Unethical employees OK as long as they perform

Bosses are more likely to overlook their staff’s questionable morals if they are high performers, new research shows.

A Baylor University study published in Personnel Psychology titled "I Don't Want to be Near You, Unless…: The Interactive Effect of Unethical Behavior and Performance onto Workplace Ostracism" sought to identify why unethical work behaviours are sometimes accepted and sometimes rejected.

Researchers conducted a total of three studies and surveyed 1,040 people - including more than 300 pairs of supervisors and their employees, Phys.org reports.

They found that high job performance provided motivation to ignore moral violations by employees.