An Empirical Study On The Impact Of Corporate Hypocrisy On Employees’ Counterproductive Work Behavior

Proactively fulfilling corporate social responsibility(CSR)can enhance a company’s image,gain consumer trust,and help the company thrive in a competitive environment.The importance of CSR strategies for companies is self-evident,particularly in the context of the 14th Five-Year Plan.Whether proactive or reactive,an increasing number of companies are formulating CSR strategies and putting them into practice.However,as the breadth and depth of CSR practices continue to expand,the issue of corporate hypocrisy has emerged,referring to situations where a company’s actual CSR practices contradict its commitments or ideals.Corporate hypocrisy,as a social problem,has attracted increasing attention from the academic and theoretical communities.As the implementers of corporate decisions,employees have a natural advantage in perceiving corporate hypocrisy and are the group most susceptible to its influence.This study focuses on the internal effects of corporate hypocrisy,particularly its impact on employees’ psychology and behavior.Specifically,drawing upon the conservation of resources theory and the stressoremotion model,the study explores the influence of corporate hypocrisy on two dimensions of counterproductive work behaviors(organization-directed and interpersonal-directed)from the perspective of individuals’ limited resources.It also examines the moderating role of emotional intelligence in various paths(between corporate hypocrisy and counterproductive work behaviors,corporate hypocrisy and emotional exhaustion,and emotional exhaustion and counterproductive work behaviors).The study employs a questionnaire survey,collecting 252 valid responses,and analyzes and verifies the hypotheses using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0.The results indicate a positive correlation between corporate hypocrisy and the two dimensions of counterproductive work behaviors.Emotional exhaustion partially mediates the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and the dimensions of counterproductive work behaviors.Emotional intelligence negatively moderates the relationship between emotional exhaustion and counterproductive work behaviors.It also negatively moderates the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and the dimensions of counterproductive work behaviors.However,the moderating effect of emotional intelligence between corporate hypocrisy and emotional exhaustion is not significant,and the hypothesized moderating mediation does not hold.The managerial implications of this study are as follows:First,it is crucial to recognize the internal harms of corporate hypocrisy and improve corporate systems to regulate behavior.Second,companies should strengthen ethical culture and build a solid line of integrity defense.Third,attention should be paid to employees’psychological well-being,providing timely psychological guidance and support.Fourth,fostering employees’ emotional intelligence should be integrated into performance assessments and recruitment criteria.The study’s innovations lie in its inclusion of corporate hypocrisy within the realm of stressors,approaching it from the perspective of resource consumption,which expands the research focus on the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and employee behavior.The study also reveals the mechanisms by which corporate hypocrisy influences interpersonal-directed counterproductive work behaviors,thus enriching research on cross-level unethical behaviors.Finally,it explores the boundary conditions of this influence mechanism,which is of great significance for promoting ethics and corporate social responsibility.