Benefit their own group at any cost? Relationship between employee in-group roles and pro-group unethical behavior

Purpose Are team members with in-group roles more likely to engage in behaviors benefiting their own groups, even at the cost of others' benefits (i.e. pro-group unethical behavior; PGUB)? Integrating social identity theory and self-determination theory, we examine how supervisor identification and perceived autonomy clarify the underlying mechanism and boundary condition linking in-group roles and employee PGUB. Design/methodology/approach We conducted two vignette-based experimental studies involving professional workers for more robust results. Latent variable structural equation modeling in Mplus 8.3 was operationalized for hypothesis testing. Findings Results show that in-group roles are positively related to supervisor identification. However, supervisor identification is not positively related to employee PGUB and fails to mediate the relationship between in-group roles and PGUB. In-group roles are positively related to perceived autonomy, which moderates the relationship between supervisor identification and PGUB such that the relationship is weaker when perceived autonomy is high (vs. low), yielding a weaker indirect effect of in-group roles under high perceived autonomy. Originality/value This study advances understanding of the nuances between in-group roles and employee PGUB by integrating identity and motivation perspectives, highlighting supervisor identification as a mechanism and perceived autonomy as a boundary condition.