Date of Award
8-1-2025
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Business Administration
First Advisor
Karau, Steven
Abstract
This dissertation examines how psychological closeness between supervisors and teams influences bidirectional unethical behavior in South Korean police organizations. Drawing on self-expansion theory and social identity theory, I investigate the relationship between “Inclusion of Other in the Self” (IOS) congruence, affective commitment, and unethical behavior benefiting relationship counterparts. Using polynomial regression and response surface methodology with data from 275 police officers in 92 teams, I found results that both support and challenge theoretical expectations. Contrary to predictions, certain forms of perceptual misalignment enhanced rather than undermined affective commitment, particularly when team members perceived greater inclusion than supervisors reciprocated. As hypothesized, the association between IOS congruence and affective commitment was stronger at higher levels of mutual inclusion, and affective commitment mediated the relationship between IOS patterns and unethical behavior. The multi-perspective measurement approach revealed significant differences across rating perspectives, highlighting complex perceptual dynamics in ethical decision-making. These findings demonstrate that close supervisor-team relationships can redefine ethical boundaries through expanded self-interest, while challenging conventional assumptions about perceptual congruence in hierarchical relationships. This research contributes to organizational ethics literature by integrating self-expansion and social identity theories, introducing a bidirectional ethical framework, establishing IOS congruence as an antecedent of unethical behavior, and identifying affective commitment as a key mediating mechanism. These findings suggest organizations should implement targeted interventions based on relationship patterns to maintain benefits while mitigating ethical risks.
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