While employees speak up with good intentions to improve organizational or unit functioning, the content of their voice could involve ethical issues. In this study, we focus on employee unethical pro-organizational voice (UPV) as a unique form of voice that is commonly seen in the workplace but overlooked by the voice literature. Drawing on the emotion appraisal theory, this study examines the effects of employee UPV on leader delegation through leader emotions (admiration, contempt) and the moderating effect of leader bottom-line mentality (BLM). In one field study collected on Prolific (two waves, 221 leaders) and one field study collected from leaders and their subordinates from a variety of industries (three waves, 173 leaders and 451 employees), we found that employee UPV was associated with higher leader admiration when leaders hold stronger BLM and higher leader contempt for leaders holding weaker BLM. We also found that leader admiration was related to increased leader delegation, and leader contempt was related to decreased leader delegation. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, practices, and future research regarding employee voice and leadership.
