behaviors (CWB), which hinder organizational productivity (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). It should be considered that ethical misconduct may be occurring because different people may have different views on what is ethical and what is not (Jackson & Knight, 2015). This study predicts that (a) the dark triad is positively related to one’s perception of ethical misconduct, (b) that one’s perceptions of ethical misconduct are positively related to CWBs, (c) that employees with traits that resemble the dark triad are more likely to commit CWBs, and (d) that these perceptions of ethical misconduct mediate the relationship between the dark triad and CWBs