The Relationship Between Love of Money and Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior: The Moderating Role of Moral Identity

Year 2025, Volume: 12 Issue: 4, 1467 - 1492, 23.12.2025

Hayri Cengiz

https://doi.org/10.30798/makuiibf.1663167

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the relationship between the love of money and unethical pro-organizational behavior, and to evaluate the moderating role of moral identity traits in this relationship. In this context, the convenience sampling method was employed, and data were collected from 410 private sector employees through online questionnaires. SPSS and AMOS programs were used to analyze the data obtained, and in the process of testing the hypotheses, path analysis with the observed variables was performed with AMOS. According to the results, a significant and positive relationship has been revealed between the love of money and unethical pro-organizational behaviors. When the moderating role of moral identity in this relationship was examined, it was found that the internalization dimension of moral identity did not have a significant moderating role on the relationship between love of money and unethical pro-organizational behaviors, while the symbolization dimension of moral identity had a significant moderating role on the relationship between love of money and unethical pro-organizational behaviors. When the results are examined in detail, where the symbolization trait was high, it was revealed that the love of money increased, and unethical pro-organizational behaviors also increased. At the same time, no significant change occurred in this relationship when the symbolization feature was low.

Keywords

Love of Money , Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior , Moral Identity , Moderating Role

Ethical Statement

Ethics committee approval for the study was obtained from the Süleyman Demirel University Ethics Committee on April 25, 2024, with document number E-87432956-050.99-732816. The author declares that the study was conducted in accordance with research and publication ethics. The author declares that AI tools are partially utilized only for grammar correction of the article. The author declares that there are no financial conflicts of interest involving any institution, organization, or individual associated with this article. The author affirms that the entire research process was performed by the sole declared author of the study.

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