Instrumental ethical climate and job performance: unveiling sequential mediation insights

Purpose Drawing on the principles of self-interest and self-protection, our study explores the intricate relationships among the instrumental ethical climate, defensive silence, psychological empowerment and job performance. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with multi-wave data collected from employees in North American service-sector organizations. Findings In an instrumental ethical climate, self-serving behavior fosters insecurity, prompting employees to adopt defensive silence as a protective response. However, withholding ideas weakens employees' psychological empowerment. As a result, they struggle to find meaning in their work, feel powerless in decision-making and fail to see their impact on the organization, ultimately compromising their job performance. Originality/value Our results highlight that defensive silence and psychological empowerment sequentially mediate between an instrumental ethical climate and job performance.