Is the love of money the root of all evils? Income, the love of money, pay satisfaction, commitment, and unethical intentions among Hong Kong professionals

Following the theory of planned behavior, attitudes predict behavioral intentions that, in turn, predict actual behaviors. In the present study, we expand the existing literature on money attitudes and the Money Ethic Scale (MES) and coin this new construct—the love of money or avaricious monetary aspiration (greed). We also measure individual propensity to engage in unethical behaviors (dishonesty). Specifically, we explore a new and innovative theoretical model involving income, the love of money, pay satisfaction, organizational commitment, job changes, and unethical behavioral intentions. We test the model among 211 full-time professional employees in Hong Kong, China. Our data reveal the following novel discoveries. Our direct paths suggested that the love of money is related to unethical behavior, but income (money) is not. The indirect paths showed that income was negatively related to the love of money, which, in turn, was negatively associated with pay satisfaction and negatively related to unethical behavior. Pay satisfaction was positively related to organizational commitment. Therefore, we provide preliminary support for the notion that the love of money is the root of all evils, but money is not.