Relationships between counterproductive work behavior, perceived justice and climate, occupational status, and leader-member exchange

The present work used Social Exchange Theory as a framework for understanding Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB). We sought to contribute to the existing body of knowledge by examining psychologically experienced organizational distributive justice and climate as predictors of counterproductive workplace behavior, while exploring whether immediate job and exchange characteristics – employee occupational level and leader-member exchange – can clarify these associations. Two studies were conducted in different organizations respectively: (1) a governmental electricity company and (2) a private company specializing in electronic device commerce. The results supported the hypotheses and indicated negative relationships between perceived organizational distributive justice, overall and ethical climates, and CWB. Importantly, the quality of perceived leader-member exchange and employee's occupational level were found to moderate the relationship between perceived distributional justice and organizational ethical climate (respectively) and counterproductive work behavior.

ResumenEste estudio ha utilizado la Teoría del Intercambio Social como marco explicativo del comportamiento laboral contraproducente. Pretendíamos contribuir al cuerpo existente de conocimientos analizando la justicia distributiva organizativa experimentada psicológicamente y el clima como predictores del comportamiento contraproducente en el trabajo, a la vez que explorar si las características inmediatas del puesto de trabajo y del intercambio (nivel ocupacional del empleado e intercambio líder-subordinado) pueden clarificar estas asociaciones. Se realizaron dos estudios en diferentes organizaciones, una empresa de electricidad pública y una empresa privada especializada en la venta de dispositivos electrónicos respectivamente. Los resultados han refrendado las hipótesis, indicando relaciones negativas entre justicia distributiva organizativa percibida, climas general y ético y comportamiento laboral contraproducente. Es importante que se encontrara que la calidad del intercambio percibido líder-subordinado y el nivel ocupacional del empleado moderaban la relación entre justicia distributiva percibida y clima organizativo ético, respectivamente, y comportamiento laboral contraproducente.