Investigating the Effect of Perceived Organizational Justice on Employees` Counterproductive Work Behavior, Considering the Mediating Role of Organizational Cynicism

Subject Areas : Behavioral Studies in Management

Elaheh Azimzadeh ¹ , Neda Mohammad Esmaeili ^{2 *} , Aryan Gholipour ³

1 - Master of Human Resource Management, Department of Leadership and Human Capital, Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of Leadership and Human Capital, Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Iran
3 - Professor, Department of Leadership and Human Capital, Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Iran

Received: 2025-05-16 Accepted : 2025-07-08 Published : 2025-09-23

Keywords: Counterproductive work behavior (CWB), Perceived Organizational justice (POJ), Organizational cynicism (OC),

Abstract :

Counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) are an inevitable and damaging problem that severely threatens the performance and productivity of the organization and has important economic, sociological and psychological consequences in the work environment. The purpose of this research, which is correlational, quantitative, and cross-sectional, is to determine the impact of perceived organizational justice (POJ) on counterproductive work behavior (CWBs) and to examine the mediating role of organizational cynicism (OC) in Pak Company, Tehran. The statistical population includes the employees of Pak Company in Tehran in 2023, with a sample size of 293 individuals, selected through simple random sampling. The study employed the Organizational Justice Questionnaire by Niehoff and Moorman (1993), the Organizational Cynicism Questionnaire by Dean, Brandes, and Dharwadkar (1998), and the Counterproductive Work Behavior Questionnaire by Bennett and Robinson (2000). Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The findings indicate that POJ has a significant and negative effect on CWBs. Furthermore, POJ and its three dimensions (distributive, procedural, and interactional) have a significant and negative impact on OC. The positive and significant impact of OC on CWB was also confirmed. Regarding the mediating role of OC, the negative and significant effect of OC in the relationship between POJ and CWB was also verified.

The results demonstrate that increasing employees' POJ leads to a reduction in OC and a decrease in CWBs (and vice versa). Based on the findings, it can be concluded that managers have the ability to manage OC and CWBs among their employees by striving to establish justice within the organization.

References:

Abbasi, A., Wan Ismail, W. K., Baradari, F., Zureigat, Q. & Abdullah, F.Z. (2022). Can organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior reduce workplace deviance? Intangible Capital, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.3926/ic.1816
Abou Hashish, E.A. (2019). Nurses’ perception of organizational justice and its relationship to their workplace deviance. Nursing Ethics, 27(1), 273-288. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733019834978
Akar, H. & Çelik, O.T. (2019). Organizational justice and cynicism: a mixed method study at schools. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 8(1), 189-200. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v8.i1.18296
Akram, T., Lei, S., Haider, M.J. & Hussain, S.T. (2020) The impact of organizational justice on employee innovative work behavior: Mediating role of knowledge sharing. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 5(3), 117-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2019.10.001
Amzulescu, G. & Butucescu, A. (2021). The role of work alienation in the relationship between perceived organizational injustice and counterproductive work behaviors. Psihologia Resurselor Umane, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.24837/pru.v19i1.487
Aryani Ghizghaoan, E. Zahed Bablan, A. Khaleghkhah, A. & Moeinikia, M. (2020). Communicating the Role of Organizational Factors of Injustice and Cynicism in Cyber Loafing of Academic Staff with Artificial Neural Network. Journal of public organizations management, 8(4), 145-157. (in Persian) https://sid.ir/paper/403596/fa
Bari, M.W., Qurrah-tul-ain, Abrar, M. & Fanchen, M. (2022). Employees’ responses to psychological contract breach: The mediating role of organizational cynicism. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 43(2), 810-829. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X20958478
Bennett, R.J. & Robinson, S.L. (2000). Development of a Measure of Workplace Deviance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(3), 349-360. https://doi.org/10.I037//0021-9010.85.3.349
Biswas, S. & Kapil, K. (2017). Linking perceived organizational support and organizational justice to employees’ in-role performance and organizational cynicism through organizational trust: A field investigation in India. Journal of Management Development, 36(5), 696-711. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-04-2016-0052
Butt, S. & Yazdani N. (2021). Influence of workplace incivility on counterproductive work behavior: mediating role of emotional exhaustion, organizational cynicism and the moderating role of psychological capital. Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences, 15(2), 378-404.
Collins, B.J. (2016). Fair? I don’t care: Examining the moderating effect of workplace cynicism on the relationship between interactional fairness and perceptions of organizational support from a social exchange perspective. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24(3), 401-413. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051816667896
Colquitt, J.A. (2001). On the dimensionality of organizational justice: A construct validation of a measure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 386–400. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.386
Colquitt, J.A., Conlon, D.E., Wesson, M.J., Porter, C.O.L.H. & Ng, K.Y. (2001). Justice at the millennium: a meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 425–445. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.425
De Clercq, D., Kundi, Y.M., Sardar, S. & Shahid, S. (2021). Perceived organizational injustice and counterproductive work behaviours: mediated by organizational identification, moderated by discretionary human resource practices. Personnel Review, 50)7/8(, 1545-1565. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-06-2020-0469
Dean, J.W., Brandes, P. & Dharwadkar, R. (1998). Organizational cynicism. Academy of Management Review, 23(2), 341-352. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.533230
Ebrahimzadeh Dastjerdi, R., Ghaedamini Harouni, A. & Ebrahimpour A.R.Rez (2019). The effect of organizational cynicism on deviant behaviors in the workplace through organizational silence and destructive leadership (Case Study: Islamic Azad University, Isfahan Branch). Research on Educational Leadership and Management, 20, 1-38. (in Persian) https://doi.org/10.22054/jrlat.2021.47222.1490
Fatahi, F., Jahangir Fard, M. & MahdiZadeh, A. (2019). Path Patterns of Propellants of Personnel Deviant Behaviors in a Military Organization. Resource Management in Police, 7(2), 77-100. (in Persian) https://sid.ir/paper/402723/fa
Fernandez-del-Rio, E., Castro, A. & Ramos-Villagrasa, P.J. (2022). Dark Tetrad and workplace deviance: Investigating the moderating role of organizational justice perceptions. Frontiers in Psychology, 13,968283, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.968283
Fernandez-del-Rio, E., Barrada, J.R. & Ramos-Villagrasa, P.J. (2021). Bad Behaviors at Work: Spanish Adaptation of the Workplace Deviance Scale. Current Psychology, 40, 1660–1671. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0087-1
Ghaseminezhad Dehkordi, A., Amirtash, A.M. & Aslankhani, M.A. (2018). Effect of Organizational Justice on Counterproductive Behaviors with Mediating Role of Job Effects: Case Study of Employees of Sports and Youth Departments of Khuzestan Province. Journal of Human Resource Management in Sport, 5(1), 117-131. (in Persian) https://doi.org/10.22044/shm.2018.6408.1639
Haghighi Kafash, M., Mazloumi, N. & MirzaMohammadi, F. (2011) Causes and Consequences of Organizational Cynicism (Case Study: Employees of Parsian Electronic Commerce Company). Management Studies in Development and Evaluation, 21(64), 117-139. (in Persian) https://journals.atu.ac.ir/article_1937.html
Hussain, S. & Shahzad, K. (2022). Unpacking perceived organizational justice-organizational cynicism relationship: Moderating role of psychological capital. Asia Pacific Management Review, 27(1), 10-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmrv.2021.03.005
James, M.S.L. (2005). Antecedents and Consequences of Cynicism in organizations: An examination of the potential positive and negative effects on school systems. Dissertation submitted to the Department of Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The Florida State University, College of Business.
Kazemi, F., Nazari, Y., Zare, A. & Ramazan, M. (2020). Machiavellian Leadership and Deviant Behavior of Employees: Explaining Mediating Role of Unethical Authoritarian Leadership and Organizational Cynicism. Ethics in Science and Technology, 15 (2) :140-149. (in Persian) http://ethicsjournal.ir/article-1-1866-fa.html
Kokalan, O. (2019). The effect of organizational cynicism on job satisfaction: Testing the mediational role of perceived organizational spirituality. Management Research Review, 42(5), 625-640. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-02-2018-0090
Kwantes, C.T. & Bond, M.B. (2019). Organizational justice and autonomy as moderators of the relationship between social and organizational cynicism. Personality and Individual Differences. 151. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.PAID.2019.04.046
Li, J., Wang, H., Cai, Y. & Chen, Z. (2022). How leaders restrict employees’ deviance: An integrative framework of interactional justice and ethical leadership. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.942472
Li, S. & Chen, Y. (2018). The relationship between psychological contract breach and employees’ counterproductive work behaviors: the mediating effect of organizational cynicism and work alienation. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01273
Lipińska-Grobelny, A. (2021). Organizational climate and counterproductive work behaviors, the moderating role of gender. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 34(4), 513- 525. https://doi.org/10.13075/ijomeh.1896.01623
Matteson, M.L. Ming, Y. & Silva, D.E. (2021). The relationship between work conditions and perceptions of organizational justice among library employees. Library and Information Science Research, 43(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2021.101093
Mehmood, S.A., Malik, A.R., Nadarajah, D. & Akhtar, M.S. (2023). A moderated mediation model of counterproductive work behaviour, organisational justice, organisational embeddedness and psychological ownership. Personnel Review, 52(1), 183-199. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-05-2021-0330
Moorman, R.H. (1991). Relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors: do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship? Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 6, 845-855.
Moradi, M. & Hakimi, I. (2018). The Relationship Between Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Deviant Behaviors: Mediator Role of Person-Organization Fit and Person-Job Fit. Journal of Public Administration Perspective, 9(34), 67-85. (in Persian) https://magiran.com/p1930558
Morshedi Tonekaboni, M.H. (2021). Investigating the Role of Organizational Cynicism in Employees' Deviant Behaviors: With the Mediating Role of Social Undermining. Development of Logistics and Human Resource Management, 16(59), 170-192. (in Persian) https://sid.ir/paper/963549/fa
Mortazavi, S.L., Faghihi, A. & AlamTabriz, A. (2016). Internal and external organizational factors affecting organizational Cynicism: a study among university faculty members. Iranian journal of management sciences, 11(43), 1-20. (in Persian) https://sid.ir/paper/518932/fa
Naseer, S., Raja, U., Syed, F. & Baig, M.U.A. (2021). When and why organizational cynicism leads to CWBs. Personnel Review, 50(1), 90-107. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2019-0480
Nadi, M.A. & Eslami Harandi, F. (2016). Structural Modeling of Organizational Justice, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment with Deviant Behavior Among High School Teachers in Isfahan. New Approaches in Educational Administration, 7(4), 59-83. (in Persian) https://magiran.com/p1681310
Niehoff, B.P. & Moorman, R.H. (1993). Justice as a mediator of the relationship between methods of monitoring and organizational citizenship behavior. The Academy of Management Journal, 36(3), 527-556. https://doi.org/10.2307/256591
Peng, L., Su, J., Du, Y. & Li, M. (2021). High-performance work system and employee counterproductive work behavior: The perspective of employee perception. Complexity, 9083670. 1 https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/9083670
Peng, Y., Ma, J., Zhang, W. & Jex, S. (2020). Older and less deviant? the paths through emotional labor and organizational cynicism. Work, Aging and Retirement, 7(1), 20-30. https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waaa017
Pfrombeck, J., Doden, W., Grote, G. & Feierabend, A. (2020). A study of organizational cynicism and how it is affected by social exchange relationships at work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 93(3), 578-604. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12306
Salehi Adaghiani, J., Karami, H. & Ghorbani Paji, A. (2019). The effect of perceived rejection on deviant behaviors of employees with the mediator role of organizational cynicism and the modifier role of neuroticism. Police Management Studies, 14(2), 195-216. (in Persian) https://sid.ir/paper/397872/fa
Sen, C., Mert, I.S. & Abubakar, A.M. (2021). The nexus among perceived organizational support, organizational justice and cynicism. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-11-2020-2488
Shkoler, O., Tziner, A., Vasiliu, C. & Ghinea, C.N. (2021). A moderated-mediation analysis of organizational justice and leader-member exchange: Cross-validation with three sub-samples [Original Research]. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.616476
Shool, H., Damghanian, H., Rastgar, A.A., Danaee Fard, H. & Azar, A. (2019). Provide Pattern for Antecedents of Employees Deviant Behaviors in Organizations by Using Meta-Synthesis Method. Public Management Researches, 44, 8-30. (in Persian) https://doi.org/10.22111/JMR.2019.27715.4305
Tavakoli, P., Peikari, H.R. & Golshiri P. (2020). The mediating role of workplace deviant behavior among nurses in the relationship between organizational justice and privacy protection. Journal of Nursing Management, 9(2), 1-9. (in Persian) http://ijnv.ir/article-1-653-fa.html
Tong, J., Chong, S., Chen, J., Johnson, R.E. & Ren, X. (2020). The interplay of low identification, psychological detachment, and cynicism for predicting counterproductive work behaviour. Applied Psychology, 69(1), 59-92. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12187
Tziner, A., Fein, E. C., Kim, S. K., Vasiliu, C. & Shkoler, O. (2020). Combining associations between emotional intelligence, work motivation, and organizational justice with counterproductive work behavior: A Profile Analysis via Multidimensional Scaling (PAMS) Approach. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 851. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00851
Wang, H.Y. & Chen, Z.X. (2022). A moderated-mediation analysis of performance appraisal politics perception and counterproductive work behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 13:928923. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.928923
Yang, C., Chen, Y., Zhao Roy, X. & Mattila, A.S. (2020). Unfolding deconstructive effects of negative shocks on psychological contract violation, organizational cynicism, and turnover intention. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 89, 102591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102591
Zohoorparvandeh, V & Shokrollahi, M. (2017). The relationship between manager leadership behavior and organizational pessimistic considering the mediating role of organizational justice in education. Quarterly of Research on Educational Leadership and Management, 3(12), 111-148. (in Persian) https://doi.org/10.22054/jrlat.2019.35991.1402