Serving as an ethical signal: understanding how and when socially responsible human resource management inhibits time theft

Time theft represents an inconspicuous yet pervasive form of unethical misconduct in the workplace, engendering significant losses for organizations. It is thus incumbent upon companies to take measures to mitigate such conduct. Human resource management (HRM) constitutes a pivotal approach through...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Lv, Bo (Author) ; Xiao, Jie (Author) ; Zhou, Yinxu (Author) ; Men, Chenghao (Author) ; Li, Fengyu (Author) ; Chen, Haomin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2025, Volume: 200, Issue: 2, Pages: 287-305
Further subjects:B time theft
B Morality
B Business Ethics
B Ethical Leadership
B Human Resource Development
B Human Resource Management
B Aufsatz in Zeitschrift
B Meta-Ethics
B Normative Ethics
B Moral awareness
B Socially responsible human resource management
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Summary:Time theft represents an inconspicuous yet pervasive form of unethical misconduct in the workplace, engendering significant losses for organizations. It is thus incumbent upon companies to take measures to mitigate such conduct. Human resource management (HRM) constitutes a pivotal approach through which organizations can regulate employee actions and curb organizational misconduct; however, its role has been largely underexplored in the extant literature. Recognizing the moral foundations of socially responsible HRM (SRHRM), we synthesize signaling theory with cue consistency theory to posit that SRHRM exerts a negative influence on employee time theft via enhanced moral awareness. Furthermore, we contend that ethical leadership acts as a critical contingency factor that reinforces the negative relationship between SRHRM and time theft through heightened moral awareness. Employing two-wave survey studies and a scenario-based experiment, our hypotheses were empirically supported. Our findings contribute to both theoretical and practical understandings within the domains of SRHRM and time theft research. Additionally, we discuss limitations and propose future research directions.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-024-05895-6