Effects of antecedents on managers' dysfunctional behaviors

This thesis investigates the antecedents that might influence managers' dysfunctional behavior, including misreporting and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). The antecedents are reciprocity, ethical commitment reminder, delegation, displacement of responsibility, whistleblowing mechanisms, stretch goals,and moral justification. The results show that reciprocity increases managers' likelihood of dysfunctional behavior without ethical commitment reminders. Furthermore, a strong whistleblowing mechanism effectively deters delegated managers from engaging in misreporting behavior and delegated managers will use displacement of responsibility to rationalize their misreporting behavior. In addition, the results show that stretch goals are positively associated with CWB, and moral justification mediates this positive association.