Do You Dare to Break the Rules? The Influence of Leadership and Uncertainty on Prosocial Rule-Breaking Behavior Among Dutch Social Welfare Professionals

Bureaucratic organizations emphasize rule-following to pursue public interests. However, rules may not always capture the complexities of daily life, making them seem burdensome to citizens and professionals. In such cases, prosocial rule-breaking (PSRB) can be a means to better serve the public. We investigate antecedents of PSRB, hypothesizing that goal and task uncertainty reduce professionals’ engagement in PSRB and that supervisors’ leadership mitigates uncertainty, affecting PSRB behavior. Using data from Dutch social welfare professionals ( N = 823) and their supervisors ( N = 63), we found that task uncertainty is negatively related to PSRB, while goal uncertainty and supervisor leadership have no impact on PSRB. These findings advance research on discretion by highlighting uncertainty as an individual level antecedent of PSRB. Practically, they underscore the need for managerial and HRM support to help professionals navigate task uncertainty when organizations want to foster PSRB.