Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviour (UPB, Umphress, Bingham & Mitchell)
Ethics & CSRReliability: alpha 0.926 sample items
About this scale
A 6-item measure of unethical pro-organizational behaviour — actions performed by employees to benefit their organization, its members, or both, that violate core societal values, mores, laws, or standards of proper conduct. Items capture willingness to engage in UPB rather than enacted UPB.
Sample item(s)
“If it would help my organization, I would misrepresent the truth to make my organization look good.”
“If it would help my organization, I would withhold negative information about my company or its products from customers and clients.”
“If my organization needed me to, I would give a good recommendation on the behalf of an incompetent employee in the hope that the person will become another organization's problem instead of my own.”
“If it would benefit my organization, I would exaggerate the truth about my company's products or services to customers and clients.”
“If it would help my organization, I would withhold issuing a refund to a customer or client accidentally overcharged.”
“If needed, I would conceal information from the public that could be damaging to my organization.”
Reliability
Reported internal consistency: alpha 0.92. As a rule of thumb, Cronbach’s α ≥ .70 is considered acceptable, ≥ .80 good, and ≥ .90 excellent for established measures.
Notes
The original and most cited UPB measure. Treats UPB as willingness rather than enacted behaviour to reduce social-desirability bias.
Source & citation
Umphress, E. E., Bingham, J. B., & Mitchell, M. S. (2010): Unethical behavior in the name of the company: The moderating effect of organizational identification and positive reciprocity beliefs on unethical pro-organizational behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 95, No. 4, pp. 769–780.
Umphress, Bingham & Mitchell (2010): UPB. JAP, 95(4), 769–780.
Source. Scale details are summarised from the publication cited above. Always consult the original source for the full item set, scoring, and permission to use.
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