Income, Money Ethic, Pay Satisfaction, Commitment, and Unethical Behavior: Is the Love of Money the Root of Evil for Hong Kong Employees?

Thomas Li Ping Tang*, Randy K. Chiu

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    254 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This study examines a model involving income, the love of money, pay satisfaction, organizational commitment, job changes, and unethical behavior among 211 full-time employees in Hong Kong, China. Direct paths suggested that the love of money was related to unethical behavior, but income (money) was not. Indirect paths showed that income was negatively related to the love of money that, in turn, was negatively related to pay satisfaction that, in turn, was negatively associated with unethical behavior. Pay satisfaction was positively related to organizational commitment. Thus, the love of money is the root of evil, but money is not.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)13-30
    Number of pages18
    JournalJournal of Business Ethics
    Volume46
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Aug 2003

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Business and International Management
    • General Business,Management and Accounting
    • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
    • Economics and Econometrics
    • Law

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Commitment
    • Evil
    • Hong Kong
    • Income
    • Money ethic
    • Pay satisfaction
    • The love of money
    • Unethical behavior

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