The present study builds on social information processing theory to explicate how and when ethical leadership (EL) impacts individual unlearning in service organizations. The results from two studies – Study 1 based on time-lagged and multi-source data and Study 2 based on an experimental design – revealed that EL positively influences individual unlearning directly, as well as indirectly, via employee role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE). We also found support for the role of trait mindfulness as a boundary condition of the EL-RSBE link and the mediated relationship of EL with individual unlearning via RSBE. Our findings can help managers encourage service employees to consciously unlearn obsolete behaviors to create spaces for new behaviors.
