When And Why Breaking The Rules For A Good Cause Doesn’t Pay Off: The Influence of Prosocial Rule-Breaking on Trust
Prof. Long WANG
Associate Professor of Management,
City University of Hong Kong
Date: 7 August 2025 (Thursday)
Time: 15:30-17:00
Venue: E22-G015
Host: Prof. Feng BAI, Associate Professor in Management
Abstract
Although prosocial rule-breaking (PSRB) is driven by ostensibly honorable intentions to help rather than harm the organization or its stakeholders, relatively little is known about how coworkers make sense of the prosocial rule-breaker’s motive and behavior. We propose that PSRB poses a trust dilemma by challenging the conventional understanding of trust in organizational rule-breaking, as it forces coworkers to reconcile different bases of trustworthiness — specifically, integrity and benevolence. Across complementary studies, we investigated how coworkers navigated this tradeoff when they decided whether to trust a prosocial rule-breaker. The results consistently showed that coworkers exhibited lower trust in prosocial rule-breakers, despite recognizing their benevolent intentions. Moreover, trust eroded even further when the rule-breaking behavior also conferred personal benefits to the actor. We discuss the intricate dynamics that shape how PSRB affects coworker trust judgments, elucidating both the theoretical and practical implications for prosocial behavior, rule compliance, and trust within organizational settings.
Speaker
Prof. Long Wang is an associate professor of Management at the City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include economic psychology, decision making, business ethics, trust, creativity, work relationships and organizational incentives, social entrepreneurship, and AI in management. His research has appeared for publication in Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Journal, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Management Science, among other journals.
All are welcome!
