Do bad apples do good deeds? The role of morality

Abstract

AbstractResearch on counterproductive work behaviours (CWBs) has predominantly adopted a victim‐centric approach to focus on deleterious effects on organisations while overlooking how displaying CWBs affects the employees themselves and their subsequent behaviours. Drawing on moral cleansing and moral licencing theories, we tested how and when employees’ CWBs influenced their subsequent organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) and whether OCBs affect CWBs. The results from an experimental study and a field study showed that CWBs were associated with guilt which, in turn, motivated employees to engage in more OCBs. In addition, employees with low moral relativism and high guilt‐repair proneness strengthened the link between CWBs, guilt and OCBs. We extend research on CWBs by switching focus from a victim‐centric perspective to a perpetrator‐centric perspective. In addition, we elucidate a specific mechanism and boundary conditions of moral cleansing theory.