Abstract
Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) has traditionally been regarded as a positive and desirable form of discretionary employee behavior. Emerging evidence, however, suggests that under certain conditions, OCB may evolve into Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior (UPB), creating a paradoxical ethical tension. Despite growing scholarly attention, this transition remains theoretically fragmented and insufficiently explained. Adopting a conceptual theory-building approach, this article develops an integrative framework explaining how and why OCB may transform into UPB. Drawing on SET, SIT, moral cognition perspectives, and responding to the critical theoretical gap identified by Mishra et al. (2022) in the Journal of Business Ethics; the study explicates the relational, identity-based, and moral mechanisms underlying this transformation. By clarifying boundary conditions and moral dynamics embedded in organization-oriented citizenship behaviors, the article makes a distinct theoretical contribution to the literatures on OCB-UPB, and behavioral ethics, while offering a structured agenda for future empirical research.Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) has traditionally been regarded as a positive and desirable form of discretionary employee behavior. Emerging evidence, however, suggests that under certain conditions, OCB may evolve into Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior (UPB), creating a paradoxical ethical tension. Despite growing scholarly attention, this transition remains theoretically fragmented and insufficiently explained. Adopting a conceptual theory-building approach, this article develops an integrative framework explaining how and why OCB may transform into UPB. Drawing on SET, SIT, moral cognition perspectives, and responding to the critical theoretical gap identified by Mishra et al. (2022) in the Journal of Business Ethics; the study explicates the relational, identity-based, and moral mechanisms underlying this transformation. By clarifying boundary conditions and moral dynamics embedded in organization-oriented citizenship behaviors, the article makes a distinct theoretical contribution to the literatures on OCB-UPB, and behavioral ethics, while offering a structured agenda for future empirical research.