The effect of high-performance work systems on employee unethical behavior: empirical evidence from China

Purpose Although high-performance work systems (HPWS) are widely recognized for enhancing organizational performance, emerging research suggests they may also produce unintended negative outcomes. This study aims to examine how HPWS foster employee unethical behavior through moral disengagement and how ethical leadership buffers this effect. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the social cognitive theory of morality, the authors conducted a three-wave survey of 413 employees from a large manufacturing firm in China, using confirmatory factor analysis and moderated mediation regression analyses to test the hypothesized model. Findings Results reveal that HPWS are positively associated with moral disengagement, which in turn increases employee unethical behavior. Moreover, ethical leadership significantly weakens both the direct effect of HPWS on moral disengagement and the indirect effect on unethical behavior. Originality/value This study enriches the extant literature by linking HPWS to ethical outcomes and identifying moral disengagement as a mediating mechanism and ethical leadership as a boundary condition. It advances a more nuanced, contingent understanding of how strategic human resource management practices shape employee behavior.