Research 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.

中文翻译：

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坏苹果会做好事吗？道德的作用

对适得其反的工作行为 (CWBs) 的研究主要采用以受害者为中心的方法，专注于对组织的有害影响，而忽略展示 CWBs 如何影响员工本身及其后续行为。利用道德清洗和道德许可理论，我们测试了员工的 CWB 如何以及何时影响其随后的组织公民行为 (OCB)，以及 OCB 是否影响 CWB。一项实验研究和实地研究的结果表明，CWB 与内疚有关，而内疚反过来又会激励员工参与更多的 OCB。此外，道德相对主义低、内疚修复倾向高的员工加强了 CWB、内疚和 OCB 之间的联系。我们通过将焦点从以受害者为中心的角度转移到以犯罪者为中心的角度来扩展对 CWB 的研究。此外，我们阐明了道德净化理论的具体机制和边界条件。