Investigating Factors Affecting the Unethical Pro-organizational Behaviors of Accountants: Social Exchange Theory and Social Cognition Theory

The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors affecting unethical pro-organizational behaviors by accountants. Unethical pro-organizational behaviors refer to behaviors that are done to help the organization or its members. In this research, social exchange theory has been used to explain the pro-organizational aspect of these types of behaviors and social cognition theory has been used to explain their unethical aspect. The statistical population of this research is made up of chief financial officers and accountants of manufacturing companies. The required data was collected through standard questionnaires from 181 chief financial officers and accountants in 2023. In this research, structural equation modeling by the partial least squares method was used for data analysis. The results of the hypothesis test indicate that the construct of perceived organizational justice has a positive and significant effect on the constructs of positive social exchange and organizational identity. In addition to this, positive social exchange and organizational identity constructs have positive and significant effects on unethical pro-organizational behaviors, although, in this research, no evidence of the moderating effects of positive reciprocity beliefs and moral identity constructs was found in the relationship between positive social exchange and organizational identity with the unethical pro-organizational behaviors. The results of this research show that the simultaneous use of social exchange theory and social cognition theory can provide a suitable framework for explaining the unethical pro-organizational behaviors of accountants. Introduction In the literature on unethical behaviors in recent years, the view has been raised that unethical behaviors are not always done with the intention of opportunism and harming colleagues and the organization, but sometimes employees perform these unethical behaviors to help the organization or its members. These behaviors are known as unethical pro-organizational behaviors. The story of the recent widespread ethical crises is also proof of the severity of this type of behavior in organizations. Helping accountants to the company to implement financial frauds, earnings management, and refraining from disclosing information to the public to support the company are examples of these behaviors (Tian & Peterson, 2016). Considering that unethical pro-organizational behaviors do not benefit the organization in the long run and lead to a decrease in public trust and the imposition of significant costs on external stakeholders, extensive research has investigated the issue of "what factors are effective in the occurrence of unethical pro-organizational behaviors?” (Umphress & Bingham, 2010; Umphress & Bingham, 2011; Graham et al., 2016; Chen et al., 2016; Tian and Peterson, 2016; Mahlendorf et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2019; Bryant & Merritt, 2021; Coppins & Weststar, 2023; Luan et al., 2023(. The issue that doubles the necessity of conducting this research is the complexity of unethical pro-organizational behaviors because of the simultaneous existence of motives for the interests of the organization and their unethical nature. Based on this, the present study aims to investigate the factors affecting unethical pro-organizational behavior by accountants. Addressing this research leads to the expansion of knowledge in the field of unethical behavior in accounting and has applications for company managers and legislators to prevent the occurrence of unethical pro-organizational behavior in companies. Researchers have used two categories of theories to explain the drivers of these behaviors by using the two components of unethical and pro-organizational. The social exchange theory, which is widely used to explain the pro-organizational aspect of this type of behavior, considers unethical pro-organizational behaviors as a source of social exchange and indicates that employees may perform unethical pro-organizational behaviors to mutually support and compensate for the care of the organization. The theory of social cognition, which is often used to explain the unethical aspect of this type of behavior, emphasizes the concept of moral disengagement and states that unethical behavior occurs when people abandon moral self-regulatory criteria and find justification for their unethical behavior (Luan et al., 2023). In this research, to theoretically explain the effect of organizational justice, positive social exchange, and positive reciprocity beliefs on unethical pro-organizational behaviors by accountants, the theoretical framework provided by social exchange theory is used. Also, to theoretically explain the effect of organizational identification and moral identity on unethical pro-organizational behaviors by accountants, the theoretical framework provided by social cognition theory is used. Based on this, the following hypotheses are presented: Hypothesis 1: Organizational justice has a positive and significant effect on positive social exchange in accountants. Hypothesis 2: Organizational justice has a positive and significant effect on the organizational identification of accountants. Hypothesis 3: Positive social exchange has a positive and significant effect on the unethical pro-organizational behavior by accountants. Hypothesis 4: Organizational identification has a positive and significant effect on the unethical pro-organizational behavior by accountants. Hypothesis 5: Positive reciprocity beliefs moderate the effect of positive social exchange on unethical pro-organizational behavior by accountants. Hypothesis 6: Moral identity moderates the effect of organizational identification on unethical pro-organizational behavior by accountants. Methodology The current research aims to investigate the factors affecting the unethical pro-organizational behavior of accountants. The data collection tool is a questionnaire, and the data was collected in the first half of 2023. In this research, standard questionnaires were used to measure the constructs, and adjustments were made according to the opinion of experts to obtain content validity. The statistical population of this research includes accountants and chief financial officers of manufacturing companies. More than 400 questionnaires were sent online, 208 questionnaires were received, and 181 questionnaires were analyzed. In this research, Excel 2019 was used to prepare the data. In addition, hypothesis testing and data analysis were done using the partial least squares structural equation modeling and with SmartPLS3. ​ Results This study evaluated the structural model by examining the significance of path coefficients, coefficient of determination ( ), and variance inflation factor (VIF). It was found that H1 was supported indicating that organizational justice maintains a positive and significant effect on the positive social exchange ( = 0.818, t= 27.416, p-value< 0.05). Organizational justice also has a significant positive influence on organizational identification ( = 0.766, t= 26.899, p-value< 0.05), thus H2 was supported. The results revealed that positive social exchange has a significant positive effect on the unethical pro-organizational ( = 0.328, t= 3.596, p-value< 0.05), indicating support for H3. As for H4, in which it was hypothesized that organizational identification would have a positive influence on the unethical pro-organizational, the results showed a significant and positive relationship ( = 0.322, t= 2.992, p-value< 0.05). Therefore, H4 was supported. Regarding H5, in which it was hypothesized that positive reciprocity beliefs moderate the effect of positive social exchange on unethical pro-organizational behavior by accountants, the results did not support this relationship ( = 0.105, t= 1.361, p-value> 0.05). Also, this study examined the moderating effects of moral identity on the relationship between organizational identification and unethical pro-organizational behavior. The results did not support this relationship ( = 0.116, t= 1.494, p-value> 0.05). Conclusion The findings of this research show that the unethical behaviors of accountants are often influenced by a combination of personal and situational characteristics, or organizational factors, and a person–situation interactionist model is presented in examining the factors affecting unethical pro-organizational behaviors. These findings have applications for companies and legislators to reduce unethical behaviors and can provide practical solutions for how to train accountants by higher-level managers to prevent unethical pro-organizational behaviors. Moreover, since according to the social cognition theory, unethical behavior occurs because of moral disengagement and justification of accountants, the ethical behavior of managers, as a role model in the company, can play an important role in reducing accountants’ moral disengagement and their desire to justify. In addition, in this research, the positive and significant effects of positive social exchange and organizational identification on unethical pro-organizational behaviors by accountants were pointed out, which indicates that these constructs can act like a double-edged sword. Although before, these constructs were referred to as productive to advance the goals of the organization, they can create unfavorable consequences for the organization at the same time. Therefore, managers can play an important role in reducing unethical behaviors by considering the positive and negative consequences of these constructs. * Corresponding author